Paging maggot plumbers

[Big E]

I am not looking forward to the answers to this, so please surprise me. I've got a basement shower drain that keeps plugging up.

About 2 months ago I had Roto Rooter come out, and after they made no progress w/ a power snake (nor did I w/ a hand snake, which I tried first), he tried a plunger and actually cleared it up. That seemed kinda weird, but it was draining fine, so I thought, great, problem solved! Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and it is draining slowly again. I decided to call a "real" plumber, but the guy I wanted (and had worked with before) has apparently left that company, so they send someone else out. He's about 80, but I swear he couldn't find a toilet in a Spot-a-Pot. I eventually told him to just leave.

So I decide I'm gonna look again. There appears to be mud down there, so I lower some towels down in there to get all the water out so I can see something. After getting most of the water out and shining a flashlight, I discover 2 things. First, right at the bottom of the drain pipe, where it turns to go into the trap, there is a hole in the pipe. This is cast-iron drain pipe in a basement shower. Second, I see that there is something caught in the pipe as it turns into the trap. I fish a coat hanger down there, and after some fiddling, the thing that was caught in the pipe drops through the hole in the pipe, and is now maybe an inch below the hole. I have no idea what exactly it is, but it's not the broken piece of pipe. It's more like a chunk of ceramic or something - very hard, and plenty big enough to block a good bit of the drain.

Now that this chunk of stuff is out of the drain, I decide to see what happens. I run the shower for 20 minutes, and it drains perfectly. I look down the drain again to make sure the thing hasn't floated anywhere, and it looks like it's still in the same spot. Great, I figure, it's fixed.

Apparently, not quite. Now it's draining slow again. I'm going to pick up one of those long "claws" to see if I can get the thing out of there, but now I'm not sure if that's the problem anymore. Is there anyway that hole can be repaired w/o ripping out the entire shower? I just put that f*cker in like 4 months ago, and it is a damn nice shower.

[co skier]

The water that is draining through the hole in the pipe is going somewhere....is your floor concrete or do you have a crawlspace. I'm assuming that the floor is concrete, you are draining your shower underneath your basement slab which is not good. You may be able to sleeve a smaller pvc pipe into the cast iron pipe. Definitely sucks.

BTW, I'm not a plumber.

[Big E]

The floor is concrete, and the hole in the pipe is something like 18" below the level of the shower. Knowing where the shower is relative to the outside, that means that is something close to 8 FEET below grade. Yeah, I know it's bad to be going somewhere other than through the pipe, but I was thinking (hoping) that with it being that far down, I might be okay since that's definitely below any sort of frost line in my neck of the woods.

JB Weld makes some WaterWeld stuff that I think I might try.

[L7]

Even if you fix the hole in the pipe you still have water not running down where it's supposed to. It'll cost some bucks but you've tried most other options. Get one of those guys who puts the camera down the line and get a better look at the hole and get a look further down at the blockage. Don't know if those things can grab stuff out of there but at least figure out where it is if you have to dig. Not a plumber either but learning more than I want to know lately.

[PNW Skier]

You said there was mud in the pipe so there's almost for sure a break in the pipe somewhere out in your yard. I know master of the obvious eh? Are there any big trees close to where your mainline is in your yard? A lot of times their roots will go right through a pipe. That or did you have someone "mole" a new gas, water, electric, etc... line into your house? They can run those things right through a drainline. Typically you'll find a wet spot in your yard or a spot that's growing grass/plants exceptionally well right where the break is. That'll help you figure out where to start diggin'. You can fix cast iron with a piece of ABS and a couple rubber couplings. That stuff if fine to bury. Do that yourself and you'll save yourself a bunch of cash.

As for the hole you speak of inside the house, without seeing it that's a tough one to tell. But whatever it is you're putting a lot of water somewhere that you really don't want it. I'd get another plumber out there ASAP to figure that one out. Whatever you do don't call the guy that you see advertised on the back of the bus/phonebook. You'll get bent so far over you won't know which way is up.

[Core Shot]

Get a pro.
How deep is your basement compared to grade?

Do you have septic or sewer?
Are you sure there isn't an ejector pump? lots of basements have them.
Is their a toilet in the basement and how does it drain?

