Folks, I'm a complete novice when it comes to plumbing--I'm hoping to get some advice on issues I'm having at my home.
I live in a suburb of Houston. I purchased a brand new home 2 years ago. The home has 7 bathrooms/toilets. After a year of living in the home, we had 3 backups into the downstairs shower in 2 months. I believe that the line being clogged has the downstairs powder room, 1 downstairs bathroom and 4 upstairs bathrooms feeding it.
The first time the clog occurred, the builder gave me the "tell your kids not to flush foreign objects down the toilet" talk. I explained that my daughters are in their teens and know better than to flush anything down the toilet other than toilet paper.
The second time, they said that the toilet paper we use (Charmin Ultrasoft 2 ply) is the problem and we should switch to a "green" recycled toilet paper that is less likely to clog. We actually did this after the second incident and we had a third clog within a month.
After the third clog, they used a camera looking for a belly or break in the last Y in the line before the sewer line exits the home (this is where the clog always has been) and they said that we may be using too much toilet paper. I believe they also used a brush of some sort to clean the line. They also set the flow of all the toilets (Vortens) to maximum??
9 months later and we have had a 4th clog in exactly the same location. They used a camera to look at the Y and there was no sign of damage. I suggested that the problem may be in the line coming from the powder room and TP may be getting stuck and then coming down in a slug clogging the Y. They went up that line with the camera and there was a "significant" amount of TP sitting in the line. Based on this, they said since there is no apparent defect in the line, it's the amount of TP usage and we should cut back! They also said that they would place 2 pressure assisted toilets in the downstairs bathrooms (powder room and downstairs bedroom) to help flush out the line better.
Problem/questions:
1) My 2 year warranty on the plumbing is up after this warranty claim and I don't want to be left holding the bag on a possibly faulty system.
2) My understanding of pressure assisted toilets is that they help with keeping the toilet unclogged---there's no increase in water volume per flush so I don't understand how this would make the sewer line less likely to clog?
3) There are other homes like mine in the neighborhood and I've spoken to 2 other owners and they do not have this problem.
4) I'm willing to hire a professional who has my best interests in mind, but I'm not sure the best route. Do I need a plumbing engineer to look at the layout (although the layout should not be an issue if similar homes are not having an issues) or plans and see if there's an issue? Is there a specification for sewer line slope and can the slope be measured in my sewer line? I'm at the end of my rope here so all advice is appreciated.
I live in a suburb of Houston. I purchased a brand new home 2 years ago. The home has 7 bathrooms/toilets. After a year of living in the home, we had 3 backups into the downstairs shower in 2 months. I believe that the line being clogged has the downstairs powder room, 1 downstairs bathroom and 4 upstairs bathrooms feeding it.
The first time the clog occurred, the builder gave me the "tell your kids not to flush foreign objects down the toilet" talk. I explained that my daughters are in their teens and know better than to flush anything down the toilet other than toilet paper.
The second time, they said that the toilet paper we use (Charmin Ultrasoft 2 ply) is the problem and we should switch to a "green" recycled toilet paper that is less likely to clog. We actually did this after the second incident and we had a third clog within a month.
After the third clog, they used a camera looking for a belly or break in the last Y in the line before the sewer line exits the home (this is where the clog always has been) and they said that we may be using too much toilet paper. I believe they also used a brush of some sort to clean the line. They also set the flow of all the toilets (Vortens) to maximum??
9 months later and we have had a 4th clog in exactly the same location. They used a camera to look at the Y and there was no sign of damage. I suggested that the problem may be in the line coming from the powder room and TP may be getting stuck and then coming down in a slug clogging the Y. They went up that line with the camera and there was a "significant" amount of TP sitting in the line. Based on this, they said since there is no apparent defect in the line, it's the amount of TP usage and we should cut back! They also said that they would place 2 pressure assisted toilets in the downstairs bathrooms (powder room and downstairs bedroom) to help flush out the line better.
Problem/questions:
1) My 2 year warranty on the plumbing is up after this warranty claim and I don't want to be left holding the bag on a possibly faulty system.
2) My understanding of pressure assisted toilets is that they help with keeping the toilet unclogged---there's no increase in water volume per flush so I don't understand how this would make the sewer line less likely to clog?
3) There are other homes like mine in the neighborhood and I've spoken to 2 other owners and they do not have this problem.
4) I'm willing to hire a professional who has my best interests in mind, but I'm not sure the best route. Do I need a plumbing engineer to look at the layout (although the layout should not be an issue if similar homes are not having an issues) or plans and see if there's an issue? Is there a specification for sewer line slope and can the slope be measured in my sewer line? I'm at the end of my rope here so all advice is appreciated.