Sink is clogged and back-pumping water?

[rocketbeta]

Hello everyone!

UPDATE: As I was drafting the post, things happened, and now the issue appears to be resolved, but I'd still like to get some insight as to what might have been wrong with the drain

My wife and I live on the ground floor of a 2 story townhouse. We noticed this afternoon that the sink was quarter-filled with water although neither of us filled it. I tried running the disposal to see if it would dislodge whatever might be blocking the drain, but instead, the disposal seemed to back-pump more water and drain gunk into the sink!

So, disposal off, we noticed that water was still slowly back-pumping into the sink. The water itself felt warm (definitely not room temp), and my wife said it smelled like bleach. We also started seeing cucumber seeds- definitely not our waste...

We always use a wire mesh debris trap on the sink (we never have to use the disposal), and we're very careful about not throwing grease or fat down the drain.

We talked to the upstairs folks, and they said they weren't experiencing any drain issues. I did notice a mop handle sticking out of their kitchen sink.. what's that all about??

So we go back downstairs, and suddenly the water level jumped, filling 3/4 of the sink I siphoned and drained the sink, grabbed a plunger and plugged the drain- if the idiots upstairs are throwing stuff down the drain, I wanted them to see it too

I started playing with the disposal again- I noticed that when I run it, it would suck water down into the drain, and when I turn it off, water would come shooting back up into the sink. I played with it some more (I was hoping it was shooting water back into the upstairs unit's sink ) and eventually the obstruction seemed to clear, and now the drain is working just fine again!

I don't believe for a second that the folks upstairs weren't the cause of the drain issue given that the water itself was warm, smelled like chemicals, and the lady had a mop handle sticking out of the sink, but I was hoping to get some insight from the pros.

Thanks!

 

[johnjh2o]

There is a stoppage in the sink drain. The stoppage is below your sink and both unites share the same line. Until the stoppage is cleared any water used in the sink above you will come up into your sink. The line needs to be snaked.

 

[klee181438]

You may want to tell the people above you to not run any water until the problem is repaired. Their sink is draining fine so they don't notice the problem. The blockage is downstream of your drain so your sink is the lowest on the system and you're receiving the backup.

 

[Admin]

That mop handled out of the sink would probably be where she's rinsing it out when mopping the floor. Many people do that and it would have floor gunk on it being rinsed out.