3rd time needing main line cleaned out?

Been in our house for 19 years with no major plumbing issues. In 2018 we converted our garage into a bedroom with in suite bath. Since that bath was added, we have had to have the drain snaking company come out twice due to blockage in the main exit line backing up into and overflowing from the basement toilet - about every 6 months. Now the downstairs toilet is “bubbling” again when we run the shower in the main upstairs bath. No effect when we run the water or flush from the new bath.

According to the tech who was out here last time, the blockage was mostly feminine products and bathroom wipes. Since the first time, we have not been flushing anything other than tp (although with 2 teenagers I can’t be 100% sure).

Is this just a case of the house/pipes aging and accumulated debris causing the clogs or could my suspicion be right that the way the new plumbing was tied in is causing the system to hang up? Or is the clean out just not thorough enough?

I don’t want to have to pay 2-3 times a year for this clean out plus have to clean up the mess when it overflows. The first time I ran the dishwasher and went downstairs to find water pouring out of the toilet. I will have another talking to with my 16 year old daughter and her friends about disposing of tampons...Is there something else we can/should do to prevent this?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Tampons are an absolute “no” to be flushed.
They get swollen up, and will never break down like tp does.

Wipes are also very bad, even the “flushable” ones can cause trouble, they combine with poop to cause a clog like a ball of modeling clay.

Next time you need the line cleared, have your daughter assist the plumber with handling the mess.
She will get the point.

You could have your line inspected with a camera to look for issues like a low belly area, or hard object in the line like a toy, makeup bottle, etc.

How old is the main line outside?
It could be cracked, separated, sagged, or full of roots.
A good camera inspection would find all of that.
Make sure they record it, not just a live view.

If the daughter & her friends were flushing wipes & tampons down the drain before the new bathroom was added I'd think there would have been a problem before then (unless she wasn't using the feminine products before then). My guess is it's either an accumulation of years worth of stuff clogging up & maybe it didn't get fully cleared when they worked on it or something wrong with the DWV system with the new bathroom. I'm sort of leaning toward the latter because it seems odd there were no problems before & now it's every 6 months or so. Either there's a blockage that hasn't been fully cleared, or there is something snagging stuff. I'm no expert though. I think the camera idea to scope out the line sounds like a good idea. Maybe something shifted out of alignment or broke underground when the new plumbing was tied in or something wasn't connected right.

And during construction, plenty of chances for chunks of junk to fall (or even get deposited) into the open drain line.

Too many people think of a toilet or an open drain as a magical garbage disposer.

Don't flush anything you haven't eaten first.

So is this statement, "No effect when we run the water or flush from the new bath." saying that when this is a blockage, the new bathroom, in the old garage, has no affect on it? Or in other words that it's connection is downstream of the blockage?

And that none of these back ups mentioned are affecting the garage toilet?

Trying to get a picture of whether there actually is a connection to the new bathrooms piping hookup possibly being the culprit of just the addition of items that shouldn't be flushed.

Then there's the option to buy and learn how to use a power drain cleaner.

Pay to have it scoped and jetted, then scoped again. The whole line. A good plumber will give you a thumb drive of the whole line completely cleared and show you the trouble spot. I scope and jet for 485 and will give you a year warranty if there are no trouble spots in the line, or tell you what is causing it and a price to fix it. For the same guy to take your money three times a year is a little “bullshitty” in my opinion.

RenewDave said:

Pay to have it scoped and jetted, then scoped again. The whole line. A good plumber will give you a thumb drive of the whole line completely cleared and show you the trouble spot. I scope and jet for 485 and will give you a year warranty if there are no trouble spots in the line, or tell you what is causing it and a price to fix it. For the same guy to take your money three times a year is a little “bullshitty” in my opinion.

Click to expand...

home run answer

frodo said:

home run answer

Click to expand...

here is a test you can do that will give you and idea of the shape of the sewer

find the clean outside. open it up, look down the clean out with a flash light
have someone remove the p trap on the sink, drop a golf ball into the pipe. , watch and see if the golf ball passes by if your plumbing is installed correctly, the golf ball should roll down the pipe . by itself, with out water

?? Tree roots ?? || ?? Cracked Pipe ?? || ?? Dip in pipe ??
If it's tree roots, are they coming in at joint or break in *your* part of the line - or local government's part of the line?
If it's theirs, you may be able to get them to repair it, or pay for regular clean-outs - ours will cover $100/yr cost if you're over 65.
An interesting fix or life lengthener:
Local Gov. has been *re-lining* old sewer lines with a one-piece plastic/elastomer liner, which sort of unrolls ..... like a Trojan.

I’d like to thank you all for the feedback and suggestions. The line is not currently blocked or at least whatever causes the bubbling seems to have resolved itself without another back up.

To answer some of the questions - the house was built in 1955 so I am assuming that is the age of the line out to the city line. City replaced all their pipes along the street about 15 years ago.

My comment about the garage toilet and shower not affecting the clog is from the last time it was clogged up. Running the water in the garage didn’t cause anything to come out of the basement toilet. We were able to use that bathroom during the back up. No idea what that says about the issue.

Sharona.

look at this 5th grade crude drawing. maybe this will help you understand what is going on.
the sewer from the street RIGHT side of drawing. enters the house
#3 is the first connection. #2 is next then #3
If their is a stoppage between #2 and #3, then the 2 bathrooms to be affected would be #1 and #2
te other bathroom,#3 would still be able to flush. because it is down stream of the clog.

The more we know about the layout of your house, the easier it is to figure out where the clog is
the information about the garage toilet not being affected was a HUGE bit of helpful info
that narrowed the clog to NOT outside the house but inside the house
[ASSUMING} the garage bathroom is part of the house

anyway you can draw a box that represents the house and orient the bathrooms inside that box,to give us an idea
of the actual layout?