I have a bathroom upstairs and downstairs on top of each other. When I shower upstairs the sinks slowly fill with water and what looks like silt. This doesn't happen when I use the bathtub upstairs, just the shower. What is going on?

The upstairs shower and the downstairs sink are on the same line. And the line is stopped up somewhere after it passes the sink. So since the water has nowhere to go it backs up into the sink.

You can buy a 25' hand crank cable in a spool that you can start down the sink drain and turn it until it goes down the drain you can keep a little waer in the sink as you are working as when the water goes away you have unstopped the line.

It's seldom I have to disagree with another expert but snaking from the sink ain't going to get to the clog.
And Letmetellu told you why you couldn't just before he told you to do it.

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the line is stopped up somewhere after it passes the sink.

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That's right, sports fans! If you go into the sink drain tou'll hit a sanitary tee about 6 ' and the clog's below that.
The way to remove the blockage would be to run a regular plumbers snake down the sinks roof vent.
Put out enough snake to reach the base and 20 feet more. Good luck, tom

If you want to get up on the second story roof to run the snake in that is your option but if you do it from the downstairs lavatory you will have almost 25 feet of cable to follow the pipe and hopefully reach the stoppage.

Also I am not sure how you would run the snake down the kitchen roof to unstop the downstairs lavatory drain.

Good luck

I would not put myself in between two experts but snaking from the roof vent will be the best shot, Thanks.

John

Letmetellu has already admitted the blockage 's downstream from the sink,

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the line is stopped up somewhere after it passes the sink

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. Sending a snake down the sink drain would clear the drain until you ran into the sanitary tee about 5' foot in.
From there it's a crap shoot whether the snake heads down towards the clog or up past the roof vent. The only sure way would be , as john says, to snake from the sinks roof vent. While letmetellu claims to own a plumbing shop his past posts have proven that he's no working plumber. He 's about the only poster on the Plumbing Page that Mark and I have to monitor his posts for content and correct them if necessary.
Snake from the roof vent th clear the blockage. Good luck, Tpom

I deal with these same issues every day. I use a top snake ( looks like a drill with a drum attached ) and the cable has a drop head cutter which forces the cutter do go down the drain and not up the vent. You may be able to rent one of these units. Just go slow and the drop head should drop down every time.

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I deal with these same issues every day. I use a top snake ( looks like a drill with a drum attached ) and the cable has a drop head cutter which forces the cutter do go down the drain and not up the vent.

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While a drop head auger will give you a better chance of getting past a sanitary tee I want to be around when you attempt to get it past the pop up waste. I have a drum type 1/4" snake that I can send down the drain but it doesn't include a swivel head auger tip. Thanks for the input and welcome to AMHD. Tom

Sorry, I forgot to mention that it is best to remove the trap from the sink to provide better access.