[Gavinne]

Hello, all. We have an old house and the drains get clogged occasionally, lately it's been super clogged, so bad we can barely flush or take showers because the drain downstairs in the basement is so backed up. We recently ran 100 ft of snake (http://75.125.140.178/~rentals/images/equipment/drain snake 100 ft.JPG similar to that one) through it, we ran all 100 ft through it which cleared the drain for a few days but now it is super clogged again. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this? I appreciate any ideas you guys may have, I am about at my wits end lol. Thanks!

[farmerruss]

Had a similar problem recently. 1st used a 50 ft manual flat tape . Cleared and water ran out like a fire hose. But clogged after 1 day. 2nd used a power rodder with 75 ft. Same result. 3rd used an inflatable bladder. This worked great and the drain has been running clear for a month. Analysis, no roots apparent, soft waste kept blocking even though the rodders opened momentarily.

[Gavinne]

Yeah, we found some roots in the drain, but the attachment on the end of the snake chopped through them and we pulled them up, the roots were hit at about 75 ft through. We ran the full 100 ft through it a few times just to make sure we cleared it sufficiently. It ran fine for a few days, now it's back to clogged. We live in a house, so at 100 ft we should be about to the main (under the street) because the line goes out from the house for about 6 feet, then drops down an estimated 20 ft and then turns horizontal again and heads about 60 or 70 ft to the street so all in all its about 100 ft of pipe to the street main line thus I estimate the 100 ft snake made it pretty much to the street.

[speedball1]

I hope your snake made it to the street because most of the root problems are at the curb in 6the city raiser. The joint between your sewer and the city raiser can go bad allowing roots to enter. Sooner or later you're going to hafta locate the break and repair it.

If you wish to control roots RootX or Robics Foaming Root Killer that contain Dichlobrnic are two products you could try.
A less expensive way would be to call around to garden supply stores and ask for fine grain Copper Sulphate. Put a 1/2 pound in your toilet and flush it down. Repeat in 6 months.
Hope this helps and thank you for rating my answer, Tomate
.

[Gavinne]

At 100 ft of line we probably made it to the street if not real close. The roots we did encounter were about 75 ft down, which is odd because we don't have any trees or anything like that along the line. How would one locate the break, any way other than sending a camera through? Repairing the break would probably be simple, yet strenuous, and is something I could do myself once the breaks located, just dig a hole in the proper place, replace the area with fresh piping and connect it properly. I appreciate the responses, I'm hoping I don't have to replace the line and can somehow find a way to get it flowing again.

[speedball1]

OK! Here's what I'd do,
Put a funnel auger,(see image) on that 100 snake and see if that doesn't clear the roots and then use copper sulfate to control them until a perminate fix can be done