Drain problem, 2nd floor toilet/tub

[nvnyc]

The drains in my second floor bathroom have been acting up for while now; at some point 6 months to a year ago the shower drain was clogged, and the tub would fill with water and take hours to drain after a shower. I eventually cleared that up with one of those plastic zip it tools, or so I thought. The shower drain was working fine, no apparent back up at all.

Recently, in the past few weeks, the pipes have been making a kind of high pitched, whining noise whenever the toilet was flushed or water ran through the tub drain. Didn't do anything about it, because the drains seemed to be flowing properly... Today I flushed the toilet, and the drainage came up into the tub. The bowl slowly drained, gurgling at the end, and eventually filled back up. Once the toilet was completely drained, the tub drained easily, and if you run water through that drain, it seems to be clear (does make the noise though.)


The fixtures are all against the same wall, right next to each other, with the toilet in the middle. Since the shower and sink drains seem to be ok, and there's no trouble at all with any of the downstairs fixtures, I'm *guessing* it's some kind of clog in the main stack, hopefully not too far away from the toilet. I read a bunch of threads about similar problems, and looked at some diagrams, so I'm gonna try and clear it out with an auger by myself, before I consider calling a pro. Does this sound possible, and/or easy? Also, I'm a little concerned about getting into the tub drain, if that is necessary. There is a metal fitting inside the drain, after you take the cap off, and although I haven't tried any tools on it yet, it appears to be in there pretty securely. I've included a picture of that..

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[havasu]

By viewing your picture, it looks like that drain is about closed up completely with rust. If this is in fact the case, I see no remedy except for complete replacement of the tub drain. I myself have done it a few times and it is extremely labor intensive, with big holes cut on the opposite side of the wall to access the back side of the tub. I sure hope I am incorrect because honestly, it might be advisable to contact a local professional to give you his two cents worth of opinion.

[LiQuId]

typically i auger tubs by going through the waste and overflow ( remove the finish trim plate ) the whining noise, i would guess bing in the water supply not the drain though anything is possiblle this noise usually happens due to restriction in a potable water pipe and often is associated with toilets. it sounds as though you have a clog in the dwv downstream of that toilet, try pulling the toilet and augering through the open pipe end, that would be my advice.

[nvnyc]

Ok, thank you. I'm pretty comfortable doing that... A few questions. One, do you think a 1/4" 15ft auger would be sufficient? That's all I have on hand. If not, what size/type do you suggest? I think the procedure is pretty straightforward, but I'm more comfortable following a guide with pictures and directions, so, does anything seem wrong with this DIY?

http://www.diyadvice.com/diy/plumbing/toilets/replacing/

[phishfood]

A 1/4" cable is not sufficient to clean a 3" or 4" drain line. Guessing from the looks of your tub drain, you probably have 4" cast iron to the toilet. The minimum size cable you should be using for this job is probably 1/2", with a cutter head that is as large as the pipe. This will completely clean the clog out of the pipe, and reduce the chance of this problem reoccurring to almost nil.

[LiQuId]

A plumbing contractor with the proper machiene ( k 50 ) would be fairly cheap to employ and cover you in case of brittle cast or such ( pipe breaks and you have insurannce with a company ) I would contact a reputiblle company unless you have plenty of extra cash to buy a bigger cable machine that you will later sell on kijiji at a loss due to not needing it.
area depending I would estimate ( dont take this as fact as prices vary by areas largely ) that this job would be less than $150 , and you stay clean.