Okay, so over the weekend I noticed a significant amount of water pooling around my floor drain in the basement... I called the city to have them check the main line in the street and they said it was flowing fine... I then removed the floor drain cover and then the plug in the side of the drain and began the snaking process out the side of the drain... I ran about seventy feet of snake out with the corkscrew looking attachment on the end of the snake, encountering little resistance... when I pulled the snake back out I did find remnants of tree roots stuck on it, but no clog debris...

Previous to the snaking the water only seemed to accumulate from the use of the washer and the kitchen sink, which seem to be on the same stack... now, after a shower this morning, water has pooled in the basement tub and the toilet water level has risen... so perhaps I just managed to push the clog further down the line?

So I guess I'm wondering two things before I snake again with a cutting attachment (the floor drain line is a two inch and the cutter looks like a half spade bit, as opposed to the one they gave me for the 4 in. which is a double-sided spade-looking bit)--

1) would snaking with the cutting attachment be the answer? 2) if I snake again from the floor drain and run the entire 100 feet of snake out and the water levels don't decrease (I don't encounter the clog), should I try and snake from the clean out dealie on the other end of my basement? My concern would be if I pulled the cap off, with all that water in the tub, would I be in danger of overflow from the clean out? It's a finished basement and the clean out is in a bedroom closet and I'd rather not get sewage all over in there... thanks a lot in advance

Update on my situation--- I resnaked the floor drain with the half-spade bit... as the snake went in about 20 ft, all of a sudden the water began rising around my feet-- the water from the tub and toilet was draining and coming up the floor drain... no choice but to keep going, so I ran all 100 ft. of snake down the drain... once the last 10 ft. went in the water began to drain and the lake in my laundry room gradually receded... took about 10 minutes, so I don't think my problem is gone, but there is at least limited drainage in the line now...

I'm thinking I had two issues... on my first snake, I think I hooked a clog and began dragging it back up the main line... when it reached the elbow, the snake was stuck and I couldn't budge it... I think the clog was holding it in place and eventually I broke the snake free, but the clog remained in place... that's why when I took a shower, the water wasn't pooling in the floor drain, it went to the tub downstairs... also why, when I snaked it a second time, I busted through that clog and the water pooled out of the tub and up the floor drain...

Because it drained so slowly, I still think I have some clogging farther down the main line... with 100 ft. of snake out, it has to be in the main line and somewhere between my house and the street (there's a big tree out there and its roots are the likely culprit), so now I'm going to try and open up the clean out cap and snake with a 4 inch bit from there... because now I'm not concerned with water bubbling out of the top of the clean out...

Let me know if I'm off base with that assessment-- I know it's a bit confusing but I hope I've provided enough info... I'm not sure what wrench to use to open that cap up-- it's got 4 square deals on top of it... hopefully the hardware store can help me there, because I need to return the snake in three hours...

Any more steps I should take once I do the third snake? I've seen boiling water mentioned here... should I pour that down now? Suppose it couldn't hurt... thanks

I might be ableto take some of the mystery out of it. At the street connection near the curb is the city raiser that your sewer connects to.
In my area, back when I was out in the field , we packed the connection and grouted it with cement. Over the years the cement grout shrunk allowing tree roots to enter. The solution would be to dig up the raiser and redo the connection.
In the mean time go back with a cutter blade tip,(see image) and cut the roots out.
Here's some help with the roots.
If you wish to control roots RootX or Robics Foaming Root Killer that contain Dichlobrnic are two products you could try.
A less expensive way would be to call around to garden supply stores and ask for fine grain Copper Sulphate. Put a 1/2 pound in your toilet and flush it down. Repeat in 6 months.
Hope this helps and thank you for rating my answer, Tom

I'm not seeing the "rate this answer" button to rate your answer, which is most helpful and somewhat comforting, as that was exactly my plan... I got the cap off the clean out and I'm going to wheel the snake over to it and begin root munching as we speak... thank you and let me know how to rate your response


All righty... unless you hear more from me, the problem has been remedied...

I snaked it a third time with the cutter blade tip pictured above from the clean out after removing the cap with a pipe wrench... I ran all 100 feet out and that should have just gotten me to the street... the snake came back with a root ball wrapped around it about 4 ft. long and full of worms and black goo... it was so big and dense it took everything I had to pull the snake up that last four feet at the clean out... so I'm guessing that was my clog...

The worms are kind of disconcerting, but I'm not going to dig up my lawn in the middle of a Minnesota winter and look at the connection...

I snaked it a fourth time just to be sure, and it came back clean... so now if water shows up I will be very sad...

So now I just need to vent my house from the sewer smell, clean up the black goo coating the laundry room floor and the splatter all over the walls, and spray some bleach on the piece of sheetrock that was living in a sewage lake for a few days... and then all should be right in the world...

Thanks for the tips on the cutter blade and root killer...

Glad you found your clog. Pour Copper Sulphate doen the john to keep the roots under control.
If you wish to thank a expert click on the "Agree/Disagree"button and make your comment.
Regards, Tom

Hmmm... so there is a post script you might be interested in...

Just over half-way down my original post up there, I mentioned I thought I dragged a clog from outside back into my lines inside the house...

I'm now convinced that's exactly what I did, and it's still there...

While I did eventually remove a large root ball from outside, nothing is draining yet... I have a cheap little snake and fished that through the line and it hits at what would be just shy of the clean out... twisting it got it stuck-- I pulled hard and freed it, then retrieved it and lo and behold there are some root remnants on the end of it...

So with my first attempts with the big snake, I managed to pull a root wad past the clean out and got it stuck under the house...

So basically my battle isn't won... I'm going to go rent the big bad machine for one more day and give it another shot from either the floor drain or sink drain in the basement...

Here's the issue-- the line from the clean out to the street is a 4 in... the lines running from the sink and floor drain are 2 in... and I think that's where my problem is, and why I couldn't pull the snake back through... I pulled a four inch wide root wad into a 2 inch pipe and it's now wedged in there nice and snug...

I'm hoping with the big snake and the right attachment, I can at least chop a hole in the root monster and get some flow...

So if anyone is reading this down the line and is looking for a tip in snaking their drain, definitely start with the clean-out... don't start further up the line... esp. if you have an older house with small lines... why in god's name I ran 100 ft. of line out the floor drain before snaking from the clean out, I'll never know-- just because it was there and open I suppose... but for everyone else, start with the big, easy access... clean that first, then move into the house and start snaking individual lines...

Anyway, I'll post more results tomorrow... now, I'm going to bed...

(no shower, it's going to start getting funky round here)