Slow drainage, gurgles and back flow

plumbing, drainage and waste water questions here please

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RobbieD
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Slow drainage, gurgles and back flow

Post by RobbieD »

Hi folks. Have an ongoing issue with water drainage.

House is two bed, two storey semi 80's built. Since last Sunday, when either draining a bath or a full bathroom sink, (bathroom and toilet is upstairs), the water gurgles and bubbles up into the downstairs kitchen sink and up through the under sink pipes meeting the washing machine outlet where it overflows (the washing machine just has a hose going into a white PVC drain that meets up with the kitchen sink waste). When flushing the toilet, I have the same gurgling downstairs, and the waste flushes away ok. A running bathroom tap or taking a quick shower is ok, but this too does result in some bubbling noises downstairs.

Phoned Homeserve at the beginning of this week, plumber booked to come today (Saturday). More on this later.*

In the meantime while waiting, thought I'd have a bash at clearing the drains to see if I could fix anything. Opened the outside inspection/drain cover, blasted the karcher down there, water ran away ok without it overflowing. Tried running the water from the kitchen sink, water runs away but starts to build up and overflow over the open drain cover. I bought a Rothenberger rod kit, screw the 4" plunger on, and push it down. Meet a bend after about 3 feet, get the plunger stuck, a lot of effing and jeffing later, managed to free the stuck plunger without breaking anything. First thought is why the f is there a 90 degrees bend making it impossible to plunge correctly? So next, I try just the rods themselves without any attachment, and managed to feed all 30' through without meeting any obvious resistance or obstruction. As I'm doing this, I'm power hosing intermittently.

None of this makes any difference, issue still remains. Can't fill a bath or a full basin of water without it overflowing into the kitchen sink and out over the washing machine outlet. A toilet flush still results in a gurgling/bubbling in the kitchen sink, but all waste does flow away.

So I do some googling, and see some info with similar symptoms being potentially due to a blocked drain vent on the roof. Looking up at the roof, I can see that my vent doesn't have any kind of protection/grill cover, it's just an open pipe, but the neighbour's and all the same build houses in my street do. Could this be the problem, a blocked vent? The water is evacuating, just too slowly. Problem is I don't have ladders tall enough to reach the roof, and honestly don't really fancy climbing up there myself.

*Plumber arrives this afternoon, opens the outside drain cover, slides his plunger down and, yup, gets it stuck. Tries to pull it out, and it breaks off, stuck in the bend. At this point, he says he can't get it out, and phones an emergency drains guy who he says will be able to "push it through". He's supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon (Sunday). I ask him if the problem might be a blocked vent, he says he doesn't think so, and anyway they're not allowed to go on the roof. The blocked plunger doesn't seem to cause any problems currently, hopefully it's stuck in a position where it stays that way for now.

SO, my questions are: is it ok/possible to push through a 4" plunger, is the waste drain blocked or is it the roof vent?
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wine~o
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Re: Slow drainage, gurgles and back flow

Post by wine~o »

:dunno: where the problem is, but your "plumber" who got his drain rod stuck is liable for any costs incurred to remove it.

Hopefully he'll have the necessary insurance cover. :roll:
Verwood Handyman

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RobbieD
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Re: Slow drainage, gurgles and back flow

Post by RobbieD »

wine~o wrote::dunno: where the problem is, but your "plumber" who got his drain rod stuck is liable for any costs incurred to remove it.

Hopefully he'll have the necessary insurance cover. :roll:
He's a HomeServe plumber, they are the insurance! :-)
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