multiple sewer backups. can't figure out what is going on

[flyboy7651]

Hello. I am at a loss, both mentally and financially here and need some direction on what to do, what to possibly look for, or just general anything. Here is the rundown of everything that has happened.

October 2013: 1st sewer backup. Came home from work and found a backup from under the toilet and from under the water heater. We called a local plumbing company and they came out and cleared my line. They told us the benefits of sending a camera down in there to look and see what caused the backup, because he didn't pull anything out. We sent a camera in and found 3 bellies in our line.

March 2014: 2nd sewer backup, this time it was only backing up from under the water heater. We called the plumber out again. He cleared the line, he pulled nothing out. We were told that it would be in our best interest to replace the bellied sections of line as he felt this was what was causing our issue.

May 2014: we replaced the entire line from cleanout at the back of the house all the up to the city main.

July 28, 2014: Backup 3 again only from under the water heater. At this point, I am highly ticked off. I called the company out who replaced my line, he ran a snake in and said our new line was clear. He pushed into the city sewer and pulled out a root ball. He then proceeded to hop in the man hole at the city sewer and found all kinds of debris. He told us this backup was city, and he notified the city.

August 1st 2014. I also called city to tell them to please come out and clear their sewer.

August 6, 2014. City notifies me that they dispatched a crew who jetted their line 300 feet. The supervisor told me there was nothing wrong with their line and to 'call a plumber". At this point I told them I HAVE called a plumber, several times and even replaced MY LINE. The supervisor offers up another crew to go out and look.

August 8,2014 (Today). City notifies me that a second crew went out and confirms there is no issue with the city line or sewer. it was jetted twice.

So here I sit, angry, confused, broke and still getting broker and no idea what is wrong with my line, if anything and why these backups keep happening.

What do you think is being overlooked?? Is it possible that it could still be a city line and they just are not looking right? the plumber told me when he hopped into the man hole there were things like brooms and cable lines in there, yet the city is telling me it's not clogged. So confused and need this figured out soon..it has been almost a year when this started and i'm seriously running low on money.

thank you.

 

[Reach4]

Do you have a basement?

How do you have a backup from a water heater?

You had a backup from under a toilet? What does that mean?

Were there recent heavy rains?

Were the backups related to your use of water?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[flyboy7651]

Do you have a basement?

How do you have a backup from a water heater?

You had a backup from under a toilet? What does that mean?

Were there recent heavy rains?

Were the backups related to your use of water?

1. No basement

2. Our water heater is stored in a small closet in the hall closet. This closer is just right off the bathroom. We have a access drain or whatever it is in there.

3. Sewage was literally coming in from under the toliet.

4. No rain before any backup

5.Not sure what you mean, use of water?

 

[Jadnashua]

Sewage coming out from underneath a toilet is a secondary problem...the seal there should prevent that from happening, but if there were enough pressure, it might fill up the toilet and come out over the rim, but it should not come out from underneath. You need to reset the toilet with a new wax ring to resolve that.

With the proper slope of your new line (hopefully, it actually has the proper slope and no bellies), the only way you'd get sewage flowing out and into the house is if either the main line was clogged or your line to it was clogged. Gravity is going to prevent stuff coming in from the street unless there's some really unusual situation going on. You indicated that it did not happen during a rainstorm, but is it possible there was a thunderstorm nearby, that didn't actually hit you? The EPA regs direct all of the places to separate their sewage lines from their rainwater lines, but that hasn't happened everywhere. A storm upstream from you on a combined runoff/sewer line could temporarily overwhelm the line, and could generate enough pressure to cause it to backup into your house. They do make check valves for that, but they can become problematic. One thing that does work, requires your own pump. You dump your waste into a basin, then run the output up some distance, and then it connects back into the line going to the sewer. This has its own issues with costs, power to run the pump (and the basin will fill up if you have a power outage or the pump fails and that can be an issue), but it will prevent anything from the street from getting back into the house.

Without being there to see what's happening, it's kind of hard to say.

 

[Reach4]

Use of water would be doing laundry, taking a shower etc. Is this your water not going out, or is this the neighbor's water coming in?

Are you on slab?

Are you at the bottom of the hill, or are there neighbors lower than you are?