irishswede13
Member
You will be my hero if you can get through this and help a desperate father out...4 girls and my wife all sharing one toilet is almost worse than the giant hole in my living room ceiling.
Back story (can skip...just a rant)
Our home is 6 years old. We had our 2nd floor toilet clog yesterday and used a plunger to attempt to dislodge the blockage, unfortunately in doing so we inadvertently "popped" the wax ring on the flange and gave our home a new, unexpected, water feature...we are 23 homes and 4 have had issues with the wax rings separating (set below the subfloor).
The Call out:
We called roto-rooter. He didn't have a snake on hand. Instead he scoped the line and was able to unblock it using his camera. He found that about 17 ft down the drain and 1 ft before the line drops (from horizontal to vertical) there appeared to be some construction debris in the line. In the image I would say it was obstructing about 1/5 of the pipe (looked like sawdust/small splinters of wood and maybe gypsum dust...when the house was being constructed i saw the drywall guys wash his tools in the sink) with a nice chunk of toilet paper sitting behind it. He suggested we cut out that section and use rubber clamps to splice in a pipe. He tried to charge us $650 for the camera...got it knocked down to $300. He said the other repair would run around $800-$1,200...I flip homes so I know that was extremely high...especially since I would be cutting the ceiling open...so we called another plumber out.
The Second Opinion:
The second plumber did not like the idea of compromising the integrity of our line - he said the rubber clamps would hold to get him past his warranty period of 1 year...but said they won't last long term. He suggested we either use a chemical to help break it down or use a rubber bladder to push the blockage down to the vertical part where it could go into the larger sewer line...or worst case would force the blockage into our crawlspace where it joins and he could weld in a new solid pipe.
Third Opinion:
This plumber didn't come out (fully booked), but he suggested that we just routinely flush a product called "Instant Power Main Line Cleaner". He said it is 100% safe and designed for even lateral obstructions. He also recommended against cutting out the obstruction unless it was metal or plastic debris. I think I annoyed him at how often I asked "is this safe on lateral ABS piping".
What do you fine gents think? And thank you so much in advance for the help...this has been an absolute nightmare.
Back story (can skip...just a rant)
Our home is 6 years old. We had our 2nd floor toilet clog yesterday and used a plunger to attempt to dislodge the blockage, unfortunately in doing so we inadvertently "popped" the wax ring on the flange and gave our home a new, unexpected, water feature...we are 23 homes and 4 have had issues with the wax rings separating (set below the subfloor).
The Call out:
We called roto-rooter. He didn't have a snake on hand. Instead he scoped the line and was able to unblock it using his camera. He found that about 17 ft down the drain and 1 ft before the line drops (from horizontal to vertical) there appeared to be some construction debris in the line. In the image I would say it was obstructing about 1/5 of the pipe (looked like sawdust/small splinters of wood and maybe gypsum dust...when the house was being constructed i saw the drywall guys wash his tools in the sink) with a nice chunk of toilet paper sitting behind it. He suggested we cut out that section and use rubber clamps to splice in a pipe. He tried to charge us $650 for the camera...got it knocked down to $300. He said the other repair would run around $800-$1,200...I flip homes so I know that was extremely high...especially since I would be cutting the ceiling open...so we called another plumber out.
The Second Opinion:
The second plumber did not like the idea of compromising the integrity of our line - he said the rubber clamps would hold to get him past his warranty period of 1 year...but said they won't last long term. He suggested we either use a chemical to help break it down or use a rubber bladder to push the blockage down to the vertical part where it could go into the larger sewer line...or worst case would force the blockage into our crawlspace where it joins and he could weld in a new solid pipe.
Third Opinion:
This plumber didn't come out (fully booked), but he suggested that we just routinely flush a product called "Instant Power Main Line Cleaner". He said it is 100% safe and designed for even lateral obstructions. He also recommended against cutting out the obstruction unless it was metal or plastic debris. I think I annoyed him at how often I asked "is this safe on lateral ABS piping".
What do you fine gents think? And thank you so much in advance for the help...this has been an absolute nightmare.
