I know that these thing are suppose to come in 3’s. But not all at once.

Started dinner and the kitchen sink wasn’t draining.

Now the house was built in 79. ABS drain pipe. The drain pipe for the first floor is under a slab.

Now from the beginng I have had a problem where every 3-4 years the kitchen sink stops up. Can’t get it with my little snake.

But I have a hose end “Pipe Blaster” that does a good job. But it is a pain to use. Not only getting the traps loose, but I also have to get it into the wall and down the T. Other wise it will just blow water out the vent.

And then it wants to stick in there. So while it is a two minute job to open up the pipe, it often take 30-60 minutes to get it in and out.

The drain pipe runs across the slab to the other side where a there is a stool, vanity, shower connected and then to the main stack with handles the 2nd floor. But before it gets to the bathroom there is a T for a floor drain and possilbe a washer connection from the “basement”. (the house is on a hillside and the basement is under the garage and 1/2 floor above the first floor). I am guessing that is where I get my blockage at, but I don’t really know.

The bathroom was orginal laid out for a tub and sauna which was never used. About 10 years ago I redid it for a shower and washer/dryer.

In the process I busted up the floor and reworked the drains in that area. Being “smart” I put a cleanout in the line from the kitchen.

But I used a T and it points the wrong way. At the time I was not sure where the blockage was, now I know.

About 3/4 of the time I can get the snake worked backwards through the t and clear the blockage.

So I tried it this time. It seems a little damp in the bathroom. But it is very humid day with some light rain. Started the snake in and kept hearing this strange “thumbing”. Though that it was the other end of the snake floppy on the floor.

But finally realized that it was water dripping from the ceiling from the 2nd floor.

Find that the chrome plated copper riser to the toilet had spring a leak right in the middle.

Turn that off.

Go back to working the snake backwards. Can’t get any real pressure on it that way. But sometimes it work.

So after about 5 minutes of pushing, jabing and twisting I start ot see a little flow.

So I pull it and the line drains.

But I have also found that sometime that just poke a little hole and there is more stuff in the line and I need to redo it.

So I go run water in the kitchen for a minute or two to see if it is backing up.

No. But go back to the bathroom and found that the blockage had move downstream and it overflow the cleanout.

So I put the snake into the cleanout going DOWNSTREAM. And fight and fight to get to go in. Finally get it, but later figured out that it was just doubling up in the pipe.

So I got out the pipe blaster. At least here it goes in easy.

Drag the house in from outside and then go back and turn on the water. The pipe blaster has rubber bladder and nozzle on it so that the water pressure expands it and then the nozzle vibrates to pulse the water.

But this time there was kind in the hose so the pressure did not build up enough to exand the bladder and more water leaked out around the cleanout.

Unkinded the hose and this time the blaster blasted out the pipe and all is well except for the cleanup.

:upset: