I have a 1400 Sq Ft. House, on a Slab. Built in the late 1950's. We just recently had a problem occur on Dec. 22nd, my wife called me at work and said the main bathroom toilet just flooded from underneath the stool. She was just in there cleaning the bathroom. Then went and started a load of laundry, she went back into the bathroom not more then 10-15 minutes later and the floor was soaked. She said it was CLEAR/Clean water, no soap suds or anything, as if it just came out of the faucet. I told her to turn the water to the toilet off, and try not to use it until I got home.

I got home, and called a friend who knows a little more about Plumbing. He was not quite sure on this one, he said to try turning it back on and running some more laundry to see if it happens again. We did... and nothing happened, it has been fine ever since, BUT... ever since that little incident my kitchen sink will not drain, nor will the dishwasher which is hooked up to it.

I heard about roto rooter, so we called them up, they ran their roto rooter snake through my kitchen drains, and pulled out some roots, they did this like 3 times, one of the times (the last one) they said their snake almost got stuck. They then suggested to clean out the main sewage line that runs to the city sewer (by the road) they did that and pulled out quite a pile of roots, and cleared that out so they felt no more blockages in the main. However, the sink is worse then it was before they came, and they want to charge me another trip fee of $70.00 to come out and run the snake through my kitchen drain again, we fought with them to get them to waive the trip fee but they said that they have a pretty good feeling they are going to lose their snake if they try it again, then we will have to rip up all our piping. :(

I do not know what to do now, and after the holidays we are strapped! Roto-Rooter said they can use their camera snake but that would cost another $250.00, we have already paid them $248.00 for a sink that drains even worse!

Please help!

The plumber guy I know said he has some extremely powerful pipe/clog cleaner stuff called WAMO, that I could get from him and try. Something only plumber/companies can buy, can't get it at stores or purchase it online.

Hi Shagg,

Why not rent a power snake and send it down the kitchen roof vent yourself and then treat your drainage lines with root killer. Let the cable go all the way to the base of the stack and then put out about 20 to 25 feet more of cable. Sounds like they unblocked one line while clogging up another.

"they want to charge me another trip fee of $70.00 to come out and run the snake through my kitchen drain again, we fought with them to get them to waive the trip fee but they said that they have a pretty good feeling they are going to lose their snake if they try it again, then we will have to rip up all our piping."
HORSE HOCKY!! They were just blowing smoke. Even if the snake broke off in the line it would be no big deal. They make a tip called a "cable retriever" that hooks on to the section of cable in the line and snags it out.

"The plumber guy i know said he has some extremely powerful pipe/clog cleaner stuff called WAMO, that i could get from him and try. Something only plumber/companies can buy, can't get it at stores or purchase it online."

WARNING! I can't pull anything up on WHAMO but if only plumbers can buy it sounds a lot like BLAST-OUT. This is a sulfuric acid based drain cleaner so powerful that the public can't purchase it. And for good reason. Two years ago I lost a friend that died while using it in a unvented bathroom and this man owned his own company and was a master plumber. STAY AWAY FROM IT. IT'S DANGEROUS!
TO keep those roots under control 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.
Goodluck and let me know how you make out. Tom

I'll go see if I can rent a snake, hopefully it doesn't cost much! I know nothing when it comes to plumbing, all I've ever done was hook up pvc elbows and put in a toilet and sink.

http://www.herchem.com/ is the company that makes that product.

Hercules Chemical - http://www.herchem.com/products/drainwaste.html

They have many selections for drain and waste System cleaners

Wham® is their strongest.

Stay away from Clobber, Blast Out or any of those professional drain cleaners that contain sulfuric acid. If the fumes get inside the house they can scar your lungs. I know, my lungs are scared from using muriatic acid in my fathers shop when I was a boy. I am no fan of putting harsh chemicals down your drainage system especially if you have a septic tank.

I'll hang in there with you when you snake out the line and walk you through it if you wish. Regards, Tom

Just called he said it would cost $46 to rent it, it's 100ft for 2-4"...

http://www.grandrental.com/images/pr...cranksnake.jpg

Not sure if I'll be able to get it today, maybe tomorrow. I will post if I have any questions/with results.

Won't be able to rent it for another day...

So my plumber friend who had something called "Clobber" not wamo... From that Hercules Chemical Company... He insisted on trying it, so he did it for me, since he's used it before... After waiting 15 minutes, then flushing with water, the water didn't drain still, but was bubbling like crazy and black gunk and stuff was floating to the top of the water for about 10 minutes or so... I let that sit over night just shut my door to my room and left windows open for good ventilation. Water never drained, so this morning I took the trap out (using rubber gloves) and drained the water into a bucket, then flushed all that down the toilet.

I purchased a little 25' Snake with spring looking end that attaches to my power drill, and I ran that through the line 2 times, got one really really hard chunk of something, within the first 2-3 ft from where the trap is before it even got to the metal pipe which (I assume) leads to the main sewage line.

I pulled that out, put it all back together tried to flush with water again.. No change. Got water out by removing trap again. Did one more attempt of the clobber stuff, poured another Pint down the drain, this time it didn't smell or anything like the first time. I then flushed some water down after 15 minutes, drain filled right up like normal, didn't see any bubbles. Left it to see what happens, I'm at work now. Left windows open, and ceiling fans on just in case it starts smelling for whatever reason.

