Ask Me Help Desk - Plumbing problems, kitchen sink, continual water back up.

:confused: Hello! This situation is concerning a 12 apartment double sides three flat condo blgd. one side has a basement with rod out sewer lines, the other side has no basement, which seems to have a continual problem on the inner first floor apt with sudden onsets of water backing up the double kitchen sinks, "supposedly" when not used by the owner, the other first floor on that side , not a problem. The owner has been told by several plumbers by a well known plumbing company that because under their sink is the rod out line for that entire side of the blgd, and that this is a blgd problem and not theirs. I have been there nearly every time that they have this problem, and every time,hair is pulled out with the rodder. A few months ago the owner handed me the receipt again telling me to pay for it, this plumber, wrote on it , that into the kitchen line before he got to the sewer or stack, he withdrew hair, lint, grease and gonk, second entry there was nothing, but the main line needed to be fixed, with no explanation as to what it needed fixing for. What would be the reason that this apt is having these back up problems? What can be done to prevent this situation? And who should bear the expense, the condo owner or the condo assn?Also they never seem to know where this stuff is coming from, the other apartments, but certainly not theirs?? Sewer back up or what?? Water is clean,and soapy sometimes contain bleach.HELP

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Originally Posted by jones-boat

:confused: Hello! this situation is concerning a 12 apartment double sides three flat condo blgd., one side has a basement with rod out sewer lines, the other side has no basement, which seems to have a continual problem on the inner first floor apt with sudden onsets of water backing up the double kitchen sinks, "supposedly" when not used by the owner, the other first floor on that side , not a problem. The owner has been told by several plumbers by a well known plumbing company that because under their sink is the rod out line for that entire side of the blgd, and that this is a blgd problem and not theirs. I have been there nearly every time that they have this problem, and every time,hair is pulled out with the rodder. A few months ago the owner handed me the receipt again telling me to pay for it, this plumber, wrote on it , that into the kitchen line before he got to the sewer or stack, he withdrew hair, lint, grease and gonk, second entry there was nothing, but the main line needed to be fixed, with no explanation as to what it needed fixing for. what would be the reason that this apt is having these back up problems? What can be done to prevent this situation? And who should bear the expense, the condo owner or the condo assn?Also they never seem to know where this stuff is coming from, the other apartments, but certainly not theirs?????????? sewer back up or what?????? water is clean,and soapy sometimes contain bleach.HELP

You might want to have them check the vent and the p-trap and make sure that it is vented correctly and then call another plumber and have someone else look at it that specializes in commercial buildings. Because who ever you are having look at it is either not wanting to do the job and get paid for it anyway or he has no clue what he is doing. I would call his boss and see what his boss says or have him come out and look at it.

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what would be the reason that this apt is having these back up problems?

First off, this unit's having back ups because his unit's the first one upstream from the clog. The owner has nothing to do with it and should not have to bear the expense.

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And who should bear the expense, the condo owner or the condo assn?

This is a "common area problem" and is the cost of repair should be the condo assocations responsibility. The poor guy's down below's getting all the backup and sewage from up above and you want to charge him for it?

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What can be done to prevent this situation?

That's hard to answer without being on the site but it sounds like a flaw in the plumbing design. Something downstream from the first floor apartment is causing this. If it's outside then count yourself lucky that you don't have to tear up any units to repair it.

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Also they never seem to know where this stuff is coming from, the other apartments, but certainly not theirs??

HORSE HOCKEY!!! Common sense tells you the backups are coming from the units over the first floor unit.

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sewer back up or what??

What else could it be?
Regards, Tom

Speedball has done great job breaking this down. Once the lateral pipe, after the P trap, enters the wall the unit owner has no responsibility for repairs. This poor guy gets the backup even when he is not home because the backup is from every unit up stream of his in the sewer line. He just lives closet to the clog.