HELP! Desperate Plumbing Help needed!

Factual Questions
1

I’m stumped… Last night I put a little too much stuff down the garbage disposal in my kitchen and clogged the drain. My fault. I’ve learned my lesson.

But now I’m stumped on how to fix the problem. This is what I’ve done. I pulled all the pipes below the sink (P-trap, etc…) and they are all clean. I have a 1/4” snake with a 1/2 inch head that I have used to snake the 2 “ inch drain for 25’. Now for the weird part; directly below the kitchen sink in the basement I have access to the pipe, including a 2 inch plug that I have removed. I can fill the kitchen sink with water, so the clog is still in the pipe, and I have removed the plug in the basement and the pipe has no water in it. The clog is in between the sink and the plug in the basement, a distance of 5-6 feet or so in a straight drop. I have run the snake through this section of pipe 4 times now. I can see that the snake goes through the pipe as I have removed the plug in the basement and can see the snake in the pipe. Yet the clog is still in there. I took my garden hose and shoved it in the pipe in the kitchen and turned it on very low. The pipe filled up with water in a way that leads me to believe the clog is about 8-12 inches below the opening in the kitchen and 4 or 5 feet above the plug in the basement.

My questions:

What can I do? Any advice is welcome.
What is this stuff clogging my pipe that lets the snake go through, but not the water?
Could this be a venting issue? If so, why now?

More details: My house is 54 years old and the cast iron pipe drain has roughly one and one-half inch inner diameter.

2

have you thought about trying some compressed air to blow the clog out?

IANAP though.

-Mailbox.

3

Have you pulled the elbow out of the disposer itself? Also if you have a two bowl sink the drain arrangement is probably disposer, elbow to a T that brings in the drain water from the other sink and then on to the trap. This T has a restriction in it that will cause a stoppage.
The last couple of times I have had plugs they have been either in the elbow or the T right below it.

4

Hoo doggie. . .

I’ll ask this first: can you use other fixtures without any problems (i.e. can you flush your toilet and use the other sinks okay?)?

The only thing I can think of is that you’ve got some sort of buildup in the pipe, enough to slow up drainage, but wide enough to kinda ‘guide’ your snake through it.

Being a cast iron pipe, it’s a distinct possibility that there may be rust buildup there, and if you’ve got a food disposal attached to it, maybe the salt helped accelerate the corrosion? I can’t see this as a venting problem, but it sounds like something is blocking the drain.

Can you take everything off the drain stack? If so, can you shine a light down yonder to take a peek? I had an old 400 lb. concrete sink that had a similar problem, but thankfully the pipe was exposed where the rust coagulated and slowed it to molasses’ pace.

Tripler
Hey, I’m not a plumber either, but I’ve helped other Dopers with plumbing before.

5

Mailbox- Interesting idea, I’ll definately try that, though I need to think of a way to make the air go down, instead of up the vent. Maybe I could shove a rag in there or something.

Rick- I have pulled all the pipes below the sink, they are all clean and have no clogs in them. The clog is in the straight drop pipe in the wall. I snaked my garden hose directly into the drain pipe in the wall, and the clog seems to be a foot down or so (judging by the rate the pipe filled up).

6

Tripler - All the other plumbing works fine (Guess we’ll be doing the dishes in the bathtub tonight!) It is just the one drain that runs from the kitchen sink.

As far as the vent, it has 2 90 degree bends in it, I cannot shine a light down it.

7

Tripler - I too have seen rust buildup slow the flow of water to a trickle, but that was in galvanized 1/2 supply pipe, not in a 2 inch drain. There is however a lot of corrosion in there (looking through the plug in the basement) so it is possible. It’s weird though, you would think the snake would clear it. The snake is like a screw when going forward, it wouldn’t affect the clog too much. But when I pulled the snake out, I actually pulled it, I didn’t wind it back up. You would think this would clear most clogs, especially a rust build up.

The other think is the snake did not have too much debris on it - whatever that means.

8

tyrvin - Aaaaagh! Don’t scare me like that!

9

Eyer8, wow, weird. Can you access the pipe from the basement? I’m thinking if you know where the problem is, a hacksaw, two unions, and a piece of PVC may be a solution.

Are the other fixtures further down the line from this, or is this part of a stack?

Tripler
Hey, just tossing ideas at you. . .

