Troubleshooting Sink/Shower

[sdhaber]

I have a bathroom with slow draining sink and shower. Toilet works fine.
Sink does not have overflow opening.
I've snaked sink with no results. Professional plumber snaked again, dis-assembled trap, re-assembled and noticed multiple small bubbles coming from sink grate as it drained. His opinion was that vent on roof was clogged.
I got on roof and fed 31' of steel tape down vent. Did not feel any obstruction, but end of tape was slightly dirty when removed. Banged tape around quite a bit just in case.
I then dropped Green Gobbler packet contents and hot water down vent. Maybe got a 10-15% improvement in drainage.
Any hints as to what my next step should be?

 

[Mr_David]

if you sink, toilet and shower are all on the same wall how many vents do you have on the roof ( single story I presume )
Often you will only see one vent on roof and that typically will go down to toilet. other vents are branched off from that inside the wall.
Do you have old cast iron drains with steel vents or plastic inside wall?
grid strainers on sink drains also make them slow to drain as well. We had a discussion about that awhile back. Might find it with a search on grid strainer drains.

 

[sdhaber]

I have a bathroom with slow draining sink and shower. Toilet works fine.
Sink does not have overflow opening.
I've snaked sink with no results. Professional plumber snaked again, dis-assembled trap, re-assembled and noticed multiple small bubbles coming from sink grate as it drained. His opinion was that vent on roof was clogged.
I got on roof and fed 31' of steel tape down vent. Did not feel any obstruction, but end of tape was slightly dirty when removed. Banged tape around quite a bit just in case.
I then dropped Green Gobbler packet contents and hot water down vent. Maybe got a 10-15% improvement in drainage.
Any hints as to what my next step should be?

if you sink, toilet and shower are all on the same wall how many vents do you have on the roof ( single story I presume )
Often you will only see one vent on roof and that typically will go down to toilet. other vents are branched off from that inside the wall.
Do you have old cast iron drains with steel vents or plastic inside wall?
grid strainers on sink drains also make them slow to drain as well. We had a discussion about that awhile back. Might find it with a search on grid strainer drains.
View attachment 18246

Sink and shower on interior wall, toilet on exterior wall. One vent on roof- 3" PVC (larger than I expected).
All interior drains are PVC material.
I'll check out the grid strainer thread, but am still experiencing slow draining of shower.

 

[Diehard]

I have a bathroom with slow draining sink and shower. Toilet works fine.
Sink does not have overflow opening.
I've snaked sink with no results. Professional plumber snaked again, dis-assembled trap, re-assembled and noticed multiple small bubbles coming from sink grate as it drained. His opinion was that vent on roof was clogged.
I got on roof and fed 31' of steel tape down vent. Did not feel any obstruction, but end of tape was slightly dirty when removed. Banged tape around quite a bit just in case.
I then dropped Green Gobbler packet contents and hot water down vent. Maybe got a 10-15% improvement in drainage.
Any hints as to what my next step should be?

Do you have a basement or any way to see the drain piping from these 3 bathroom fixtures and how they are interconnected? I'm guessing not, since there was no mention of accessing the drain piping from below.
If both the sink and shower are running slow it would sound like those 2 items were piped together to a common drain before entering the larger toilet drain line. So if that common line were partially blocked you would experience the slow draining problem. But you say both you and a plumber ran snakes from the sink with no success. Did you try running the snake through the shower drain?
Also, of course those 2 items would have a vent that ties into the 3" vent, somewhere (possibly in the attic), before going out the roof. If this vent is blocked, it is doubtful you would be able to snake it.
The fact that you ran 31' of "steel tape" down the 3" vent sounds like you may have gone well beyond the vent portion of the line into the drain portion. But the fact that it seem to help the problem, is a bit of a mystery at this point.
BTW...What exactly is a "steel tape"? First thing to come to mind is a measuring tape. Or was it a plumbers flat steel snake?

 

[Geofd]

when the plumber snaked the sink drain did he run water in the shower while snaking that's a good indicator when you clear the stoppage the water in the shower will drain away.....haw far did he go in...as stated before is there access from below????????? in my experience when sink and tub are slow snakeing from the sink will usually clear both

 

[sdhaber]

Do you have a basement or any way to see the drain piping from these 3 bathroom fixtures and how they are interconnected? I'm guessing not, since there was no mention of accessing the drain piping from below.
If both the sink and shower are running slow it would sound like those 2 items were piped together to a common drain before entering the larger toilet drain line. So if that common line were partially blocked you would experience the slow draining problem. But you say both you and a plumber ran snakes from the sink with no success. Did you try running the snake through the shower drain?
Also, of course those 2 items would have a vent that ties into the 3" vent, somewhere (possibly in the attic), before going out the roof. If this vent is blocked, it is doubtful you would be able to snake it.
The fact that you ran 31' of "steel tape" down the 3" vent sounds like you may have gone well beyond the vent portion of the line into the drain portion. But the fact that it seem to help the problem, is a bit of a mystery at this point.
BTW...What exactly is a "steel tape"? First thing to come to mind is a measuring tape. Or was it a plumbers flat steel snake?

I'll try the shower next. Not sure if plumber snaked it.
Flat steel plumber's snake made by Husky. Roof about 20' high and vent another 7' high on top of that.
I do have access from a crawlspace underneath.

 

[sdhaber]

when the plumber snaked the sink drain did he run water in the shower while snaking that's a good indicator when you clear the stoppage the water in the shower will drain away.....haw far did he go in...as stated before is there access from below????????? in my experience when sink and tub are slow snakeing from the sink will usually clear both

Thanks- I'll give it a shot and see.