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Wait eight to twelve hours with zero water used, so flooded drain line can slowly empty as much as possible.

Add Drano to tub, then immediate gallon or two of very warm water.

Wait an hour or so, then fill tub with very hot tap water and then let it all go out at once.

Either this will push out the softened clog or it won’t.

Evaluate afterwards, check back here then.

Go to bed now!
 
Thank you so much. Haha yes I've been awake for a long time. Sorry for making you repeat yourself so many times. Have a wonderful day ahead of you
 
Hey you can ignore this post. sorry! there was no option to delete it. i came to ask if, during the 8-12 hours prior to using drano, if i could turn on the tap to fill a cup (and not let anything go down the drain). but i re-read your post, and you were pretty clear that it's no water going down the drains (so the drain line can empty). so filling a cup should be fine.
 
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Old real estate guy here. About the Landlord. You should check your lease. Around here, when you want to get in touch with landlord and have it on-record, you send him (her?) a letter, BY CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, and another copy by 1st Class mail.

Once you send him that, he's on notice, cannot just deny he knew nothing about it and certainly would have taken care of it; can't say he never got a phone call, voicemail, text, email, etc.

Owner (and you, both) have the responsibility to keep the property in good condition. But, IF something breaks, like water heater, or plumbing leak, or sewer line, or electrical problem, or roof starts to leak, it's on the landlord to fix it. That's what 5-10% of the rent should have been put aside for.
BTW, typically, the repair needs to be made in "a good and workmanlike manner", and not a patch & pray kludge. In addition, Owner cannot sit on making repairs for weeks or months, Especially if it's a health issue, like sewage backing up into the house!!

In your case, I'd call the owner and tell him this needs to be fixed immediately, if not sooner. (Ditto on the water heater.) If you get no response, call the local Health Department, who will get on top of this quickly. Ultimately, if the owner does not respond, the city, town, village, township?, will come out and fix the (public health) problem, and bill the landlord for the work.
 
Hey guys. This is all great advice and I really appreciate it. It is also news to me that as a last resort, the health department can do work and bill a landlord! Thanks for this knowledge, I would not have known this.

By the way, I woke up and checked what I have - it turns out I don't have drano, but liquid plumbr. Specifically This product: "Liquid Plumb Clog Destroyer Gel with Pipe Guard" . I have a large size of it - 80 oz. The bottle recommends to only use 1/5 of the bottle, but I imagine I'd use quite a bit more. how much would you recommend using here? Still the entire thing, or less? The instructions on the back are pretty much the same as drano but wanted to check here if using this product instead of the drano would change anything about my game plan. It's supposed to be less damaging to pipes so I hope that's good?

I checked on the gas company - they can't have anyone come to re-light the water heater pilot until tomorrow. So I'm guessing it's best to wait until then to try this tomorrow night, as right now I don't really have a way to generate enough hot water to flush the drain after letting the gel sit. I guess that brings me to my next question - why must I flush the drain with hot water after waiting, rather than cold water? Will the effect be the same if I flush the drain with cold water? (Or maybe a few gallons of really hot water, and then cold water after that?) if so, I could try this this evening. Else, I will wait until after the pilot is re-lit. (i can easily generate 1-2 gallons of hot water for what i initially chase the gel with, but it seems like fully flushing it requires a lot more.)
 
Use at least half the bottle, it will be flowing into a big pipe.
I would use all of it.
A smaller dose would be ok for a small clog in a smaller pipe, like a sink drain.
And you will be diluting it right away with a few gallons of water to rinse it down the line.
Drain cleaner works by generating heat, which
softens up a clog.
So while the clog is heated and softened by drain cleaner, it is best to continue using hot water to try to push it down the line.
You are making me work waaaay too hard!
I am done hand holding, you are ready to solo.
 
Hey. I am legitimately sorry to bug you again. But my situation has changed slightly and i wanted to seek your advice. The gas company is closed today due to it being a holiday, so I am not able to get hot water yet and try drano. likely i will have hot water within 48 hours.

Today morning, the toilet began bubbling very badly. It now smells strongly of sewage in my bathroom (there's no backup anywhere, just smell). I was not running any water when the toilet began bubbling, and hadn't for some time. However - I was doing something : there is a laundry wastewater pipe that i plugged several months ago, as i have no appliance hooked up to it. i took off the plug this morning (i was going to plug it better in case the sewage backed up in my house..). after i took the plug off, is when the toilet began bubbling. could it be coincidence? should i keep this thing unplugged? at this point i'm just trying to delay the inevitable, and i wasn't sure if that would make a difference (could plugging that pipe be causing me problems?). p.s. the bubbling happened after unplugging the drain pipe, but the sewage smell happened after flushing the toilet. also, if i simply don't use the water at all, could a backup still occur? im wondering if i should just stop using it entirely atm. the sewage smell has me very worried.

i apologize for bugging you.
 
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You could do the drano procedure as detailed earlier, rinse it down the tub drain with a gallon or two of very warm water from the stove.
Wait an hour or so, then fill the bath with cold water and let it go.
But you should wait at least 8 hours of no water down the drain before doing this.

BTW, is this an apartment?
Do you have upstairs neighbors?
They might be sharing the same sewer drain.
And their water use might be causing the gurgling.
This might change everything.
Contact your landlord, before you get sewage backed up into your apartment.
Call the city if he won’t respond.
 
I didn't realize I could try the final wash out with cold water. Thanks a lot. I believe I will try this.
 
Hey Jeff, I just saw your updated post. Oddly enough, I just found out that the main sewer line for this house be connected to the next door house. (These are two independent houses, but both houses are on the same property line). I think this is different from the scenario you are speaking about though.
 
I went ahead and contacted the landlord, and I made it clear to them that it needs to be handled ASAP. They've put in a work order for plumbing. As a result, I will be holding off on using any drain cleaner. Thanks kindly for all the advice you gave. This situation is very jarring to me due to COVID. Thanks again.
 
I know you're probably tired of hearing from me by now, but I just wanted to give you the resolution of this. they sent an emergency plumber out here. he was able to access the pipes via the roof and did not have to come inside. he ran a long snake down there a few times. he didn't pull anything out, but he said he could feel a blockage, and then finally it broke through. things seem to be running smoothly.

and wonderfully - HE STARTED MY PILOT LIGHT. I have hot water in my house!!! In all my life I'll never take it for granted again.

I just wanted to take the chance to thank you guys one last time. (Maybe there is some damage to the pipes, but at the very least, seems it's possible for a plumber to tackle it externally if it happens again, and can use that as a temporary solution until the world heals a little bit.) have a wonderful day!!
 
Oh I didn't think about that. Yes, I'd like to do preventative things to keep it from happening again. Sounds like a good idea! Now that I have my hot water back I could use my bottle of liquid plumbr. Someone told me about something called Green Goblin too which I thought of ordering. Thank you!
 
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