I am fearing that in an effort to save time, I plugged up the mainline. I flushed some clumping kitty litter. It plugged the toilet. I plunged it like a hundred times. It freed. Fine for a couple days. Then, toilets fill up, don't go down right away. In the upstairs bathroom, if you fill the sink with water all the way, then drain it, the toilet bubbles. If you plunge the toilet a lot, the shower drain bubbles. Downstairs toilet, same thing. Flush, bowl fills, then very slowly drains (takes about 2 min). When the washing machine downstairs is draining, or the dish washer, the kitchen sink gets a ton of loud air bubbles.

Is there something I can flush down the toilet or down the drains that can clear this, or will professional snaking equipment be a must? This is an old house, and a rental, and I really don't want to get the landlord involved. If I can fix this myself with chemicals, great. If not, how much will it cost, conservatively?

Thanks in advance.

Brian

Hey Brian,

"Is there something I can flush down the toilet or down the drains that can clear this, or will professional snaking equipment be a must?"

There is no magic solution that you can flush down the toilet to clear a clogged main and you've already flushed enough stuff down it.

You you wish to tackle the job yourself by renting a sewer machine? I can walk you through the procedure if you're handy, or are you going to call a plumber?
We don't give ballpark estimates without being on the job to check it out.
Regards, tom

Tom,

Thanks for your quick response. As technically proficient as I am, and adventurous, I think I will just contact a plumber to do it for me. It isn't my house, and I don't want to risk damaging anything.

On a sidenote, I did notice the problem started when the coldspell hit. We were extremely mild here in the northeast until about 2 weeks ago. Since then, its been below-freezing pretty much the whole time. From the problem description though, I am pretty sure it is the mainline that is clogged, and not the exhaust work. If you think the cold has anything to do with it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks again.

Brian