Called Roto-Rooter, they are planning to come out tomorrow (for free) to work on it a little more (at no charge)... As long as they can fit it in their schedule, if not then they can't come out till after new years day.

:(

Well, Roto Rooter finally came back out, I figured I wouldn't do anything since they were going to come back out.

Unfortunately, they were about 40 ft into the kitchen drain, and their cable got stuck, and is now in our Drain.. :( :( :( :(

They suggested calling a plumber and having them run a new drain line and hook it to the washer's drain line. My house is on a slab, I have a feeling this is going to be really expensive.

SUGGESTIONS needed ! Thanks..

They told us before they tried to re-cable it that we probably were going to have to run a new drain pipe because the could not get the clog.

He said that he believes that the pipe in the house is 1 1/2 in and outside it feels like it turns into a 4 in. Pipe... He believes that the snake got tangled up in a bunch of roots and he cannot pull a 3 in ball of roots out into a 1 1/2 in pipe.


I am going to try to get the snake out tonight just working on it, can't hurt I suppose... But even if I get it out, what am I going to do about this dang clog that we cannot get out! :(

:rolleyes:

Well, I decided to pull out some vice grips and tools to try to get the snake out myself when I got home.

I worked on it for about 30 minutes, and it would not come out...

I then had a brilliant IDEA... I pulled out my new DEWALT Electric Drill, put the end of the snake in it, tightened it down as hard as I could, then attempted to unscrew the snake. Wasn't working when unscrewing I tried about 6 times, I then figured well since it won't come out maybe I can do a REALLy quick drill inwards... Voilà!. I did some full speed drilling and go the snake free, and pulled all 40 ft of it out, and the blade on the end was still attached. Stupid Roto Rooter guys! Geez.

Okay I now have the snake out, and my drain actually was working VERY VERY SLOWLY, where as before, the water would just sit there all night.

Any suggestions?

"Unfortunately, they were about 40 ft into the kitchen drain, and their cable got stuck, and is now in our Drain......... !!!!!!!!!!!
They suggested calling a plumber and having them run a new drain line and hook it to the washer's drain line."

Here's where you get to teach the Roro Rooter guys,( I can't bring myself to call them plumbers) how to retrive a lost cable.
Tell the to rent, or bring, a Ridgid K-60 sewer machine with a retrival tip to attach to the cable.(See image) and if they still act dumb tell them Ridgid has a retrieval auger tip, Catalog# 27642--Model# T125 for sale . Their suggestion that you dig up and replace the drain line was way out of line when a simple operation would retrieve the broken cable. When they get the cable out of your drain, ( and it's their responsibility to do so since it's their fault in the first place) I'd for sure call in another plumbing company. This time with real plumbers. Good luck and let me know how you make out. Tom

If this were my call I'd lay that snake out along the sewer lines path and dig down where it ends to see if I had a sewer pipe that's broken. If it's out next to the street then it's in the raiser,( where your line connects with the city sewer.) Good luck and I'm glad you got the snake out. Were the Rotor-Rooter guys just going to leave it in there? Regards, tom

Sorry to hear there is a bad apple in the Roto Router barrel. I have had good luck with the local franchise, and others here have given them good marks. Might let their national office know. One trick I learned from the locals is to pull off a stool to give you access to a 4'' drain. Before doing that, probe around outside near where you think the drain exits your house. You could happen on a clean out. The Rigid machine Tom says with a 4'' cutter might cut through the roots. At least it would give you a good measurement to start digging as Tom said.

From what I gathered yes, they were going to leave it in there, because they told us to call a plumber and get quotes.

Where can I get blueprints or drawings of how my pipes are ran, doesn't somebody have to keep those? Who can I contact to find that out, we have no record of how the pipes are ran in my house... All I know is the roto-rooter guy who came out said that the clean-out was added and the city waterworks guys said all they have are layouts of the pipes down the road, from the house to the hookup on the city sewer, is the home owners responsibility.

Well when we purchased this house 4 years ago we received none of this type of information.. Where should I start contacting to find this info?

"Where can I get blueprints or drawings of how my pipes are ran, doesn't somebody have to keep those?"

While we keep blue prints of the houses we plumb we don't keep a record of where the sewer pipes are run. That's because a sharp plumber can locate the house cleanout and get the measurements from the city as to where the city raiser's located and look from the clean out to the raiser and figure how he would run it and pretty much be bang on. We're not talking a complicated situation here. This is a single pipe that goes from here to there.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure the shortest way to get there.
You've already stated that they ran into trouble about 40 foot out. That's a start. I would call a plumbing repair company and have them snake out the sink line and tell you what you have under the ground. Good luck, Tom

I'm not sure but after I got that snake out, I did break through something... I didn't use the drain for 2 more days but I let hot water run through the drain for about 10 minutes without it ever filling up again... I assume when I got that snake out, they were in the main clog, and I must of broke through it and it just took a few days to clear out of the pipes because our drain is working perfectly now!

We ran the dishwasher 3 times, successfully... No backups in our sink... very relieved! :)

Thanks for all the suggestions and tips.

You may want to fork over the $$$ to have someone come out with a camera and take a look down the drain, well worth it IMO. Of course when I had it done I got it for free because Pops-in-law works for a company that does it on ships. Anyway, might not be a bad idea, see what's actually causing the problem and how far down the line it is.

My 2 cents.