Advice - Had a plumber come out.

[arsenik]

I was having the following plumbing problem:

When I ran the shower for a while, my toilets started "gargling" and large loud air bubbles were coming up through them. My wife ran the dishwasher and then our tubs filled with sewer water. We called a plumber.

The Plumber came out and rodded our sewer to the main line and he said he "pulled back nothing". His fees were $139. I got the feeling that he didn't solve the problem and he gave me an estimate of $350 for a camera job if the problem reoccurs. I didn't really understand what this means, could someone please explain?

All I know is he took a large metal snake machine into my back yard, plugged it into an outlet, and ran it down the pipes sticking out of my back yard. Now everything is draining, but can somone give me some advice about what happened?

 

[havasu]

It appears as if you had a stoppage of some type in your main sewer line. The reason for him wanting to inspect the line with a camera is to find out what was causing the line to stop up. It could be tree roots, a partially collapsed sewer line, poor installation of a sewer line, or or like in my case, kids using 1/2 a roll of tp for each flush! I usually have a friend come over every two years and run a snake through my main line, and I'm good for a few more years.

If you main sewer line is running OK at this time, and you are satisfied, then you are done. If this occurs too often for your liking, then spend the money and investigate further.

 

[FlushMasta]

2 questions
how old is the house? and how long have you lived there... 3rd question would have been if its happened before, clearly not to your knowledge by your post.

reason why i ask; you probably have 2-way cleanouts in your backyard that the plumber used as access... at whatever point in time there were installed during the buildings construction, or they were installed as a spot repair from a past issue or for easier access but for a known problem...

its not often nothing gets pulled back, and it spikes curiosity... no one likes a call back for any reason... most cabling machines will collect roots, paper towels, and feminine products... if someone flushed a ninja turtle, he could have been tryin to reclaim his pizza he left in the fridge later that night... my advice is to wait til it happens again, don't flush what you shouldn't... and if it does happen again, have it cleared out and call around for prices for sewer cameraing

 

[arsenik]

1.) The house was built in 2006. In the back yard there are two pipes sticking out of the ground, he snaked one of them but had the tops of both pipes open.

2) This has never happened before. We don't have kids and the wife doesn't flush her feminine products.

If I can get 5 more years before the next time it needs snaked I'll be happy, but I'm concerned as to why this happened. I live in Oklahoma City and there aren't any trees even close to my back yard.

 

[LiQuId]

you got a great rate for a snaking by the guy.

I wouldnt be too concerned, like the other member said. If it is working now then something happened. and if it didnt work, youll know sooner than later. plan to have it camera'd if problems re occur. And roots can go for a LONG way. 2006 though, I wouldbe that its not roots as its highly un-likely that your building drain and sewer are made from something that roots could penatrate.

 

[tempritespokane]

I'm with LiQuId you you probably don't have anything to worry about now. These type of stoppage are pretty common place and it sounds like your guy got the stoppage cleared out.