Kitchen/bathroom plumbing issue

JeffInFL · Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:05 pm

post it on imgur.com and then post the link here

I read most of the replies to this, but have you been able to determine where sewer line goes from your home to the sewer itself? Is it closer to the clogged bathroom or in the middle or somewhere else?

ponch37300 · Wed Jul 31, 2013 2:58 pm

Any number of photo hosting sites will work. I use photbucket and it's easy to do. Just create an account and then upload your picture and it will have a thing on the right hand side that says for forums. Just click on it and paste it in your post.

If you can get a picture of the drains from the toilets it will really help. Need to see where the problem toilet drains too and why a 50' snake isn't doing anything. I'm guessing that the problem toilet flows downhill to the other toilet and it's more then 50', but that's just a guess without seeing anything. But I'm betting there is nothing wrong with your tub. Also if you can post a picture of any cleanouts below that your snake might be able to go further on. Another thing to look at is the slope of your drain pipe from the problem toilet. Make sure it's a gradual slope and doesn't look like a rollercoaster. See if you can measure from where your problem toilet is to where the end of that pipe is, in other words where it goes into the sewer.

countrydan · Wed Jul 31, 2013 4:57 pm

ponch37300 wrote:
countrydan wrote:Why is rodding from the toilet not correcting the issue... Hmmmmm.

The tub is seemingly accepting the water from all else and filling up. So I would concentrate on that drain location. Rod or vac from this drain anyway possible is my next step...

Good luck
Crap flows downhill. The tub and sink drain into the toilet drain, the toilet drain is the main drain. So if the toilet drain isn't draining that is where the problem is. Once the clog is cleared the water will flow down the toilet drain and the tub will empty also. The clog is somewhere more then 50' down from the toilet you are snaking from. The reason the tub is accepting the water from everywhere else is because when the water backs up from the clog the tub is the lowest point for the water to come out. The tub drain really has nothing to do with the problem. The problem is somewhere between the two toilets, evidently over 50' from the toilet being snaked.

ahhh. i agree then if her tub does indeed tie into the toilet line. My wife and my doublewide's main line is the toilets also.. thanks for correcting.

Tom DeBono · Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:03 pm

Kind of new here myself, but after reading all this, I would think that if you laid out 50 feet of snake in the lines that you are probably into "park" territory and should give your manager/handyman a ring. I had a similar problem, and it was infact blocked well beyond my unit. Of course it was on a weekend, and I had to call a plumber. The park would only pay half the bill ! The arugment was, "what was it". The park manager wants to see what the blockage was. I said I will be glad to provide him all the "evidence" if it should happen again! lol....

countrydan · Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:20 pm

Our doublewide is 57 feet long so she very well could be out towards septic tank or common line. Jennifer I believe I may have a clean out where the sewer pipe leaves the crawl space under our mh. I would go in crawl space and see if you have this? Then try rodding there after pulling the plug off.

ponch37300 · Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:22 pm

Tom DeBono wrote:Kind of new here myself, but after reading all this, I would think that if you laid out 50 feet of snake in the lines that you are probably into "park" territory and should give your manager/handyman a ring. I had a similar problem, and it was infact blocked well beyond my unit. Of course it was on a weekend, and I had to call a plumber. The park would only pay half the bill ! The arugment was, "what was it". The park manager wants to see what the blockage was. I said I will be glad to provide him all the "evidence" if it should happen again! lol....

The only reason I don't think this is true is because she said she has one toilet working fine and one the plugs up. If it was in "park" territory I would think ALL plumbing would be backing up. A picture of the sewer pipes and how they're run will really help.

countrydan · Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:24 pm

Ponch caught what we missed. One toilet is fine so it definitely is before that line if they tie together like mine.

ponch37300 · Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:01 pm

Here is a VERY crude sketch of my plumbing drains from my two toilets. The toilet on the left is our master bathroom. The kitchen sink, washer, and master bath sink and shower all drain and connect into this pipe just below the toilet. Then they all flow down the main 4" pipe to a Tee that meets with the other bath drain and both go down into the park sewer. The toilet on the right is our main bath and the sink and shower both drain into the toilet plumbing just below the toilet. Then they all drain down to the Tee and into the parks sewer. My hook up for the park sewer is in the middle of the trailer so my runs are probably about 25-30' long each. My main drains are below my belly material, They go straight down under the toilet and pop out the belly material and then 90* elbow and pipe over to the Tee that goes down into park sewer.

Now if your park sewer hook up would be on one end of your trailer for whatever reason, lets say the end closest to your working bathroom then your non working toilet would have to go from the toilet to this hook up. So in my case it would be over 50' and if there was a clog just before it tied in with the other toilet and into the park's sewer then a 50' snake wouldn't get it. This is my thoughts from what we know. I'm guess your plugged toilet runs more then 50' before it ties into the other toilet and drains into the parks sewer. But this is really just a guess from many states away!

