21 Mar 2004, 23:26, JIM HOLSONBACK (1:123/140), wrote to ALL:

Hi JIM.

 JH> Now that I'm about ready to move out,  I know I have some sort of 
 JH> a plumbing problem here.

It KNOWS you are leaving!   :-))

 JH> Background: this is a _long_ ranch style house.  Bedrooms and 2 
 JH> baths at one end, and kitchen, utility room and a utility bath at the 
 JH> other end.

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

 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 there 
 JH> is no "backflush" of any liquid into the adjacent
bathtubs.  Although 
 JH> that is a "good thing", I know I have a problem somewhere, or 
 JH> somewhere(s). My first guess would have been that those burbling 
 JH> bubbles could only happen if there were an obstruction in the vent 
 JH> "stack", but somehow that does not seem to me to be the
likely case 
 JH> here.

I would put a 99.5% bet on stopped up vent stacks, although it is difficult
to understand BOTH acting up at the same time.  It is possible that one has
been partially blocked for some time, and the occurrance of the second
blockage drew attention to the first one.

 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 not 
 JH> have had to use it during the 14 or so years we have lived here, I 
 JH> guess I should get up on the roof and start poking down thru the vent 
 JH> stacks on each end of the house??

That would be the best and cheapest starting place!   :-))

 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 nearest 
 JH> the likely path from west end of the house to the sewer manhole was 
 JH> pretty small when we moved here, but now has a caliper of about 18" at 
 JH> 5' above the ground. I guess I'm giving myself a good "clue" here.

Picture those tree roots _completely_ blocking the line.  You would have
liquid rather than air bubbles coming up the commode.  There _is_ air in
the line, and for reasons not yet discovered, it is choosing to come up the
resistance of the commode trap filled with water, rather than up the
non-trapped no-resistance vent stack.  

Since just about everything I know of will take the path of least
resistance, this tells me the vent stack has MORE resistance than the water
in the commode trap.

Incidentally, my daughter's neighbor was just relating a similar story last
Wednesday.  After almost an entire day of professional plumbing work, they
finally recovered what he now calls his "$400 rat" dead in his
vent stack.


     Good luck...  M.

--- Msged/386 TE 06 (pre)