Three days ago, in our ranch house with 2 full baths, both showers were used and the water stopped draining and when the toilet was flushed it did not drain but overflowed and also caused water to start leaking in a small pinhole in the cast iron drainage pipe between bath #1 and bath #2. Bath #1 is the beginning of the drain, and joins bath #2 drain at a V where they become one drain going to the sewer. Kitchen drains after that V about 30' down the drain line. There is no kitchen drain problem. After letting the system settle, I ran hot water in shower #1 for about 10 minutes before the back up occurred again... same thing. Again let it settle for almost a day, several flushes worked fine, so after a couple of hours poured some declog down the drain, waited 12 hours and repeated. Now the system backs up even more quick. Do I have a drain block or a vent block. BTW, there is also a bath in the basement, no overflow problems, however the shower does drain slow. That drain meets the sewer line in the back yard downline from the main house drain line. Is there I defined easy fix. Thank you.

Three days ago, in our ranch house with 2 full baths, both showers were used and the water stopped draining and when the toilet was flushed it did not drain but overflowed and also caused water to start leaking in a small pinhole in the cast iron drainage pipe between bath #1 and bath #2. Bath #1 is the beginning of the drain, and joins bath #2 drain at a V where they become one drain going to the sewer. Kitchen drains after that V about 30' down the drain line. There is no kitchen drain problem. After letting the system settle, I ran hot water in shower #1 for about 10 minutes before the back up occurred again...same thing. Again let it settle for almost a day, several flushes worked fine, so after a couple of hours poured some declog down the drain, waited 12 hours and repeated. Now the system backs up even quicker. Do I have a drain block or a vent block. BTW, there is also a bath in the basement, no overflow problems, however the shower does drain slow. That drain meets the sewer line in the back yard downline from the main house drain line. Is there i defined easy fix. Thank you.


Hi George,

Sounds like a drainage clog to me. If this were my call I'd rent a sewer machine, (a Ridgid K-60 or equivalent) and send the snake down the lavatory roof vent of bath #2. Your clog is downstream of the wye where the 2 baths join but upstream from the kitchen drain. Put out enough cable to reach the base of the vent stack and enough to get past the wye and out into the main. A good way to be sure you have put out enough cable is to take the cover off the clean out and run the cable past that. Good luck, Tom