Another plumbing mystery.

[CurlyDave]

Just out of curiosity, what would block a vent stack up on a two story house.......?

To me, the most likely culprit is leaves.

When I remodeled my house in the 1990 time frame, I took apart the old plumbing, which had been ip place for 60 years.

There was at least 10' of leaves in the vent pipe.

The opening is small, but if you think about this, if several inches of leaves reach your yard during fall, it is a good bet the that those same several inches fell into your vent.

Enough years of that and the stack will plug.

After that experience, I always put a U-bend (two 90 degree elbows) on top of the vent so it points down. Despite what building inspectors will try to tell you, this has no effect on venting capability and prevents anything from falling into the vent.

 

[MossRoad]

Hmmm. Sounds like I need to make a trip under the house. I sure hope there is an access stub to the the main sewage line.

I still wonder why the shower in the kids bathroom doesn't gurgle when their toilet is flushed?

How many vent stacks do you have?
Also, it could be blocked between one and not the other.
As others have mentioned, it could also be a partial plug or restriction in one of the lines.

 

[plumbpaul]

It may sound crazy but put some liquid soup in the overflow pipe in the tank.If sound goes away the line is trapped (holds water).

 

[N80]

I flushed both toilets upstairs at the same time and they drained slower than normal so it sounds like this is a partial blockage somewhere in the drain lines rather than a vent stack. Guess I'm going to have to get the plumber out here. Hope its not the septic tank.

The frustrating thing is that my house is under contract and I'm moving out in 3 weeks. I'd love to leave this problem for the new owner but I don't think my conscience will let me do it......even though I'm selling it for a ridiculously low price.

 

[dmccarty]

Hmmm. Sounds like I need to make a trip under the house. I sure hope there is an access stub to the the main sewage line.

Years ago a coworker had a blocked drain line one morning. His house was BELOW the street sewer line so his sewage had to be pump up hill.

He was able to clear the blockage problem which was behind the pump. He saw another line clean out and figured while he was already down in the crawl space he might as well check it...

He opened the clean out....

Which was on the line between the pump and the street sewer....

And promptly drained what was in the sewer line into his crawl space....

As well as all over himself.

He puked. :laughing:

ALOT.

He had to put lime in the crawlspace to "clean" up the mess. Spending lots of time in the shower did not seem to clean him up. :laughing: The smell would not get out of his nose and head.

He puked on the side of the road driving into work.

Glad to see you are going to get a plumber.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

Plumber is coming out today. And while I'll admit that changing a full baby diaper has made me gag before, I have also manually cleaned out an old septic tank and did fairly well. After an hour of shoveling sludge and such you kind of get used to it.

 

[N80]

My wife called the plumber and he's coming out this afternoon and said he would do a free estimate but that it sounded to him like it was the septic tank and that it would need to be pumped out. If they can find it easily and dig down to the lid by hand that is only $180. More if they need a back hoe of course.

It doesn't seem like it is a tank issue to me but for $180 its probably a good idea to let them pump it.

 

[Toyboy]

Good idea not to have your lids buried either. I've had ours put at grade level to make it better to get at.

 

[N80]

Good idea not to have your lids buried either. I've had ours put at grade level to make it better to get at.

Very true. The one at my cabin is buried but just barely. The plumber came just as I was leaving to come back to work. He was stumped too. He's going to snake the shower which will go down the main line too. That cost $200 for some reason. I told him to try that and then quit if it didn't work. I can't spend hundreds of dollars for the plumber to flounder around trying to figure it out.

 

[dmccarty]

Our septic tank has two compartments. One compartment has the filter and a riser above the tank lid. The riser has a lid as well. This riser is required by code so that the filter can be easily accessed.

What is dumb is that when you pump the tank the compartment with the solids is what needs to be pumped. THAT compartment's lid is buried and the code does not require a riser. A dishonest tank pumper could pump the easily found side which is liquid and leave the solids behind.....

