[mma]

Hi guys. My 21-year-old son recently brought a house (6 months). I am very proud of him but very disappointed in the house. In a very short time we have found many problems with this house. It angers me because my son is a hard worker, good kid and deserves better. So, after this small intro, here is the newest problem. The house was built in the late 60’s, gutted, left sitting unoccupied for several years, than remodeled by incompetent handymen and sold to my son. It is a small 3 bedroom, one bath. The house has a crawl space. I live in very rural WV where there are few codes and they aren’t enforced. Even though there were water leaks everywhere, the waste drainage seemed OK. About 2 months ago he noticed gurgling sounds coming from the kitchen and bathroom sinks. About 1 month ago every time the washer drained it would back up into the bathtub. About 1 week ago it also started backing up into the toilet and overflowing than it mysteriously stopped. We had a friend look at the problem. He crawled under the house and took the bathtub drain apart (being there were no cleanouts anywhere in the line). He than snaked out the line with a small 25-foot wire snake. He found no obstructions and put the line back together. Unfortunately, it helped nothing. The problem has been getting worse in the last week so I hired a plumber. He came yesterday. He cut the line under the house and installed a cleanout. I haven’t crawled under there yet so not sure where in the line it is located, but can see it coming out the air flow vents to the crawl space. Than he used a heavy-duty power snake (according to my son) with a huge auger like claw on the end. He went 100 feet, but did not find a clog, even though my son said they pulled out bits of toilet paper. Also, my son’s property line is only 100 feet side to side (they started half way over) and about 50 feet straight to the road. My son said he could here the auger as it went across the yard and seemed to be going over to the neighbors instead of to the road. They then took up the toilet to replace the seal, which the plumber said was cracked and letting the overflow go directly under the house, thus the mystery solved. While the toilet was up they decided to try their handiwork and see if the problem was solved. As soon as my son started his washing machine emptying the water began backing up into the bathtub and also the hole in the floor where the toilet was. They put the toilet back in with a new seal, told my son he needed to dig up the sewer line and left. Now, here are my questions. Knowing how bad the original handymen were, could there be a vent problem. Such as non-existent. I only see one vent pipe on the roof and it is coming out at a place where there could not possibly be a vent line running straight up (open room). Could there be a blockage further down the sewer line (100+ feet), but backing up into the tub almost immediately. Thanks for any help.:)

[speedball1]

Is the house on city sewer or a septic tank? A "gurgle" indicates a vent problem where the system attempts to vent through the traps. "Bubbles" and back ups occur when there's a blockage in the drain line. Yes, it could very well be that vents were left out of the system. But you'll never know until you get a sharp plumber out there that can tell you exactly what your son has. Once you know that you can began repairs. Good luck and please keep me informed. Tom

[mma]

Thank you very much speedball1 for getting back to me. Going with your answer that the line was probably stopped up according to the back up we decided to see just what was going on with the sewer lines. The waste line makes a 90 under my son's house, goes out the foundation wall, makes another 90 then heads straight towards the neighbors house. When we realized this we went and found the town water treatment people. As I stated earlier, this is a very small town so it wasn't hard to find somebody willing to help. Evidently, this has been an ongoing problem in that area. My son's lines go to the neighbors yard, ties into their line, goes to his neighbors, ties into that line, then goes to the city sewer lines. We cut the line right at my son's property line, put another clean out in, and then the town people jetted out the entire line. Next time this happens, they are going to run a camera down the line and see what is going on. Hopefully, this issue will get resolved once and for all. Thank you again for your help.