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My advise is to hire a professional plumber to snake in a video camera to see what's going on inside.
Luckily, we didn't have any joints to snake except the one at the bottom of the clean out that has a 90 degree turn to the line that runs to the street. The house say empty for over 2 years before we bought it and at first we thought maybe it was a clog that was caused from the previous owner (because they also had a back up close to the time they were foreclosed on according to the neighbor) and we were just getting the backlash of it. After having to snake it 2 times in a matter of 3 months and it clogging for a 3rd time, you cant help but think it is a busted pipe. Aside from a camera (that we currently wont be able to get through there) is there any other signs of a busted line we should be looking for? I know when we snaked it last time it seemed like we really had to work at one specific area for a long time to break through. I just can't believe that if it was a tree root it would have clogged back up so quickly. It has only been 2 weeks TOPS.
If it took all night to drain, you're basically out of service right now. With any usage it will quickly back up again.Thanks for all that insight. We got up this morning and the line was clear... so we are assuming there is a least a small spot where water can leak through. Now we are going to money around to see if it clogs back up again and if it does, we will get it clear and run the camera. Here is to hoping!
This sounds like you are avoiding a known problem. Water has backed up on more than one occasion. You didn't want to camera it because it had standing water... the water went down... so camera it!Well it wasnt clear full when we noticed it about 3 this morning. It just had standing water. When I checked it at about 10 this morning it was clear and had the kitchen sink running and I could see the water flowing through. Granted, the kitchen sink doesnt run at a high rate like say our washer does (which is also what starts the clog in the first place) so in a couple of hours we will run the sink until the hot water is no longer hot, let the water heater fill back up and then run a load of water through the washer to see if we can get it to clog.
Apologies; I wasn't trying to be rude. The house I purchased Jan/18 of this year had been empty for two years as well. All drains work fine.We aren't avoiding a known problem. We don't know what they problem is. We are trying to get to the problem starting with the cheapest route first. I am pretty sure that is how most people handle problems to begin with. No one goes out and buys a new car when all the old one needs is a new wiper blade, right? Geez. This house sat empty for 2 years. Our initial thought was maybe, just maybe, there is a crap ton of sediment sitting in the pipes and once we started flushing water through it started breaking off old crap that was caked onto the pipes. When we redid some plumbing inside the house there was a lot of mineral build up and that's what we were thinking was inside of the sewer line. We WANT to fix the problem but we are NOT going to go jumping head first into something expensive before we have exhausted all other options. Will we run a camera down there? Probably. Will we replace the sewer line? If we have to, then yes. Am I going to just fork over thousands of dollars to do so before we have tried everything else? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I came here looking for advice on things we could try or hoping maybe someone had a similar issue and could give some insight. I didn't come here to be told "Hey, stupid, get a camera down there".
Running a camera IS the least expensive way to properly diagnose and locate the problem.We aren't avoiding a known problem. We don't know what they problem is. We are trying to get to the problem starting with the cheapest route first. I am pretty sure that is how most people handle problems to begin with. No one goes out and buys a new car when all the old one needs is a new wiper blade, right? Geez.
HRG - With proper equipment, the camera head has a built in sonde which sends off a signal to a locator above ground. It gives you the exact location and depth of the line. It can then be flagged, painted, or triangulated.If you do have your drain camera'd, I wonder if it would be possible for the camera guy to draw his best guess as to the path of the drain? If it's possible, it will be a tremendous help to you if/when you have to dig where a possible problem might be.
Or maybe a drawing with dimensions is standard procedure? I donno since I never had a drain camera'd. Just throwing this out there in case it helps.
HRG