Please help! Our house is less than 1 year old. If I am cleaning either of the bathroom sinks with detergent, or wash my hands a few times with liquid hand soap, the soap bubbles will come up out of the shower drains frequently. No water comes up, just the bubbles. If I run the shower taps, the bubbles will wash away.

Why is this? My husband feels it is because the soap bubbles build up in the pipes and escape up the lowest drain point - the shower next to the sink.

Is it anything to worry about? I keep my drains clean with plenty of bleach, and there does not appear to be any draininge flow problems when I am in the shower.

Thanks!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your help :). You are right there, they have been acting up a while now and only getting worse, the suds epidemic was alarming!

I rent this property so I will have to tell my property manager first thing in the morning- (I am in Australia). The whole plumbing works thing is an utter mystery to me so all this info has been extremely helpful!

I have to take a shower though, is it OK to use my shower since I can't see any water coming up? Are the soap suds germy or not getting far enough down to have icky stuff?

Trust my luck to have both bathrooms playing up lol!

Thanks again :)

You have a drain line full of soap bubbles that bubble up through the lowest fixture but they have to push past the shower trap seal to bubble up out of the drain. This means backpressure which indicates a partial blockage downstream from the shower. Let me tell you how it goes. The shower drain connects to the lavatory drain line and uses the lavatory vent. This is called a "wet vent". So actually the partial clog will be found in the lavatory drain. While it's not bad now it will get worse over time. The way to clear it is to snake the drain from the lavatory roof vent. Put out enough cable to reach the base and 16 feet more. Good luck, Tom

Hi Stress head..

Try flooding the drains and see what happens. Flush the toilet a bunch of times while running shower and sinks at same time and see what happens from there... if begins to back up or bubble/gurgle then drain is getting blocked and needs to be snaked.

I see Tom just posted as well... seems we agree again... ;) Try the flooding thing and if backs up time to snake the drain. Let us know what you find and if need help on clearing the blockage if present!

MARK

Wow thank you so much for the quick responses! That is wonderful :)

I will run off to the bathroom now and do the flushing and sink running thing, will pop back in a minute and give the answer!

In the meantime, is it OK to use the shower, or are there toilet bugs and germs coming up with the soap bubbles?

Determine if drain is clogging... don't worry about bugs/germs quite yet!

We're here for a few... go flood pipes let us know what happens.

Mark

Ok! I'm back!

Nothing came up the shower that I could see, the sink was interesting though - when the tap was on half full, it drained freely, when the tap was on full pressure, it began to fill up the sink, I turned it off and the water went down rapidly but bubbled. I flushed the toilet three or four times.

But nothing up the shower drain... at least that I could see!

The sink always drains OK unless there is a large water volume, then it struggles a bit (the drains look pretty small to me though).

Hi SH..

Hmm... sinks will give trouble like that when don't get the proper air/water mix at the drain. So no big deal here.

Did you run shower and run sink and flush toilets at the same time? Do this for 5 minutes pretending that all people are home using the drains...

Just to be sure here...

Yes I ran them at the same time, flushed the toilet as much as I could ( had to wait for it to fill up again) both full flush and half flush, had the sink going and the cold shower tap on full for a good few minutes. Shower drained freely, toilet flushed OK (well I saw bubbles in the flush but then I had just poured a whole bunch of loo cleaner down there earlier lol! I am a bit cleanaphobic) just the sink sounded a bit tragic and bubbled and sputtered and filled up until I lowered the pressure.

the sink sounded a bit tragic and bubbled and sputtered and filled up until I lowered the pressure. This indicates that you have a partial clog in the lateral line in the wall. This will only get worse over time. To take care of this problem remove the "J" bend from the trap and send a snake up into the wall, (see image). You will run into a bend about 8 inches in but once around that you only have to put out 6 more feet of snake. Flush with a few sink full of hot water. Good luck, tom

Tom actually posted the answer to this... (*EDIT* I swear I wrote this before I saw your last post Tom..I swear!!)

He's suggesting that the drain at lavatory (sink) is partially clogged and therefore causing issues with the drain itself, but also the VENT for bathroom.

I have also seen this a number of times... soap backing up lowest fixture because air not mixing with the waste water and therefore less turbulent and soap can build up and finally back out the drain!

Time to snake the sink drain... can snake from the roof (rent medium snake machine) like Tom suggested or can try to remove the trap from under the sink and snake drain from there (rent the hand-held snake)... the snake will go up about as often as downward so if going this route see if you can rent an electric snake with a drop head (see pictures below). You don't have to put out much cable... 8 feet or so Max.

You need to wear leather gloves and safety goggles when working with this equipment. If on roof make sure someone holds ladder or is up on roof to assist with this... ;)

Let us know what you think here...

MARK

You're fine for now.. talk to management. Good luck.

Ahhhh so lavatory is sink drain, not toilet drain? I swear I paled about six shades when I thought "toilet" and "shower" were possibly coming together :p

Finally... someone that appreciates the things I put in parenthesis!!