[basinbum]

if it drains fine for a minute then backs up like you say sounds like you got reverse slope some where in pipes..best bet pull out the shower (yeah it suck) fix the hole and whatever it is in the pipe just cut out the hole and replace it all with abs, then put the shower back in if its one of those fiberglass shower things should be no big deal literally pulled out about 50 of them this summer in an appartment complex (fuckin county inspectors) if that doesnt fix it you probably have a back grade somewhere in your pipes and then your deffinatly fucked (plumbed all summer takin winter off and goin back in the spring)

[Big E]

Thanks (kinda) for the suggestions. The break is literally straight down from the shower drain - I can vacuum out the water, shine a flashlight in there, and see it clear as day. The sink and toilet in that bathroom as well as the utility basin about 10' away from that bathroom drain perfectly. The mud is coming up from that hole - you can take a long pipe or whatever and stick it down in there and you can tell it's gravel/mud right below the pipe. Like I said, that's probably close to 8' below grade.

I have a plan in mind to fix the hole using some of that JB Weld WaterWeld stuff, so I'm going to see if I can patch it up with that. I'm reasonably certain that if I can successfully do what I'm going to try tonight, it will fix the problem pretty well.

[Snow Dog]

What you need is a proctologist -- who can work with long tools through a small hole.

I'd dry out the whole thing by blowing in air with a shop vac. Then I'd make sure that's a cavity behind/under the pipe that I can fill with JB Weld and create a plug on the outside of the pipe. I'd also fabricate some tools, like a tiny spatula with a long handle to smooth out the JB Weld and fill in the eroded wall of the pipe. Then the weld will never move.

[bmg97]

Just curious. What is fixing the hole going to do ? Your still going to have drain problems. You said you put the shower in 4 months ago. Is it all new plumbing too or did you use what was there ? Is the shower vented ?

[Big E]

What you need is a proctologist -- who can work with long tools through a small hole.

I'd dry out the whole thing by blowing in air with a shop vac. Then I'd make sure that's a cavity behind/under the pipe that I can fill with JB Weld and create a plug on the outside of the pipe. I'd also fabricate some tools, like a tiny spatula with a long handle to smooth out the JB Weld and fill in the eroded wall of the pipe. Then the weld will never move.

We are on the same wavelength.

[Vt-Freeheel]

You have bigger problems than the hole You can see. JB Weldis not going to cure your problem.If some of the water is leaking out through a hole why would it back up? Whatever [most likely caustic lye drain cleaners]that ate the hole in the trap , burned through the pipe in other places. See above posts recommending a camera snake or a possible upslope condition. There is probably a rotted out pipe area, buildup of soap scum and pubes or a combo of both.
Good luck

[bmg97]

Dropping to many jellyfish in the shower causes those kinds of problems

[khakis]

kickass...I get to dig up and replace a chunk of sewer line tonight

You can fix cast iron with a piece of ABS and a couple rubber couplings. That stuff if fine to bury. Do that yourself and you'll save yourself a bunch of cash.

anybody take exception to this? Mine's ceramic but looks like the fernco couplings are spec'd for either ceramic or cast iron to plastic. Straightforward as it seems?

[khakis]

So it all started with a toilet that bubbled when I took a shower...and quickly escalated when I had a house full of guests a couple of weekends ago, and I happened to go in the basement during the 4th shower of the morning, to find water pouring out from the shower drain.

A $170 drain snake job revealed a "hard obstruction about 60 feet back" from the cleanout. And then the real fun started:

the grave in my back yard



our first crack at finding the pipe, about 6" shallow, and 5' uphill from the damage



after a well-spent $100 on locating the break, we dug a hole in the right place



dangling head-down in the poo-hole to feed the snake into the pipe downhill of the break hoping to clear the obstruction and drain the hole, figuring that the drain snake was annoying and gross, but probably wouldn't be painful, I developed a case of DPB (Dumbass Pattern Baldness)



chasing the broken pipes the hole got this big



the repair (including an additional cleanout to hopefully avert future disasters)



the offending terra cotta tiles



and a sigh of relief...spent the rest of the weekend doing dishes, laundry, and taking long showers (to try and get the poo off, and just because I can)

[MakersTeleMark]

Shitty TR!

[DeathVan]

Shitty TR!

shitty flip flops too

[khakis]

Everything about this project has been sh!tty! Flip flops wash off easily, I did don some rubber boots before I hopped into the hole. Couldn't bear the thought of the poo juice squishing up between my toes...