How long does it take for a cloth towel to decompose?

[Dollar_Bill]

I am a general contractor turned property manager. I had to snake out a line recently and pulled up a face towel, there may be more, I hit it with a 75 foot snake and am going back with a 100 foot tomorrow.

I tell tenants that if I pull up something that should not have been flushed, there is a $200 charge if I have to use a long snake. $75 if only a toilet snake.

The tenant loudly proclaimed that in the 3 1/2 years she has been here, she had never flushed a towel, and that it MUST have been flushed by someone before her.

I dunno. Previous tenants are long gone. So my question is how long does it take for a cotton (label says) terry cloth hand towel to rot away? Seems like it would have rotted away with active flushing over a three and a half year period (?)

What say ye?

Bill,
Atlanta

[phishfood]

I am saying that if she has been there 3 1/2 years, any previously flushed towels would have long since caused a backup. Even a face towel is going to take up a lot of room inside of a sewer or drain pipe, catch toilet paper, hair, etc, and cause a stoppage in short order.

[Dollar_Bill]

Originally Posted by phishfood

I am saying that if she has been there 3 1/2 years, any previously flushed towels would have long since caused a backup. Even a face towel is going to take up a lot of room inside of a sewer or drain pipe, catch toilet paper, hair, etc, and cause a stoppage in short order.

I agree. In my experience of managing property 99% of the time a drain backs up is because someone flushed something they should not have flushed.

BUT

Even though when I rent a house, I go through it with the tenant. I flush the toilet several times and make sure that they see it is working, yet I have had tenants call me 6 months later and tell me the toilet is stopped up AND that it really never has worked and that they only use the toilet at work.

When I sent my maintenance man over, he told this tenant NOT to flush the one upstairs toilet. About an hour later a deluge of water and excrement poured out of the opening (he had pulled the downstairs toilet).

He ran upstairs shouting and she claimed she only ran a glass of water.

In these stoppage situations I have just pulled rank and stated that it was her fault, we pulled up something that should not have been flushed and she now owes $200. Period. I will also charge extra for the cleanup.

It would help if I could positively state that a towel WILL DISSOLVE in less time than she has been there.

[waterwelldude]

For a towel to completely go away, wow, I don't think they ever go completely away.
We have removed septic lids from old abandoned houses that have not been removed in 10 to 15 years. Some had rags rapped around the inlet or outlet to stop a leak. We have also dug up old towels or dish rags that have been there for more than a few years.

[Chris]

I am pretty sure a towel will last more then four years but with that being said if it were in an active sewer line it would definitly either be pushed down the line to the city main or caused a backup in much less time. I don't see how turds and globs of toilet paper would pass right by the rag for years and then one day grab on. Just very unlikely in my book.

[Another-Plumber]

is she the only one on that main line? have you thought of that? 75 feet goes a long way, did you go into the city main? many questions... no need to ruin a good tenant

[Dollar_Bill]

She is the only one on that line. However, I think that I may tell her that this clean out is on me. If it happens again, she gets to pay. She has not asked for much over the last several years. We are running a 100 foot line today. See what we pull up.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Dollar_Bill

She is the only one on that line. However, I think that I may tell her that this clean out is on me. If it happens again, she gets to pay. She has not asked for much over the last several years. We are running a 100 foot line today. See what we pull up.

That would be a good way to approach it. You will have to way out your options on if it is even worth potentially loosing a tennant over 200 bucks.

[Dollar_Bill]

Originally Posted by Chris

That would be a good way to approach it. You will have to way out your options on if it is even worth potentially loosing a tennant over 200 bucks.

I agree. She has been absolute gold as a tenant. I am not going to charge her, but I will suggest to her that if I pull up another towel, or something that should not be flushed in the future, she will be charged.