sewer water coming out of open sewer lines?

[JeffInFL]

OH .. and the outside pipe that goes to the septic tank .. I looked inside the hole I drilled and had my g/f run water in the tub .. the water in the pipe to the septic tank didn't move at all. So water isn't even hitting the septic tank. I believe most of it comes out of the open drain for the master bathroom tub that's been open since we started this remodeling project. When we run the washing machine, for example .. when it drains, water gushes out of the open tub drain. Fortunately, the opening in the subfloor around the drain is about 12" sq, and the water ends up draining to the outside.

[ponch37300]

If you could draw a quick sketch of the layout of the pipes or some pictures that would really help. Is your septic "Y" in the middle of the trailer or at one end? You should be able to run a snake from both toilets and see it come out the "Y" from the side and down to the septic. Like you found out you can't go from the top of the "Y" and go towards the house, have to go from house to the "Y". The toilet 4" drains should be the "main" drain pipes and that's were I'm guessing you have a blockage. Did you run a snake down both toilet drains and SEE it come out that "Y" going into the septic? It sounds like there is a blockage between where you drilled and the sewer "Y".

Like the old saying "plumbing only has one rule, crap flows downhill", there really isn't to much to plumbing. I'm still having a little trouble picturing how your pipes are. But it really sounds like you have a blockage between where you drilled and that sewer "Y" fitting. If you haven't already run a snake from the toilet to that "Y". One other thing is if you have a big plug you will need a big snake head. You have a 4" pipe so one of those little 1/2" or 1" wire head snakes aren't going to make a big difference.

[countrydan]

a trick ive used in the past is setup your shop vac for liquid pickup and stick the hose in the toilet 4" line. hopefully you dont have anything but grey water in there but thats something to try. then just plug up the drains that feed into this line to direct the suction to the clogged area...

[JeffInFL]

Here's a basic layout of what I've seen so far. Other than the line that goes to the septic tank, I'm not sure how these pipes connect together. I'll get a better look this weekend or whenever it quits raining.. whichever comes first.



The black dots indicate where I've drilled to get the snake in.

The green pipe is just speculation .. I'm fairly certain that one pipe connects all the sinks, toilets etc and then that pipe somehow connects to these other 2 pipes. I ran a snake into the center sink (which is the kitchen) and it came out at the second toilet drain.

The green line is pretty close to the subfloor. The blue line is a bit lower but not much, and the red line is about a foot under the blue line.

[ponch37300]

You're going to need to "map" out where those pipes go to figure out what's what and start chasing this down(hill)!

I just drew up a little sketch of my drains just for reference. I have two 4" drains that go into my sewer at the middle of the trailer. These 4" lines, one goes to front of trailer and one goes to rear of trailer, to the toilet on each end. These are the "main" drains and run below my belly material. The run horizontal until they are right under the toilet and then run vertical up to the toilet. Before they get to the toilet they have a "Y" for other stuff to tie or drain into them. The one on the right in my drawing is the master bedroom. The bathroom sink and shower drain into this just below the toilet and then continues down the 4" pipe to the sewer. Also tied into this is the line that runs to the washing maching and kitchen sink that is in the middle of the trailer. These lines are 1 1/2". The toilet on the left of my drawing is the main bathroom and only the sink and tub drain into it and then down the 4" drain into the sewer hook up. So the smaller 1 1/2" drain lines running between my floor and belly material are for the small things like sinks and tubs that go to one of the two main 4" lines for the toilets that then go to the sewer hook up and these run below my belly material. Hopefully this makes sense.

Trailer sewer drains.png

Once you figure out where the pipes are running to and what they are for and map it all out hopefully you can figure out where to snake to hopefully find your blockage.

[JeffInFL]

well, I think I may have resolved my issue. There really is no 'green' line in my image above. The blue line runs from toilet to toilet, and the sinks and tubs drain into it. In the middle of the blue line is a T that drops down to the red line, which then runs to the septic tank.

I ran the drain snake into a hole I drilled in the red line, heading towards the septic tank. I hit a clog, pretty close to the elbow:



The clog finally cleared, and everything seems fine now. I picked up a few plugs for the master toilet drain which was open and backed up a few times, and the kitchen sink drain which also backed up a few times (and was later stuffed with a sock lol). We did a load of laundry, and the water went to the septic tank as expected. I was even able to flush the toilet immediately afterwards, which was never possible before.

Thank you everyone for the help!

[ponch37300]

Glad you got it figured out. I thought you would find a leak between where you drilled and the septic.