Hi JIM.

21-Mar-04 23:26:00, JIM HOLSONBACK wrote to ALL


 JH> Hello, ALL.

 JH> Background: this is a _long_ ranch style house.

A style fairly common in australia

 JH> Symptoms:  sometimes failure of commodes to flush properly. East
 JH> end - - when clothes washer is pumping out, sometimes air bubbles
 JH> start burbling up into the utility bath commode. West end - -
 JH> master bath commode has recently failed to flush properly, and
 JH> sometimes when it is flushed, air bubbles start burbling up into
 JH> the other commode which is nearby in the other bathroom.

sounds like a partially blocked outflow pipe  (from the house to the sewer)
the rising water level in the system would trap air in short stack that
goes down from the WCs. and force it through the S-trap

 JH> I'm having a hard time visualizing how pressure could build up
 JH> high enough to make air bubble burbles in those commodes, while
 JH> there is no "backflush" of any liquid into the adjacent bathtubs.

It depends on the location of the vent stacks.

 JH> Although that is a "good thing", I know I have a problem
 JH> somewhere, or somewhere(s). My first guess would have been that
 JH> those burbling bubbles could only happen if there were an
 JH> obstruction in the vent "stack", but somehow that does not seem to
 JH> me to be the likely case here.

I don't think it's a vent problem

 JH> I do have one of those 50' or so long "rod-snakes" made of steel
 JH> flatbar about 1/8" x 1/2" in section around here somewhere, with a
 JH> small turnip-shaped "rooter" at the tip of it.  Although I have
 JH> not have had to use it during the 14 or so years we have lived
 JH> here, I guess I should get up on the roof and start poking down
 JH> thru the vent stacks on each end of the house??

if you're equipped blow smoke down one vent stack and see if it comes out
the other, (could take a few minutes)

 JH> FWIW, between the house and the sewer manhole at the back lot
 JH> line, some of the Laurel Oak and other trees have grown rather
 JH> dramatically over the 14 years we have lived here.  The one
 JH> nearest the likely path from west end of the house to the sewer
 JH> manhole was pretty small when we moved here, but now has a caliper
 JH> of about 18" at 5' above the ground. I guess I'm giving myself a
 JH> good "clue" here.

I'd say that's the problem.

open the manhole and if you can see the pipe from your house observe the
flow rate after flushing. (If you can see tree roots pull them out)

dunno if you can fix this one with a chemical, or a rooter, or if you need
to start Digging.

For a permanent fix the leak that's attracting the tree-roots will need to
be fixed, but a rooter or possibly the right chemical could fix the problem
in the shorter term.

 -=> Bye <=-

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