I've gratefully learned a lot from this forum but I'm a bit out of my depth here.
Situation: Helping a buddy rent out a condo. Basically looks like a row home setup (old building), except there's two separate units (two floors each) vertically above each other (and of course matching units on each side, like a row home/townhome).
The bathroom flooded, sink/toilet/shower won't drain, water keeps coming up from the toilet/shower drain. Toilet overflowed, caused "water" to leak into drywall ceiling of the room below, by leak, I mean Niagara falls.
At move in, I emphasized nothing but #1/#2/TP down the toilet. To my knowledge, tenants followed this.
I call an emergency plumber (since I don't live there), pull toilet, snake drain, out comes "flushable baby wipes". I've always known those are not to be flushed, despite the marketing to the contrary.
Plumber says upstairs unit is likely connected to the waste line, unit above could have caused the blockage in the waste stack, and the unit below suffers.
Questions:
1) What are the odds the drains are connected, and this could be the fault of the unit above? Ever seen something like this happen?
2) How can it be (if it can) prevented, seems like if the unit above doesn't comply with the request, or if new tenants move in above.
3) Is there any way to positively determine who is at fault (if no one admits to using the flushable wipes that came out of the drain)?
4) Any idea if this would be covered under renters/homeowners insurance?
5) Related to #2, If there is connected drains (vertically) does that mean there is a shutoff in the lower (my friends unit) that will shutoff water to the above unit, so that if there is a backup, more water can be prevented from entering the system?
6) I'm gonna have to get a "waste water cleanup crew" AND a contractor to clean/remove/sanitize, then repair drywall/etc. Are the one stop shops a ripoff? Roto-rooter said they'd demo and clean and bill insurance, but I need to find a contractor to fix the rest. I'm thinking Servpro for the all in one convenience, but had a family member experience that left a bad taste with me (unrelated situation).
Situation: Helping a buddy rent out a condo. Basically looks like a row home setup (old building), except there's two separate units (two floors each) vertically above each other (and of course matching units on each side, like a row home/townhome).
The bathroom flooded, sink/toilet/shower won't drain, water keeps coming up from the toilet/shower drain. Toilet overflowed, caused "water" to leak into drywall ceiling of the room below, by leak, I mean Niagara falls.
At move in, I emphasized nothing but #1/#2/TP down the toilet. To my knowledge, tenants followed this.
I call an emergency plumber (since I don't live there), pull toilet, snake drain, out comes "flushable baby wipes". I've always known those are not to be flushed, despite the marketing to the contrary.
Plumber says upstairs unit is likely connected to the waste line, unit above could have caused the blockage in the waste stack, and the unit below suffers.
Questions:
1) What are the odds the drains are connected, and this could be the fault of the unit above? Ever seen something like this happen?
2) How can it be (if it can) prevented, seems like if the unit above doesn't comply with the request, or if new tenants move in above.
3) Is there any way to positively determine who is at fault (if no one admits to using the flushable wipes that came out of the drain)?
4) Any idea if this would be covered under renters/homeowners insurance?
5) Related to #2, If there is connected drains (vertically) does that mean there is a shutoff in the lower (my friends unit) that will shutoff water to the above unit, so that if there is a backup, more water can be prevented from entering the system?
6) I'm gonna have to get a "waste water cleanup crew" AND a contractor to clean/remove/sanitize, then repair drywall/etc. Are the one stop shops a ripoff? Roto-rooter said they'd demo and clean and bill insurance, but I need to find a contractor to fix the rest. I'm thinking Servpro for the all in one convenience, but had a family member experience that left a bad taste with me (unrelated situation).