A friend's basement drain backed up on Saturday and today. I've attached a drawing showing he stacks and the orientation of the clean outs along with her floor drains, main clean out, and the basement drains. Drawing not to scale but note the floor drain water is backing up from is in direct line with the kitchen stack. I'm currently renovating her basement bathroom and it's not functional. I only moved the shower drain about 2 feet.

On Saturday, the backup eventually drained. Today, there's still water at the top of the drain. Even after I used a shop vac to suck some water out. I filled the 10 gallon vac up and there the water level came back to the rim of the drain. I did this because when I cleaned my mom's drain out this past spring, the water wouldn't drain out the drain. To my surprise, I found a ball I must have put down the drain over 35 years ago whenI was a curious little lad :) So nothing blocking the drain.

On Saturday, she was running the laundry machine, dish washer, and a bath. Today only the laundry and the dishwasher.

She just had her drains snaked about 3 months ago. The guy only cleaned from the main clean out. His snake wouldn't get to the kithcen/laundry stack. Apparently, the snake would only follow to the bathroom stack. He didn't snake from the stack clean outs. I think the reason was laziness.

The laundry was move from near the bathroom stack to the kitchen stack. The laundry tub drained into the stack's clean out. I just placed a Y pipe in the stack clean out in order to both drain the laundry and have a clean out. I don't know if this is proper but I just did what I could do with what I got.

So I believe the guy just didn't want to remove the laundry tub drain to gain access to the clean out.

He didn't use the bathroom clean out because he couldn't remove the clean out cap. He told my friend that if he removed the cap that the clean out couldn't be sealed again and sewer ga would be present. I know this is a crock of bull since I had to cut out the clan out at my mom's. I put a PVC cap in the cast iron stack and it is sealed tight.

Now this back up seems to be caused from the laundry/kitchen. But if that branch were clogged, water wouldn't make it to the floor drain right?

Would we need to snake out towards the street? She does have a big Colorado Spruce pine tree about 8 feet from the front of her house.

We went to home depot to rent a snake. There were 2 different cable sizes. Would I use the big cable? What determines the cable size?

I've searched the forums and read about snaking from the roof vent. Should I do this also?

Should I snake from the floor drain?

Any guidance is geatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Dave

http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy349/bc2hander/Drain-1.jpg

I just spoke with my friend and was informed the other floor drain hasn't backed up since she disconnected her downspout at the rear of the house some 25 years ago. Could this be tied into the drain tile? This drain is located near the rear of her house.

I found a thread that suggested using a flood guard.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/plumbing/second-drain-basement-floor-501176.html

Should we install them in her floor drains? Are they found at local plumbing supply stores amybe home depot or Lowe's?

That floor drain is probably 2". You will need 3/8" snake.

That drain backs up because it is the lowest outlet on this branch. Besides, kitchen sink and washer on same 2" line - always begs for sewer back ups.

Thanks for the response Milo. Sorry I didn't get back sooner but busy, busy, busy here. After posting I went back over there and got more info which if I had before I posted I would have saved both my time and yours.

I did some detective work and found water backed up when water ran through each of the kitchen/laundy and bathroom stacks. Then she tells me she had a guy out to clean the drain about 6-8 weeks ago and he pulled out a gob of roots, duh. So he came back out Friday and used his little snake to poke a hole in the roots. The clean out cap in the bathroom stack wouldn't turn so he couldn't run the big guy through. I just cut the cap out and he'll be back on Tuesday to cut the roots out. He says he can then tell us where the roots are in the drain. So looks like I'll be breaking more concrete up to repair the broken drain pipe under the basement floor.

Again, Thanks for your response Milo!

Cheers
D

So looks like I'll be breaking more concrete up to repair the broken drain pipe under the basement floor.

Extremely unlikely that roots will be in piping under a basement floor. Will be between the house and the street.