Let us know how it works out!

MARK

Here's a pic. Of what's going on behind the wall and under the floor. You can see how a clogged lavatory(sink... ;) ) drain/vent would effect the flow of water down the drain.

Cheers heaps guys!! I am sooooo grateful :D :D

OK I am going to brave the bubbly bathroom now, I will be on the phone first thing in the morning to get this seen to, will update once the deed is done :) .


Here's a pic. of what's going on behind the wall and under the floor. You can see how a clogged lavatory(sink...;) ) drain/vent would effect the flow of water down the drain.

Oops I just saw this post as I posted - it is a very central drain isn't it? Makes sense indeed... it looks like the toilet waste pipe/drain is closed off to the rest, is that right? And the sink/tub/shower are all hooked up, so if one goes, they all go lol! :D

So am I correct in understanding that the water coming up the bubbly burpy sink is the water that is sitting in the bend, not the water that is coming up from the sewer?

PS sorry if questions are so obvious it is daft lol! I have never really had these issues before, I guess luck has been on my side.

Thanks for your help again :) That's great, I don't mind standing in hand soap lol, but standing in the toilet is another matter altogether.. :O

(That diagram is great, I never really knew what was going on "below ground" before... and we are building our own house at present, so now I know what all the individual pipes and bits actually are!)

I'll update with plumber news, once again thanks for all your help!

Basically, it's just water/soap coming back into the shower from the lavatory... that's all really.

Enjoy the bath!

MArk

Ok, well still waiting to hear from the plumber :/. Both bathrooms are giving me grief, including the tub, which is the same as both bathroom sinks but more blocked (fills up like a plug is in it if the tap is on full) - however the tub is only ever cleaned, not used, and the only shower used is the stand up shower in the ensuite, so I know there aren't any hair clogs or anything in that tub or shower, and they are brand new.

I shone a torch down the ensuite shower drain and I could see water and bubbles sitting in there from the sink flow - I am a bit puzzled by the drainage setup though? The sink is directly opposite the shower, and if you shine a torch into the shower drain when the sink is running, you can see the sink water flowing out of a wee little drainage hole just about 5/6 inches from the shower floor into the shower drainpipe, both water and bubbles flowing freely into the shower drain hole... is this normal? If I turn the shower tap on and continue looking with th e torch the bubbles etc get washed down. I am guessing then that this is maybe my bubble issue, if the sinks are draining straight into the shower pipe, so the bubbles aren't having to make their way past anything? The bubbles come up if you clean the sinks and then wash your hands a few times, so there are a fair few bubbles in there. Doesn't happen every time, but they can be seen in the shower drain pipe.

I had an overflowing ORG about six weeks ago too, which a plumber augered out, it was from the kitchen sink (which is draining fine). The ORG was full of sand from the building process.

WHat do you think, could I have a bit of a hairy main drain issue here since both my bathrooms are dodgy, and also the main toilet has been clogging a bit lately too, not now, but it has done in past weeks. It would fill to the rim and then give an almighty slurp and all the water was gone from the bowl. Then it would flush perfectly normally again. It has played up once since, but is OK now.

Oh yes and it is a sewer system, not septic.

Gee I hope the plumber can come soon... :o .

Laundry is fine though, and kitchen. But they are on the other side of the house. The soap bubble monsters had a grand old time this morning.

Are the sinks meant to be plumbed to empty into the shower drain like this? The drainage opening for the sink into the shower drain pipe looks pretty small too, could that perhaps be why they flow fine on lower pressure, and then fill up on high pressure? As they seem to have no issue draining once the pressure is lowered, and nothing is coming up the shower drain save for the bubbles... yet anyway lol. Sorry for the novel..

Oh plumber where for art thou :rolleyes::o .

OK... well I am getting up close and personal with my torch now all the bubbles have cleared... woman on a mission because I CANNOT STAND disorder and mess lol... and I am absolutely gobsmacked to see a whole bunch of white sediment-ish "stuff" sitting in my shower drain below a few inches of water! Now I know that shouldn't be there, it is my shower drain, not a river.

It could be plaster, or little bits of toilet paper, but there is lots of it and looks like I can see a small limestone rock or something in there :confused: . I can't see the rest of the pipe beneath this stuff at all. It is white and the water above it looks normal and there is no bad odour. We are on limey soil in this coastal part of Western Australia (great drainage, ground's hard as hell).

Is this likely to be stuff that has been washed down the drain at some time (like building plaster/ leftover gunk) or something that has washed back up the drain line?

I flushed the toilet next to it and I couldn't see the "stuff" or the water move at all. I can definitely see a bit of rock. Hmmmm. No wonder bubbles have nowhere to go... frankly after seeing that I am amazed that I have been showering happily away for four months without standing in a pool of water :eek: :confused: .

Trying to explain it as best I can... I hope this isn't anything too awful.

Thanks for your patience!! :o