When had our tank pumped we had to dig down two feet or so to get to the sold compartment lid. The pump guy put in riser so we don't have to do this nonsense again.

I did know where the tank was located so it was somewhat easy to get to the buried lid but it still took three of us digging to uncover the lid.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

Well, it was the vent stack. Guess that's why I'm not a plumber. Of course the plumber guessed wrong the first time and snaked the shower for $200 and it didn't help. At that point he decided he was 100% sure it was the vent. He snaked the vent for another $100 and that solved the problem. Still makes no sense to me as even he confirmed that the gurgling in the shower was air coming up, not sucking down.

I have a snake and could have done both of these jobs myself but in all honesty with the move, family problems and craziness at work I really didn't have the time anyway. I think it is ridiculous that it cost $200 to have a line snaked but when you need the service you pay for it and I feel better about leaving the new owner with a functioning system than with a problem.

Live and learn.

P.S.: Thanks for all the diagnostics guys.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, sometimes money does buy happiness... you are done and it is working!

 

[EddieWalker]

Congratulations on finding the problem.

What makes it complicated in figuring these things out is that the only way to know what it is, is to check everything and narrow it down by process of elemination. Just because a plumber does this every day doesn't mean he knows what is going on in your house.

His prices seem kind of high to me, but then I've seen it go into the thousands and the problem was never found or fixed.

Eddie

 

[DocHeb]

As Soundguy said: "if it can be fixed with a check, it's not an problem, it is an expense."

 

[Egon]

I think it is ridiculous that it cost $200 to have a line snaked but when you need the service you pay for it

Plumber has kids that want to go to college to!

 

[jinman]

Okay, now that George has solved his plumbing problem, let me slightly hijack his thread. Our coop electric company (and probably all coop electric providers in TX) just put a notice on the bottom of our montly bill that they will give us a 1-time $100 off on our bill for having our air conditioner "tuned up" by a licensed AC service company. My air conditioner is working fine, but it just makes sense to have this done. I don't think it will cost me that much for a no-materials service call. I get my system checked and the serviceman gets a boost in business. Sounds like a win-win to me.:thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

Okay, now that George has solved his plumbing problem, let me slightly hijack his thread. Our coop electric company (and probably all coop electric providers in TX) just put a notice on the bottom of our montly bill that they will give us a 1-time $100 off on our bill for having our air conditioner "tuned up" by a licensed AC service company. My air conditioner is working fine, but it just makes sense to have this done. I don't think it will cost me that much for a no-materials service call. I get my system checked and the serviceman gets a boost in business. Sounds like a win-win to me.:thumbsup:

Don't mess with something that is working - and don't pay somebody else to mess with it either Actually, I have no idea about AC. It would be my luck that someone decided to tweak something and it would be all downhill from there.
Dave.

 

[Kays Supply]

I'm not a HVAC man " but I play one on TV ". My son is one. They do mostly clean and check and replace old units more than new installs. There are some things that do need to be checked. Low gas, dirty condensors, fan bearings, etc. It might be working, but catching something early this time of year might mean not sleeping in an oven for a few days while waiting for a service man. The price is right for sure. If you don't like what they tell you, you can always pay for a second opinion.

 

[captaincrab55]

One must remember that any contractor that has a license and insurance, will have overhead... The money spent was an investment to protect your home & complete the sale...

On another note, $100 for a HVAC check-up may prevent a condensate back-up in one's home.... IMHO, it's worth it...

 

[N80]

Hey, sometimes money does buy happiness... you are done and it is working!

That's right and it never required a back hoe in my back yard! Of course a back hoe in my back yard on Christmas morning or Father's Day _might_ be a whole different story.

Anyway, he snaked the vent stack and that solved the problem, but even now I don't think it was the vent. My wife said each time he snaked the vent stack he came up with hair and soap residue and finally he came up with a huge wad of hair and the gurgling stopped. I don't see how there could be hair and soap in the vent stack. I'm guessing the snake went past the vent stack into a partially clogged drain line.