Hi,

I need suggestions on how to stop laundry drain water from another (above us) unit from backflowing up and out of our laundry standpipe.

My wife and I were both at work all day today, and when I returned home I went to do some laundry. When I entered the laundry room, there was sudsy water on the laundry room floor. We had previously witnessed suds backing up our standpipe when we weren't doing any laundry, so I am assuming that it is backing up our standpipe while someone else is doing laundry.

Not looking for gimmicky fixes here, but true to form proper repair jobs. As this is a problem with the building/plumbing, I am assuming that our Strata Corporation will be footing the bill, and not us personally.

Any ideas what could be done to put a stop to the overflow into our apartment from other units?

BTW - We are ground floor in a four floor building. Our standpipe, I believe, is at least 36", perhaps taller, but I didn't measure the last time I had all the equipment pulled out of the room.

"Not looking for gimmicky fixes here, but true to form proper repair jobs. As this is a problem with the building/plumbing, I am assuming that our Strata Corporation will be footing the bill, and not us personally."

You are correct. Since the problem's in a "public area" of your drainage system the Condo Assoc. picks up the tab.
This problem must be addressed by snaking the drain line downstream from your laundry room.
What has happened is that over time fiber matted with grease has built up and now there's a partial blockage in the line. Someone on the top floor
Discharges their washer. The discharge picks up speed falling 4 stories and hits the base and then the partial clog and bounces back up out of your stand pipe. It then slowly drains past the blockage. This can only get worse and should be addressed at once. As a plumber who has been the foreman on countless condo buildings in my area, (Tampa Bay) I know of where I speak. Good luck, Tom

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Originally Posted by speedball1

This problem must be addressed by snaking the drain line downstream from your laundry room. What has happened is that over time fiber matted with grease has built up and now there's a partial blockage in the line.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I bumped into the building manager recently, and he said that they actually get the drains snaked usually every year, and that the laundry drains were just done last summer, so there's some doubts as to whether that will actually solve the problem, although that's probably still the first place to look.

Any other thoughts?

Just because the lines were snaked last summer is no guarantee that they aren't clogged up now. Have them checked and snaked. Regards, Tom

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Originally Posted by speedball1

Just because the lines were snaked last summer is no guarantee that they aren't clogged up now. Have them checked and snaked. regards, Tom

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Hi Tom,

We had the drains snaked again. About a week later, we had yet another overflow, so they came back and snaked again, this time with a camera feed as well. It's only been a few days, but I'm wondering if you have any other suggestions should the issue persist?

PS - They are doing the snake work from the undergound parking. They are opening the collector pipe and snaking up the vertical feed for our column of units, and also down the main branch line.

They are snaking against the flow? You NEVER-NEVER snake against the flow. This is bad plumbing practice. You snake from the roof vent with the flow. Are these men plumbers or the condos maintenance men?

They're plumbers - franchise plumbers if that makes a difference (Roto-Rooter or someone like that -- a big cube van packed full of tools and the company logo on the side).

Yeah, to make things a little more interesting, the other day there was another backup, only this time it wasn't into the laundry room, but rather up our kitchen sink... maybe they moved the problem the last time they snaked..

Licensed and experienced plumbers DO NOT snake against the flow. You can not control where the snake goes when you snake against the flow. While it might be easier for them to snake from the basement rather then go up on the roof where they should it just ain't right. Regards and keep me informed. Tom

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Originally Posted by speedball1

Licensed and experienced plumbers DO NOT snake against the flow... Regards and keep me informed. Tom

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Tom,

A little late, but better than never I guess. They snaked it a total of 3 times in one month, to no avail. Then they brought someone else in who discovered that the pipes in the underground parking area actually sloped slightly back towards the vertical standpipe that collects from our unit plus the 3 others above, rather than sloping towards the main drainage branch.

They had someone come in and redo that section of piping and we haven't had any problems since.