The Hobbit Hole XIX - Tomorrow we may come this way...

The Freeper Hobbit Hole ^

[JenB]

And meanwhile Colorado may not have a drought this summer because of the water we've gotten...

[Corin Stormhands]

I think part of it's because the mangos are pollinating, though.

This is still a family thread Sam.

[2Jedismom]

Good morning everyone!

The sun is shining very bright out there, chilly but not bad...41 degree. Good day to do laundry!

We're still having trouble with our drains! I can not figure it out. Now it's not like they are sluggish, they just stop all together. Take the tub...it'll be draining just fine, then stop abruptly. It'll sit there for several minutes without budging then suddenly it releases and pours into the septic like nothing was wrong. Plunging does absolutely no good. It won't budge.

It did this yesterday, so I went out and dug a hole down to the access in the pipe between the house and the septic. Took the little cap off and observed for a while. The tub had a couple of inches of water in it that just wouldn't budge. Then suddenly, it drained! I was watching at the access and saw no clog pass through...no reason why it should not drain.

So then we ran a water hose up to the house and down to the septic through that access with no clog encountered. We ran the water hose down the hole where the toilet goes and down the overflow in the tub and the water flowed freely. We also ran the water hose down the washing machine drain and got some debris from where the toilet had apparently backed up a bit into the washing machine drain, but not much debris and if flushed right out with the hose.

I can't figure it out. What would cause it to abruptly stop draining, then abruptly drain like that?

This doesn't seem like it oughta be rocket surgery.

Have a good first day, Ecurb!

[RMDupree]

mmmmm....mangos.......

I'll gladly suffer the sinus trouble for a tree full of mangos. :D

[HairOfTheDog]

I'd wonder if the air vent line(s) for your plumbing is what's clogged. The water can't flow down unless the air can escape.... and if there isn't good vent, it'll glug glug down, like a bottle turned upside down.

[RMDupree]

It seems like the West Coast had an unusually mild winter while the East Coast is getting more than its fair share this year.

Here's hoping the weather will sort itself out soon.

I'm a bit worried about ksen. I saw that a tornado (F1) touched down in Palm Bay this weekend and did some serious damage to homes there.

They reported only one minor injury, but I don't know how much damage ksen's house may have sustained. ~fret~

[2Jedismom]

That's what Steve said. I asked him "Where are the air vents?" He said "I have no idea."

But that is just what it seems like...because when the tub releases, it's like it pulls a suction on it...it just sucks down quick!

[HairOfTheDog]

The air vents go up through the roof. You can find them there and snake down them, you'd be pushing whatever clog right into the drain. All your fans vent their too, but you can tell which ones those are.

[HairOfTheDog]

Didn't you say it's always been kindof slow?

[2Jedismom]

Well...actually it didn't really go slow...it drained ok until it would stop. But the whole time it would be draining, it would go glub glub glub at every drain in the house.

Every time we did laundry the toilet would gurgle.. Every time I'd take a hot soak, when I'd let out the water, the whole house drains would gurgle. Then, sometimes (not always) it would just stop.

[HairOfTheDog]

If it's always been this way and you don't improve it from snaking the vents, perhaps it was never properly vented in the first place.

[2Jedismom]

Just stop draining, I mean.

It did the gurgling only at first and not very often. Then it got more often, which made us think the septic might be getting full. But before we could do that it started this stop draining start draining business. So we got it pumped out. But that didn't help, so we ran the snake. That seemed to help, but then yesterday we started having the trouble again.

[2Jedismom]

Where would the vents normally be found?

[HairOfTheDog]

The vents will be open pipes that go right up through the roof and stick up a foot or two... located above the wall/walls that contain the plumbing, which is probably the back side of the house for you guys.

[JenB]

Hmmm... Hair, sounds like you should start charging for this plumbing information...

[2Jedismom]

Where would the vents normally be found?

The toilet always has given us a tiny bit of trouble...it would require two flushes sometimes...just didn't seem to have enough gumption to get even just a piece of tissue down. But the tub never gave us much grief until lately and it drained just fine.

[2Jedismom]

Oops...I just hit back and added on more conversation to my question! :-)

You know, when we were snaking the other day, we got a bunch of hair out of the drain. But Steve hated doing it and I wonder if maybe he didn't do a thorough enough job?

I'll go out and give it a shot...nothin' bothers me, except for sputum. Yuck...I can't handle sputum.

[RosieCotton]

I'll go out and give it a shot...nothin' bothers me, except for sputum. Yuck...I can't handle sputum.

I am soooooo glad I'm taking second shift for lunch and still have half an hour to get this subject out of my head...;-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Hmmm... Hair, sounds like you should start charging for this plumbing information...

If I charged, I'd also have to be right ;~D

[2Jedismom]

Heh heh! She's a peach!

Like I say...this shouldn't be rocket surgery and I should be able to figure it out and forking out a fortune to a plumber just isn't something I want to do until I've given it my best effort...