UPDATE: Plumber #3 concurred with #1 and #2: He’ll need to go in through a 2-foot hole in the living room ceiling, under the tub drain. Apparently none of their snakes can maneuver a right angle (OR they hit the actual obstruction). What worries me is the possibility that he still can’t find the blockage, and the next step is going in through the wall.
As a last resort, I’m calling Roto-Rooter tomorrow.
If you wind up with a very inconvenient hole someplace in the house, talk to the plumber about installing an accessible, unobtrusive cleanout, preferably in the bathroom or nearby closet. You’ll end up having to re-plaster two holes instead of just one, but it would make things easier when coping with the next tub catastrophe.
~VOW
(Merry Freakin’ Christmas, right?)
You’ll be fine so long as overnight temperatures get above freezing around here. But if we get a sustained freeze where overnight and day temperatures stay below freezing, say 3-4 days, definitely take steps.
In such circumstances, I’ve had pipes freeze (but not burst) in an insulated exterior wall and once, one even burst in my heavily insulated attic. To be fair, that was as a result of a weird remodel plumbing choice that placed a portion of copper pipe above the insulation and very close to the roof. Still, not fun when it happened.
There’s no place for anything like that, adjacent to the tub, just a chimney and a stairway to the attic.
Then if you have to do the living room ceiling, make it permanent. Like a trapdoor, or a removable panel in the ceiling, giving access to the plumbing. It can be finished to match the rest of the ceiling, and besides, people don’t usually look up at the ceiling. But having this will save a lot the next time you need plumbing work there.
I don’t understand why they build houses this way. It’s so easy to plan for the bathtub/shower plumbing to be behind a plywood panel in a linen closet, or some other obscure place. I know of one behind a hinged hall mirror, and others behind decorative wood panels.
Snakes can maneuver past right angles. See my post #26 in this thread. It would have to be a helluva blockage to prevent a properly managed snake from proceeding.
Roto-Rooter, in my experience, is primarily interested in scaring and upselling.
I suspect that, rather than hitting a right angle, the snake hit the actual obstruction (whatever the hell it is).
IIRC the daytime temperatures were mostly above freezing even during last year’s snowfall. Do we often get days-long periods of sustained sub-freezing temperatures here?
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Not often, but it does happen. Last year was above-average warm. This year so far looks like it will be the same. But in my 15 years here, we have had some stretches where temperatures never rise above freezing.
I always pay attention to the first week of December. For some reason, that’s often when it happens. We’ve also had a couple lengthy multiple days of sub-freezing temps in January and February.
Never fun.
Above-average warmth and above average snow…only in Oregon!
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