Our drains seem to be backed up. My husband rented a 100 foot snake yesterday and tried to snake out the sewer drains in our backyard, we have three drains. The last one (furthest form the house), is empty, the first two (closest to the house) are filled with water, almost to the top of the drain. He was able to pull out many roots and debris. He eventually got to a point where nothing else was coming out. After about 5 hours of trying to unclog them, he gave up. He let the 100 feet out in all three drains. Do you think that our drain has collapsed, or is there a chance that there is something else wrong? The drain closest top the house is made up of PVC piping and the other two are made up of the old clay piping. We don't want to have to dig up our backyard if we don't have to. Please give us any suggestions that you may have!!
We have had continues drain problems in the past. We have to snake the drains about wice a year, we have been successful in the past, just this time what we usually do, isn't working.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Bonnie

Was he using the correct size cutter blade on the snake he ran through the clay tile?

It may also be that the root build up has grown more dense over the past year and that he wasn't able to push the root mass he was able to break up into the sanitary sewer.

It might be worth your while to have a Rooter company come out and assess the situation for you by running a camera down the drains.