Here is a crude drawing of my drains as looking from the side of the trailer.

trailer sewer drains 2.png

Here is what I'm thinking your plumbing is like, but again this is just a guess to try and explain things and give you a better idea on what to look for.

trailer sewer drains 3.png

JeffInFL · Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:19 am

Ponch, that second sketch is what I'm thinking as well. Has she determined where exactly the main sewer line comes out from under the home? Is it in the middle or closer to the non-clogged bathroom end of the home?

ponch37300 · Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:26 am

If you can't get any pictures up you can email them to me and I will put them on my photobucket so they can be posted here. I'm really interested in figuring this one out and I think if we have some pictures and can map out the plumbing we can figure it out.

Jennifer · Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:14 pm

Well gentlemen, after several days of this terrible nightmare it has finally been fixed!

Before I go any further I want you all to know how much help you have been!

So here's what the problem was, and really most of the ideas and suggestions were spot on but wouldn't have totally fixed it. There was a clog but it wasn't anywhere near as bad or as far out as what was expected- good thing I hadn't bought the 100' snake or rented the power one yet so I saved myself some money! That wouldn't have fixed everything anyway in this case but was certainly the right direction to go if it were just a clog. Now if I had finished getting the pix uploaded last night you all might have caught the problem immediately as it was obvious to everyone once the skirting was pulled off.

This is how things played out: last night while trying to get more pix to upload for you guys I kept wondering why the cleanout nearest the side was pointing horizontally. Made no sense cause what's the point? If its vertical you can go down in it but horizontal is just like a drain where crap would spew out onto the ground. Whatever, people do stupid things under trailers when they rig stuff. So I start googling everything I can again about drains and trailers and looking at every picture I could find - which was still next to nothing. Finally, after pouring over pix of site built houses with drains in crawl spaces, I saw what I thought might be contributing to the issue: all of the pix online showed straight pipes with the vertical cleanout- my pipe sloped downwards to the rear and the cleanout was crooked. Since I'm not a plumber or a handyman I didn't know what this meant but our handyman did! I caught him first thing this morning and he came and took a look.

Drum roll please....... the d*** straps had busted that held the drain pipe suspended. As I'm sure you guys know, since that drain pipe wasn't level, crap wasn't flowing downstream like it should have but was flowing back into my bathroom and causing everything at that end of the house to run back that way. I'm still not entirely clear on why that caused it, but it did. It was a super simple fix, he grabbed some new straps and screwed em in. A very quick root into the cleanout and whooooosh! Also located the main shut off valve underneath, I never would have found it where the primary one was hidden- but there were 2! Not 2 separate shut offs but 2 that work together, kind if like 1 slows the water and the second shuts it off completely- have you ever heard of such a thing?

The moral of this story is- get to know your plumbing before you have to! Also be kind to your handyman if you're in a park

keep a long snake on hand, and find a website with some awesome members who take the time to really try to help you figure out what's wrong and how to fix it! Next step is to get some shut offs installed inside and fix some of the other things we noticed along the way

ponch37300 · Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:25 pm

Glad you got it fixed! That was one of my theories to make sure the drain didn't look like a roller coaster. Getting to know your MH is definitely a learning experience. Even for someone like myself that has what I like to think is a pretty good construction/remodeling experience I still was boggled at some of the stuff on MH.

Shut off valves add up fast at around 8 bucks a piece but are worth it. I replaced a few at a time. What type of water lines do you have now? Mine are pex and are really easy to add valves with a pex crimper. Did you get a chance to inspect your belly material while you were under the trailer?

countrydan · Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:53 pm

Great news Jennifer! Who'd a thunk the pitch was the culprit!

Glad it worked out for you.

JeffInFL · Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:47 am

ponch37300 wrote:Mine are pex and are really easy to add valves with a pex crimper. Did you get a chance to inspect your belly material while you were under the trailer?

I found the Sharkbite compression style shut off valves work great .. I've installed 5 of them so far, and they all installed in seconds and are leak-free. The best part was not having to buy a crimper. I also installed 2 end stops on the hot/cold line for the master bathroom tub while we're remodeling. The only tool I had to buy was a ratcheting pvc/pex cutting tool for under $20 at Home Depot.

Jennifer · Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:09 pm

Countrydan- certainly not me!

Ponch37300- Yeah I looked around a little while I was down there. The pipes are a combo of PVC and I think copper along with some duct tape- probably not gonna last real long lol. Inside I see PEX and a lot of the lines have individual shut offs, sinks and toilets. I'm gonna have to do a main inside though by the water heater which is where everyone is saying is the best spot. The individual shut offs are great but I'm gonna need a more easily accessible main. It's nasty in the middle of the summer with slugs, toads, spiders etc... I can't imagine though how bad it would be to get to in the dead if winter or during another snow-pocolapse! The underbelly looked pretty good, fabric and barrier intact from what I could see. I need to have a closer look still.

JeffinFl- I'm gonna have to check into those. I looked around already and found a multi head crimping tool goes for just under $100!