The Setup:
Our house is on the oldish side, but not ancient. Built in 1953. I'm guessing the plumbing wasn't meant to handle its current load.
We’ve got two bathrooms. The main bathroom (the one with the tub) is in the back of the house, near the backyard. Bathroom number 2, which is near the front of the house, has a toilet, sink, and a shower stall. This (smaller) bathroom is feet away from the garage, which contains our clothes washer and dryer.
The Issue
A few months ago we started to have the following problem: during the clothes washer’s rinse cycle, while the clothes washer was spinning to drain the water out, the toilet in Bathroom 2 would sometimes make gurgling noises.
Then the shower stall would start to fill with dirty water coming up from the drain. If we weren’t careful, it would overflow and the bathroom would flood.
If we caught it, and turned off the clothes washer, the shower stall would stop flooding.
What seems odd and confusing to me: The situation does not always occur, though. Sometimes we can do laundry with no stoppage and no flooding.
Yesterday my wife ran a load of laundry and the bathroom flooded. Lately I’ve had luck just leaving it alone, and it seems to resolve itself, but yesterday and today seem different. The water level in the toilet will go down and I can get two good healthy flushes out of it, but then the toilet fills up with clean water to the top. When I plunge it, it gurgles and the water level goes back down to a normal level, but the shower stall then starts to fill with dirty water coming up through the drain.
I may be crazy:
Part of my theory, and this may be crazy, has to do with the fact that we’ve had some really heavy rain during the past two days. Perhaps wherever the water is supposed to drain to is already flooded from the rains. Like I said, that may be a crazy idea, but I’m trying to isolate why we only have this problem sometimes and not others.
Can anyone help me with theories to test or actions to take? If you need additional information, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
I am likely to lose my job within the next month and if I can resolve this without paying a pro, my family would be better off.
Thanks in advance!
Our house is on the oldish side, but not ancient. Built in 1953. I'm guessing the plumbing wasn't meant to handle its current load.
We’ve got two bathrooms. The main bathroom (the one with the tub) is in the back of the house, near the backyard. Bathroom number 2, which is near the front of the house, has a toilet, sink, and a shower stall. This (smaller) bathroom is feet away from the garage, which contains our clothes washer and dryer.
The Issue
A few months ago we started to have the following problem: during the clothes washer’s rinse cycle, while the clothes washer was spinning to drain the water out, the toilet in Bathroom 2 would sometimes make gurgling noises.
Then the shower stall would start to fill with dirty water coming up from the drain. If we weren’t careful, it would overflow and the bathroom would flood.
If we caught it, and turned off the clothes washer, the shower stall would stop flooding.
What seems odd and confusing to me: The situation does not always occur, though. Sometimes we can do laundry with no stoppage and no flooding.
Yesterday my wife ran a load of laundry and the bathroom flooded. Lately I’ve had luck just leaving it alone, and it seems to resolve itself, but yesterday and today seem different. The water level in the toilet will go down and I can get two good healthy flushes out of it, but then the toilet fills up with clean water to the top. When I plunge it, it gurgles and the water level goes back down to a normal level, but the shower stall then starts to fill with dirty water coming up through the drain.
I may be crazy:
Part of my theory, and this may be crazy, has to do with the fact that we’ve had some really heavy rain during the past two days. Perhaps wherever the water is supposed to drain to is already flooded from the rains. Like I said, that may be a crazy idea, but I’m trying to isolate why we only have this problem sometimes and not others.
Can anyone help me with theories to test or actions to take? If you need additional information, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
I am likely to lose my job within the next month and if I can resolve this without paying a pro, my family would be better off.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited: