[NipTucker]

About a year ago, our master bedroom toilet, sink and tub began to run a little slow. We had a local company using technicians (I didn't know the difference at the time)come to handle it. I have reason to doubt his expertise.

This Sunday morning I woke up by a huge Blub! Blub! Blub! From our 2 year old accesible toilet. My husband was in the shower and I yelled out for him to stop. Thank heavens it was just air. Big belches of air with no foul smell. The shower had some standing water which he hadn't noticed. We waited for it to go down and flushed. It did. We ran the sink. O.K. We ran the shower again and Blub! Blub! Blub! We did several combinations in both bathrooms for two days. He checked the roof vents and ran a snake down to the bottom af all. We used a floor drain cleaner.

The plumbers(licensed and family owned :) came out Monday and when he took off the cleanout in the front yard there was a child's plastic golf club wedged in on top of some rocks down there. They fished out the toy and it was decrepit with age. Heaven knows what else they can't see. Tomorrow a backhoe arrives to dig up our front yard for a new $4,200 sewer. They were both shaking their heads saying they'd be talking about this one for years. I've lived here 15 years with no kids and the previous owners(5yrs) had none. They said the top was very tightly screwed on and obviously hadn't been disturbed in a very long time.

I have two questions:

1. Wouldn't the technician a year ago have looked in there?

2. Wouldn't the plumbers at least try remove the rocks from below first?

Thanks for listening to my bizzarre tale. Bonnie

[Milo Dolezal]

Why to dig up entire yard ? Why new sewer ? Take hose, put it inside clean out and let it run full blast for 1/2 hour. All rocks and toys will flush away to the main City sewer. Problem solved...

Always get second / third opinion. Also, you should ALWAYS have video sewer inspection done before you spend so much money to make sure you really need sewer replacement.

Toilet, shower and sink have common drain. The blockage is probably somewhere where these 3 drains meet. You should have removed the toilet and snake the drain through the closet ring. Also, snake vent for this bathroom group. This should solve your "blup, blup" problem for fraction of the sewer replacement cost...

My opinion: Looks like some neighborhood kids threw rocks and toys into Clean Out. Kids do that. Plastic toys float so they must have been thrown there very recently. Otherwise, they would flush away to the City sewer within day or two. Rocks were probably thrown into the sewer at the same time with the toys. I have seen toys and other objects in sewer line many times - but never suggested to replace the entire sewer !

Sounds fishy to me. It sure looks to me like your plumber is slow these days so he created a nice job for himself...

[massplumber2008]

Hi Bonnie..

I can't really comment on the fact that the toys were down there... especially since no kids present, or how the "technicians" handled the job a year ago.

But I can suggest that it is possible that the toy may have been there a really long time and it could have caught up enough stuff in the pipe over the years and caused the pipe to break down over time (due to waste matter sitting against the pipe for decades?).

At this point, I would have recommended that you have the plumbing company send a VIDEO CAMERA down the drain line to determine how much damage got done and how far out it is. It's possible that the break in the line is localized to the area that the toy was and only that area needs replacement... maybe?

Glad to discuss more if you want...

Mark

MILO AND I POSTED AT THE SAME TIME...SEEMS WE ARE IN PERFECT AGREEMENT ON THIS BONNIE. BACK TO YOU...

[NipTucker]

Thanks Mark and Milo. Foreign body wearing a hole in the pipe over time was their answer too. It probably went along partially blocked all these years then the pipe finally broke and the rocks around the golf club shifted down to block the passageway more than usual.

I'll ask if they have a video service and if only a portion can be replaced, but the husband and I are actually relieved to get a new sewer at this point and have peace of mind. We'll know everything that has ever gone down the new one is biodegradable!

Uhhhh.. . Can we get a lock for the cap?

[NipTucker]

Hi Mark.

They thought the video was an unnecessary step and expense but they humored me on the chance it could save us in the long run. The video showed three breaks. The biggest at the foundation which is probably why this crisis. Another at a po