Kitchen sink drains very slowly. One story home. Year Built: Looks to be early 1960's if not older. Landlady is of NO help. (We plan on moving within 6 months. Long story.) Tried the following steps, not all in one day, especially not after pouring the drain cleaner. 1. Tried plunger. 2. Took trap apart and everything is clean. 3. Ran hand snake down pipe stub that runs down through the floor. Found no obstruction 4. Poured liquid fire down pipe stub. 5. Put drain bladder down pipe stub and water flowed freely. 6. Ran hand snake down vent pipe from roof and hit obstruction about 10 feet down. Unable to break through. 7. Tried running garden hose down vent pipe and water came back up through the vent pipe. This is where it gets interesting. Put drain bladder down vent pipe and water began flowing from the laundry drain to the outside. The laundry room has an old rusty pipe that runs straight out the wall and drains into the yard. (I'm sure this is illegal). There is also a floor drain in the laundry room. No water will come up through the floor drain. This water at first was black and smelled of sewage. Appeared to be decaying matter such as leaves and twigs. After a few minutes the water turned clear. Went back on roof and removed bladder. Tried shoving garden hose down and hit obstruction again. Tried working hose back and forth, every which way. No success. Tried drain bladder one more time and same result with water coming out laundry drain. Finally gave up. Also, searched for a cleanout outside around the house and unable to find anything. Question 1: Other than calling a professional out is there some sort of tool like a 12 foot pole with an attachment that could cut through the obstruction? Question 2: Any idea why the water is coming out the laundry drain? Does this mean there is a clog further down somewhere? No water came up into the kitchen sink drain while running water down the vent pipe. Bathroom sink and toilet appear to be fine and experience no problems.
Kitchen sink drains very slow.
- Thread starter HM1974
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I and probably not you have a good idea of the routing the plumbing system in this home you are renting. There may well be a blockage your snaking has not reached yet. If you force a higher powered snake device you may end up breaking through some old pipe and make things a lot worse and expensive to you.
Stay on the landlord and whatever code enforcement authority that is available.
Stay on the landlord and whatever code enforcement authority that is available.
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I think you are saying that after disconnecting the trap arm, you put the snake through the trap adapter downward. Then you ran the drain bladder down there. The drain took water and did not spit it out elsewhere.
Is that the Brasscraft small drain bladder in each case?
Is your trap arm white plastic? You may be able to backlight it with a flashlight and see the water level as the kitchen drain drains slowly.
I don't have insight as to question 1 and question 2.
Smooky
In the Trades
You probably need a longer drain snake. How long was the snake that you used?
Yes, I think I am finished with it at this point. She is of no help. One example is she asked me to clean the gutters. After doing it I asked how much would be taken off the rent. She said NOTHING. It's not her responsibility, she claims. Rather than fight and argue we plan on moving out soon.
That is correct.
The drain bladder is the small size from Harbor Freight.
Yes the trap arm is plastic. I actually did try that early on with a small LED light and it was hard to see but looked like there was only a small amount flowing through there.
Just a cheap Walmart 25' hand snake.
I was thinking the same thing. Otherwise, how is water coming out the laundry drain? I don't know. I am out of ideas, this one is over my head.
It is the level of the water that I was thinking of. Clogged drain would have the trap arm full to almost full. Actually that is what I expect. Clogged P-trap would have the trap arm empty to nearly empty. While it seems possible that the trap arm could be empty due to a clogged vent, I think that is almost never the case.
Waterfilter1
Learning about Water Filters, refrigerators,
When we lived in California over 10 years ago we had this same issue. We took similar steps. Finally we called a company out, they ran a 25ft + snake throughout. Come to find out our tree in the back yard had spread its roots. The roots had bust thorough the piping under the house and was disrupting the plumbing along with the foundation of the house. Look and see if you have any roots growing underneath the house underground
This house does have a crawlspace but the entrance is so tiny I do not think I can fit through (I'm a big guy). I know there is a termite problem going on and that does lead me to wonder about underneath the house. Maybe structural damage has caused a change in the slope of the plumbing? I have given up at this point. We are actively searching for another house to rent. Anything here that happens is our "responsibility". Be it termites, plugged gutters (with no screens), leaking refrigerator, etc.
Problem was not solved. We are for the time being, just dealing with an extremely slow kitchen sink drain. I had to return the ladder back to the owner which leaves me unable to access the roof vent once again. Not going to pay a professional since we do not own the home.
A kitchen sink drain in the crawlspace of a home that I worked on. They can't get pretty bad at times. I use Bio-Clean on my kitchen drain to help with the grease that finds it's way down.
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