Hi -
I have just enough blockage in the house's main sewage line to cause occasional draining problems (like flushing the toilet repeatedly or water from the washing machine spin-cycle backing up). All house drains work fine and taking showers causes no problems.
My questions have to do with clearing the blockage myself. I have a one story house with a basement. The toilet drains into a large cast-iron pipe that runs straight down from the bathroom floor into the garage and then under the concrete garage floor out to the city line. The lowest point where another pipe joins this is the water exhaust from the washing machine in the basement, a couple feet above the point where the cast-iron pipe runs under the garage floor. Because the only drainage problem in the house is this washing machine line the blockage must be somewhere below it (i.e., under the concrete garage floor, etc.).
There's a cast-iron access point right where the pipe goes into the garage floor. But it looks impossible to get it open (New England; crusted over, rusted on or something). And I'm afraid of breaking something trying to get it off, requiring expensive repairs. Plus in winter time when I pull the snake out with all that disgusting muck covering it there's no way to rinse it off.
So what I'd like to know is if (foaming) Drano might work? But how to get it there with as little dilution as poosible? I thought of shutting off the toilet (it's a straight shot from the toilet to the blockage) and pouring a couple gallons of Drano in but then (I think) I remembered it's not going to go down without being able to flush the toilet. Right? What if I was able to get a couple gallons of Drano in the bathroom sink? That's the next most straight shot down the cast-iron pipe. Or what's the next best thing besides an expensive call to the plumber?
Mike