Poo-tieTang
New Member
About two weeks ago I woke up to water all over my kitchen floor which is located on the 1st floor. I live on a slab foundation in a condo that is not even 4 years old. After investigating I realized it came out of my water box drain for my washing machine.
I hadn't used my washing machine in almost a week so I thought this was odd. That morning I also heard a brief gurgling sound from my 2nd floor bathtub which is located directly above my wash closet. It sounded like it was draining for a second or two but the tub wasn't in use since the day before.
In my condo I have the whole first floor, half the second floor and my neighbor has the other half of the second floor and the whole third floor. I think this is important because my wife and I just woke up and didn't run any water yet that day but I know my neighbor up stairs either used her bathroom or washing machine.
To troubleshoot the problem I put draino down the the washer box drain to see if that would do anything. I also used an auger and stuck it down both the washer box drain and my bathtub to see if there was a clog. I got little to nothing on the auger from both drains.
About a week or two went by and we didn't have any issues. Then this past Sunday my wife gave my dogs a bath and when she emptied the tub she yelled down to me that the drain in the tub backed up into the tub a little bit. Almost simultaneously, the wash box drain started to overflow again. I once again tried using the auger in both drains and didn't get anything on the Auger.
On Monday my wife woke up and called me at work to say the water box drain backed up again. It must have been from my neighbor again because my wife didn't use any water before then.
We had a plumber come out on Monday and he did a few test. He opened up the clean out by the street and ran all the fixtures downstairs at the same time. There was no overflow and he said the water was making it to the sewer line. He did the same thing with the fixtures upstairs including filling up the bathtub twice and emptying it and same result. No overflow on the wash box drain and the water was making it out to the sewer line. He charged $100 with no results and suggested getting a plumber here that had a camera to see if there was potentially a break in the pipes under our slab foundation.
It happened again on Tuesday morning, same scenario, my wife didn't use any water so it must have been from my neighbor. Then on Tuesday night it happened again when my neighbor was doing laundry.
Yesterday we were out and when we got home, there was yet again water all over the kitchen floor. Obviously from my neighbor using water upstairs.
Today nothing happened till I ran some tests myself when I got home from work. First I ran my kitchen sink, downstairs sink, flushed the downstairs toilet a handful of times and ran my washing machine on rinse and spin cycle for at least 10-15mins straight. Nothing happened. I then had my wife fill up the upstairs bathtub and drain it while running the upstairs bathroom sink and flush the upstairs toilet simultaneously. The wash box drain then started to overflow.
Does anyone know what the issue may be? I'd really like to get this straightened out as cheap as possible and as soon as possible. This has been a terrible week.
Thank you in advanced.
I hadn't used my washing machine in almost a week so I thought this was odd. That morning I also heard a brief gurgling sound from my 2nd floor bathtub which is located directly above my wash closet. It sounded like it was draining for a second or two but the tub wasn't in use since the day before.
In my condo I have the whole first floor, half the second floor and my neighbor has the other half of the second floor and the whole third floor. I think this is important because my wife and I just woke up and didn't run any water yet that day but I know my neighbor up stairs either used her bathroom or washing machine.
To troubleshoot the problem I put draino down the the washer box drain to see if that would do anything. I also used an auger and stuck it down both the washer box drain and my bathtub to see if there was a clog. I got little to nothing on the auger from both drains.
About a week or two went by and we didn't have any issues. Then this past Sunday my wife gave my dogs a bath and when she emptied the tub she yelled down to me that the drain in the tub backed up into the tub a little bit. Almost simultaneously, the wash box drain started to overflow again. I once again tried using the auger in both drains and didn't get anything on the Auger.
On Monday my wife woke up and called me at work to say the water box drain backed up again. It must have been from my neighbor again because my wife didn't use any water before then.
We had a plumber come out on Monday and he did a few test. He opened up the clean out by the street and ran all the fixtures downstairs at the same time. There was no overflow and he said the water was making it to the sewer line. He did the same thing with the fixtures upstairs including filling up the bathtub twice and emptying it and same result. No overflow on the wash box drain and the water was making it out to the sewer line. He charged $100 with no results and suggested getting a plumber here that had a camera to see if there was potentially a break in the pipes under our slab foundation.
It happened again on Tuesday morning, same scenario, my wife didn't use any water so it must have been from my neighbor. Then on Tuesday night it happened again when my neighbor was doing laundry.
Yesterday we were out and when we got home, there was yet again water all over the kitchen floor. Obviously from my neighbor using water upstairs.
Today nothing happened till I ran some tests myself when I got home from work. First I ran my kitchen sink, downstairs sink, flushed the downstairs toilet a handful of times and ran my washing machine on rinse and spin cycle for at least 10-15mins straight. Nothing happened. I then had my wife fill up the upstairs bathtub and drain it while running the upstairs bathroom sink and flush the upstairs toilet simultaneously. The wash box drain then started to overflow.
Does anyone know what the issue may be? I'd really like to get this straightened out as cheap as possible and as soon as possible. This has been a terrible week.
Thank you in advanced.
