shower drain obstruction

[Uno]

Howdy fellas,

Looking for some DWV tips:

I am so ready for this workweek to be finished.

Cheers from the land of enchantment,

[Han]

Red Green wrote in news:Xns9EED5B6104B54RedGreen@69.16.185.252:

No problem with the video. Poor guy has a slow drain, and cant auger his way past a "solid obstruction". Since the water does eventually drain, it isn't a total obstruction.

My bath also gets very slow to drain. Most likely because there isn't much pitch between tub and stack. Generally no big clogs (except the usual hair clog when longhaired people visit for a long time). Drain gets much better when I use a plumbers helper vigorously with overflow and vanity sink plugged. This brings up lots of black gooey stuff that can be flushed through, and then the drain is fine again for a year or so. Should have redone the drain pipe when the kitchen ceiling was open. Too many different materials were used in that drain pipe ...

[jamesgangnc]

So what's under it? I'm guessing there must be a reaon you're not checking the pipes below the shower base. Is it in a slab? Have you watched somewhere along the way at a clean out to see if the water is actually draining through the system? You might have a crushed pipe that is simply draining into the ground now.

[DerbyDad03]

Has this drain ever worked? It looks like the shower stall has never been used. New construction or something that?

In any case...

The first slide in your video says "Slab on grade" so I'm assuming this drain is under the slab, i.e. not on an upper floor where you have any access below the drain.

A later slide says: "The other drain is closer to the curb."

My question:

Is the problem drain so far into the house that there no way roots from a nearby tree could have entered the pipe at the distance you can reach with the auger?

A decent sized root might feel like a hard obstruction to the auger.

Have you consider renting a power snake with a cutting head to power your way through the obstruction?

Based on the size of the drain, I'm thinking no larger than a 1/2". I don't think a 3/4" snake will make the turn through the trap.

[jamesgangnc]

Be careful with one of those. They rip up plastic pipe pretty easy when it's old. I remember the old neighborhood my mother lived in down in FL had a lot of drainage troubles. Guys would come in with power augers, tear up some poor guys dw system and then hit him up for a couple grand to replace it.

[DerbyDad03]

Good point.

I've used a 3/4" on my cast iron drains a few times and it do get to banging around a bit!

[Uno]

Almost everything in abq is slab on grade. So people have all these nightmare scenarios typically with the supply, and they don't know it's happening until it's created an aquifer underneath the house. The good news is that 4 feet from where the drain starts is probably something I can get to.

I guess, it seemed odd to me that it would down for a foot without starting into a P-trap. Also, can anyone speculate as to whether this shower is original to the house? If so, I would expect it to have been plumbed properly. They don't have inspection standards down here like they do in say, Chicago. (I'm also trying to figure out how somebody thought resi roofs with zero pitch were a good idea.)

There are a couple junipers out front that might have roots that have tasted of the drain water and wanted more, so that's a possibility. the junipers would be twenty feet away from the obstruction.

They didn't think about a lot of the usual things that we expect elsewhere. For example, in order to shut off the water supply, I have to go outside and do so at the sidewalk. I'll be intent to try to find any cleanouts today.

Thanks for your comment,

[Uno]

Thanks, DD, that will be my next attempt.

[Uno]

I got **nothing** with my hand auger, not a single hair, no sludge. We'll see how I do with a power augur. cheers,

[Han]

Uno wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I also didn't "get" anything with an auger. That was my point. Vigorous (you have to work up a sweat) plunging with a plunger while water (warm preferred) runs was the solution in my case. My plumber's powered one didn't do a thing either.

[DerbyDad03]

BTW...you might *get* anything with a power auger either.

You might just push it through and away.

[DerbyDad03]

Lowe's and Home Depot are the only place you can rent tools from?

No Taylor or United or any other tool rental chain or independent in your area?

You know, the places contractors rent from.

[Uno]

So I called Lowe's. They don't rent tools. Then Home Depot. Yes they have a power auger that I can rent for $45.

I go in to look at it, see what they have, and then decided to give the situation a try with my drill before I go with another idea. Well that turns out to be the complete difference. I'd only been turning it manually, but when I hooked it to the drill, it was a different creature. It was a unit that I bought from Lowe's for $26.

I make goofy videos about what I do, as I like to be able to show my clients and others (you, for example) what I'm doing in clients' houses.

Sometimes I simply need to talk to others with similar or more experience in order for me to get the right level of destruction correct. Thanks fellas,