Why You Should Always Call a Professional When it Comes to Old House Sewer Problems
The first several times it happened, we sent a plumber’s snake through the toilet to unclog any obstructions. We couldn’t find any type of blockage, and yet the toilet continued to flood periodically from the base every time the shower was used. Our long-time plumber was called, who told us that the backup we were experiencing might be signs of a collapsed sewer line. He recommended calling a rooter service. Rooter services, he told us, could clean the lines and then send microscopic cameras through the pipes to locate any breaks.
The rooter experience
The next step was to contact a rooter service. The company send out a technician immediately, who agreed with our plumber that we had a collapsed sewer line. He then told us that the camera could not be sent through the basement toilet where the back-up was originating from, but had to be fed through the ground floor bathroom instead.
The camera revealed about 100 years of grease clogs. “Here’s your problem,” he said. “The line is clogged with grease and needs to be flushed out with a hydro jetter.” I could see from the camera that indeed there was all sorts of grease obstructing the line, and agreed to have the lines flushed out at a cost of $580. Five hours later, the lines were cleaned, the camera sent back through, and everything looked fine.
Problem solved, right? Wrong!
The very next week, the basement filled up with two inches of sewage. I called the rooter service again and they came out promptly. The technician ran a snake through the basement toilet and found nothing. “This shouldn’t be happening,” he said. “Call us again the next time it floods.”
Department of Public Works
The next time it flooded, we called our plumber who recommended contacting public works. He thought that maybe the main sewer line was running too high and back filling into our basement. The gentlemen from the department of Public Works kindly flushed the lines and called me to say everything looked “all clear.” They even left me an emergency number to call the next time our basement flooded.
The very next day, it flooded again. I called the emergency number, and the crew came out immediately. They called me to say the line was running at a normal flow, and that perhaps we had a collapsed sewer line.
Using a qualified, licensed rooter plumbing company
In desperation, I called our plumber again. He came out to the house, asked a bunch of questions and then said, “This really sounds like a collapsed sewer line. I don’t know what that other rooter company did, but they missed something.” He gave us the number of a small rooter company, owned by a guy whom he worked with on a regular basis. “If anyone can find the trouble, John can.”
And John did. Instead of running a camera through the ground floor toilet, he ran the camera down the basement toilet. 10 feet out of the house, he discovered that our house had a second sewer line, a very badly collapsed and root bound sewer line.
Like many older houses, our 125 year old home was added on in bits and pieces. When a previous owner decided to dig out a basement in 1920 and plumb in a laundry washroom, he apparently laid a second sewer line out to the alley. Over the years, subsequent owners tapped into that sewer line for both the second story and basement bathrooms. This line doesn’t even connect to our kitchen, laundry room or main floor bathroom and the grease I saw in the lines had nothing to do with the sewer backup in the basement.
The moral of the story? Old houses don’t have standard plumbing and when it comes to dealing with sewer problems, it’s best to deal with an experienced professional who is familiar with older homes. These experienced plumbers know what to look for, unlike the the young kid from the rooter service who not only misdiagnosed the problem, but sent a camera and hydro jet down the wrong sewer line. To learn the name of reputable plumbers in your area, call a long time established plumbing dealership. These companies can recommend qualified plumbers who are familiar with old house plumbing, and can get the job done right the first time.