10

I use a plumbing bladder that attaches to the end of a garden hose. When you turn the water on it expands in the pipe sealing that end and blasts water down the drain to clear clogs. It works real well for the most part but if you drain is really clogged the water will shoot up the vent if it has a path. If that is the case then I seal the vent from the roof and force the water down the drain. You will need 2 people for that operation though. I would also pull the disposer and check that out as well. They are pretty easy to yank off.

11

I use a plumbing bladder that attaches to the end of a garden hose. When you turn the water on it expands in the pipe sealing that end and blasts water down the drain to clear clogs. It works real well for the most part but if you drain is really clogged the water will shoot up the vent if it has a path. If that is the case then I seal the vent from the roof and force the water down the drain. You will need 2 people for that operation though. I would also pull the disposer and check that out as well. They are pretty easy to yank off.

12

use a wet/dry vac to loosen up the blockage or maybe suck it out.

13

Sorry for the delay in posting: Dinner, wife, baby, priorities…

Anyway Tripler, your idea about splicing in a piece of PVC may be what this repair comes to, but I will have to tear down a wall to do it. The plug I mentioned in the OP sticks through the wall in the basement. The pipe is just behind the wall with the plug sticking through (It’s behind a bookcase so you can’t usually see it). All the other fixtures in the house are down the line from this. The main stack is on the north side of the house, as are the bathrooms and the laundry/utility sink in the basement. The kitchen is at the south side of the house with the drain running down the south wall and underneath the entire basement to the stack. I don’t think the drain is clogged past that first 4-6 feet though, so taking a jackhammer to my basement floor is not necessary… hopefully. Please keep tossing…

Toddly - Good idea. I have seen bladders like you mentioned used to clear clogged downspouts. I don’t own this tool, but maybe it is about time I did.

tcdaniel- I do have a wet/dry vac, and this is a good idea. I think I’ll try the compressed air first since this is basically the same principle.

So here is my plan:

Tomorrow (since it is midnight here in k-space), I am going to fill the sink full of water to get a nice head of preasure. Then from the basement I am going to run the snake up through the pipe and hopefully dislodge the clog. I may get very wet and slimy (as well as having a big clean up to do) but hopefully the water pressure and snake will clear the block where the snake alone could not.

If this does not work, I will try to pressurize the pipe using compressed air (from the basement), though it will be difficult due to the drain (from below) and the vent stack (from above). I may try to use the wet/dry vac in combination with the air compressor to get the extra pressure differntial.

If this does not work, I’m going to rent one of those big, huge, industrial size snakes from home depot and see if this will clear the drain.

Finally, if this does not work I am going to drop the drawers, break out the vaseline and call a plumber…

Comments? Other Ideas?

ps… Please excuse any misspellings or bad grammer. I have consumed a little too much nectar of the gods (grappa) right at this moment and am probably not as coherent as I could be.

14

Good luck - you’re a better man than I. Also, wear a belt and keep your pants above the butt crack. :slight_smile:

15

have you thought about trying some compressed air to blow the clog out?

IANAP though.

-Mailbox.

16

Too late, my wife was already commenting on how I developed a plumber butt in less than 2 hours…

Regarding the compressed air post… Hmmmm…

17

If the cutter blades are worn on the disposer it is likely that you have had a build-up going on for some time. Check out your local rental store for an electric drain cleaner. It will come with an assortment of cutters to bore the way right thru a clog.

18

I would go to the rental store and get an electric snake. I used one that connected to a drill.

It’s kinda a two man operation. It helps to have someoneelse there to help feed it. and to wipe off the snake as it comes out of the drain.

When I used to blow out sprinkler systems, if we could not come up with a fitting to blow out the main line, I had the rubber from a plumbers helper (plunger) that i drilled a hole in for the air hose. Then hold the rubber on the opening of the pipe and blow. Worked for pushing water out of a clear pipe. Doubt it would help for a nasty clog though.

19

Ummmm, maybe call roto rooter or a plumber? Average cost to snake a main line is $150.00, I am sure your time is worth way more then that.

Always works for me.

Also, some of the super duty chemical drain opener from the home depot is a miracle worker.

20

RotorRooter here has a camera & they do a video of my line. I think they did it three times too & keep a copy for the office. They have coupons in the back of my phone book, so yours might too.