Melissa2007B
Member
We live in the west Denver area. I've had other threads around here, about these back ups that have been happening every 6-12 months, ever since we got this IRC modular house put on the foundation in 2004 and moved in at the end of that year.
We've had countless rooter calls and a few "camera" calls done. The latest was last Wednesday. The first was back when they gave us a fairly useless VHS tape of it.
We've been told darn near everything about the plumbing under this house. ( please don't bother with the old threads - this one is the latest and, I think, the most accurate ) Some of it didn't sound right at all, but mostly a mystery about why it keeps happening. Attached is an AutoCAD drawing that I did of the house years ago, and added the basic plumbing layout to.
The way it starts is always when I'm taking a shower in that top bath in the drawing. I suddenly hear "BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet. When I get out, I flush the toilet and it rises up and won't go down. If we let it go for long, it can soon involve the whole house, so the one thing we've learned is to call the rooter company right away.
This latest event was late afternoon last Wednesday . I called the rooter company right away and they came out within a couple of hours. Good company.
Before they got here, we were doing dishes in the kitchen and heard more of the "BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet of that top bath, while doing so. The clog always seems to be in the line between the kitchen and where the bottom bath enters the main line.
So the rooter company comes out Wednesday night and I told him that the clog always happens upstream in the house. He roots it and it clears right up, as usually happens. He leaves.
BUT, Friday night..."BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet, same thing all over again. The feelings like we just cant fricking take anymore of this. We called again and they said that we REALLY should get a camera done on the line, but it ends up that they cant do it until Sunday ( they kept getting tied up on long jobs and the camera requires a supervisor - big company ). DURING that time, it was 1 flush in that top bathroom, that would go down, then the next flush would rise up. Then I had to wait an hour or more, then 1 flush would work again, once. And of course, I didn't dare shower Saturday night.
So this time, they're of course more high tech with the camera stuff. They can upload it for me to see on youtube. ( didn't really care for my address showing up in it, but...) So a friend let me upload this to her YouTube.
What happened was that he put the camera in there and had me start running that top tub water, as he ran it about 58 feet up, then apparently started the video on the way back. On the way up, he broke through the clog and cleared everything out, as the water ran. He said the clog was at about 27 feet ( including the drop below ground ) which WOULD place it between the kitchen and the lower bath line entry into the main pipe. He also said that there was what looked like a sag in the line and TP and waste had apparently been collecting in there, and he'd used the camera to clear all that out, so it shouldnt clog for awhile, again.
Meanwhile, he suggested having a plumber come out and seeing if they could level that line, so that it wouldn't do this again. "YAY!", I said!
BUT I asked for an estimate first, being we had no idea what that might entail or cost. So the plumber came out today and went in the crawl space for a look. He came out and said that he didn't detect any "sag", so he recommended a $90 bottle of their "enzymes and bacteria" solution, which "should last a couple of years, because you only use about 3 ounces at a time".
That disappointed me, because we had our hopes up, that something could FINALLY be done, to end this decade-old TORTURE, and that it might not cost thousands.
So I'm sure many of you have seen camera work before. What do you make of this? Can you actually see any apparent "sag" in this video?
We still have no idea on where to go with this, and I'm just hoping that this camera job doesn't turn out as useless as the previous two, we tried years ago.
But I'm also wondering if we should spring for another $150 and get the camera out here again, and have them work it with a dry system, instead of that water flowing, and have them run the video from the time of entry, to the FAR end of the house, then back and out the clean out again. And go REALLY SLOWLY in and out this time, so we can see more?
By the way, I recall one other time when a "dip" ( what he called a "sag" was mentioned too.
Thoughts?
We've had countless rooter calls and a few "camera" calls done. The latest was last Wednesday. The first was back when they gave us a fairly useless VHS tape of it.
We've been told darn near everything about the plumbing under this house. ( please don't bother with the old threads - this one is the latest and, I think, the most accurate ) Some of it didn't sound right at all, but mostly a mystery about why it keeps happening. Attached is an AutoCAD drawing that I did of the house years ago, and added the basic plumbing layout to.
The way it starts is always when I'm taking a shower in that top bath in the drawing. I suddenly hear "BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet. When I get out, I flush the toilet and it rises up and won't go down. If we let it go for long, it can soon involve the whole house, so the one thing we've learned is to call the rooter company right away.
This latest event was late afternoon last Wednesday . I called the rooter company right away and they came out within a couple of hours. Good company.
Before they got here, we were doing dishes in the kitchen and heard more of the "BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet of that top bath, while doing so. The clog always seems to be in the line between the kitchen and where the bottom bath enters the main line.
So the rooter company comes out Wednesday night and I told him that the clog always happens upstream in the house. He roots it and it clears right up, as usually happens. He leaves.
BUT, Friday night..."BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP..." in the toilet, same thing all over again. The feelings like we just cant fricking take anymore of this. We called again and they said that we REALLY should get a camera done on the line, but it ends up that they cant do it until Sunday ( they kept getting tied up on long jobs and the camera requires a supervisor - big company ). DURING that time, it was 1 flush in that top bathroom, that would go down, then the next flush would rise up. Then I had to wait an hour or more, then 1 flush would work again, once. And of course, I didn't dare shower Saturday night.
So this time, they're of course more high tech with the camera stuff. They can upload it for me to see on youtube. ( didn't really care for my address showing up in it, but...) So a friend let me upload this to her YouTube.
What happened was that he put the camera in there and had me start running that top tub water, as he ran it about 58 feet up, then apparently started the video on the way back. On the way up, he broke through the clog and cleared everything out, as the water ran. He said the clog was at about 27 feet ( including the drop below ground ) which WOULD place it between the kitchen and the lower bath line entry into the main pipe. He also said that there was what looked like a sag in the line and TP and waste had apparently been collecting in there, and he'd used the camera to clear all that out, so it shouldnt clog for awhile, again.
Meanwhile, he suggested having a plumber come out and seeing if they could level that line, so that it wouldn't do this again. "YAY!", I said!
BUT I asked for an estimate first, being we had no idea what that might entail or cost. So the plumber came out today and went in the crawl space for a look. He came out and said that he didn't detect any "sag", so he recommended a $90 bottle of their "enzymes and bacteria" solution, which "should last a couple of years, because you only use about 3 ounces at a time".
That disappointed me, because we had our hopes up, that something could FINALLY be done, to end this decade-old TORTURE, and that it might not cost thousands.
So I'm sure many of you have seen camera work before. What do you make of this? Can you actually see any apparent "sag" in this video?
We still have no idea on where to go with this, and I'm just hoping that this camera job doesn't turn out as useless as the previous two, we tried years ago.
But I'm also wondering if we should spring for another $150 and get the camera out here again, and have them work it with a dry system, instead of that water flowing, and have them run the video from the time of entry, to the FAR end of the house, then back and out the clean out again. And go REALLY SLOWLY in and out this time, so we can see more?
By the way, I recall one other time when a "dip" ( what he called a "sag" was mentioned too.
Thoughts?