It rained pretty hard here a few days ago. Ever since then I’ve been having problems with my bathroom. I flush the toilet and it comes up through the bathtub! ICK!!
My bathroom, AFTER the plumber finished up. 😉
It had done the same thing before a couple of times and I had it snaked out. I didn’t notice it this time til Saturday morning and no use calling a plumber til Monday.
Monday morning I called the plumber but they were swamped. Because of all the rain, they had all kinds of people calling in with problems. I had to wait til Tuesday to get someone to come by and take a look.
I thought maybe the sewer pipes were broken because of the fact that this issue keeps recurring. The plumber informed me that running a snake through the toilet is basically useless. Even if you unbolt the toilet and run the snake straight through the floor.
Well, since that’s the way we’ve been doing it in the past, I told him to go ahead and do it his way. With a BIG snake, from outside.
plumbers snake
He dug a hole to find where the pipe came out of the house so I could see where it was, but he couldn’t actually do the work at that time.
I had to wait until today for the snake job. It worked!
example of what the snake can do
I hope this one works longer than the last couple of times. At least now I know where to access the pipe from the outside so we won’t have to pull out the toilet again.
I still think the pipes might be broken. There’s more water in the hole today than there was when he dug it on Monday. We haven’t had any rain, so where is that water coming from???
All I know right now is; I’m happy to have a working bathroom again. 🙂
Lesson learned. If any of you have plumbing issues, don’t waste your time and money running a snake from inside the house!
Ugh. I’m very thankful for a husband who can do all that sort of repair. Never have had to pay a plumber, or wait for one!
Oh yeah, you ARE lucky! My dad was real handy with all that kind of stuff. He taught me how to do it. I just don’t WANT to do it anymore. I have a regular person who I use most of the time, but she already snaked it out twice. Sometimes, she can use some help. 😉
This time I called a licensed plumber. Sometimes they’re worth the extra money.
Is your house older, with trees in the yard? Older homes often have clay or partially-rotten cast iron pipes between the house and the sewer connection- tree roots can get in there and really ruin your day. My hometown, most of the houses are 80-200 years old. We used to have to use a snake with a sharpened tip to do the deed.
Yep, you got it Paul. My house was built late 50’s. They’re still clay pipes and I’m sure it’s either roots or else TP and crap got backed up in there from all the flooding around here last week. The whole street had ‘water’ coming out of manhole covers for the few blocks I could see on my daily walks.
I’m hoping it’s fixed now. I won’t really know for sure til next time it rains heavy (and I’m home to see it).