bEatmstrJ posted:

bEatmstrJ posted:

bEatmstrJ posted:

Brute Squad posted:

From the shitstorm that is the bathroom overhaul thread. I'm crossposting here because I'm trying to understand plumbing vents better and it got lost in the shitstorm.

There used to be a tub here. The black pipe visible runs to a vertical pipe that I can only assume is a vent pipe.

Another view of the before. For those not following the shitstorm of a thread, yes, he did cut through the top of several engineered joists. That's where the shitstorm really started.

(The real question) Did he just ruin the effectiveness of the vent on the tub drain line? He switched the connection to the vent from coming out of the top of the drain line to coming out of the side.

glynnenstein posted:

It's not at all uncommon for valves to fail to hold when they haven't been regularly exercised or when they get old. You may just have water leaking past closed valves.

Orange Red Bull posted:

They also said its entirely possible theres an old supply line coming from the street thats been paved over for many years. Currently we are digging up our yard trying to find where this line runs until an excavation plumber can come next week and do a wet cut

Orange Red Bull posted:

The line stays fully pressurized while multiple buildings turn off from the water box by the street. Its not a faulty valve.

Anyways, the city came out and looked at it and said they have no idea why our sprinkler system is separate from the main shutoff. They said its about a 3day process to turn the whole block off because they have to figure where and what to turn off then notify all affected residents 24 hours in advance.

They also said its entirely possible there's an old supply line coming from the street that's been paved over for many years. Currently we are digging up our yard trying to find where this line runs until an excavation plumber can come next week and do a wet cut

Tyson Tomko posted:

(sorry in advance for the novel)

I've got some modest plumbing experience (changed out sinks, toilets, shutoff valves is about it) but before I call a plumber for a flooding problem I wanted to run it past you guys for a 2nd opinion. Quick backstory:

I've lived in my house since 2009 and this particular flooding problem has happened about 5 times, always while I was at work or while we were asleep (until today). What would happen, is I'd come home and my laundry/utility room, with painted concrete floor, would be covered in about 2 inches of water. The floor is slightly dipped in the middle so of course the water would collect there. To make matters more confusing, there's a sink and a toilet in there too. Apparently the previous owners had thought about renting out the downstairs and wanted an all-in-one room minus a shower. Anyway here's a rough sketch of the room:



Anyway fast forward to today. I come inside (just finsihed 2 hours of mowing) and heard the washing machine drain after a spin cycle. I then heard what sounded like a pitcher of water hitting the floor from chin height. I run downstairs and see the toilet overflowing rushing out from the bowl AND from between the bowl and the floor. Now this happened as recently as 3 weeks ago, and I've had the toilet shutoff the whole time because I've been meaning to replace the wax ring (only toilet I haven't full on replaced in the house) and because I was trying to narrow down the list of possibilities.

So I open the washer lid to stop the draining and proceed to throw 10,000 towels on the floor to soak it all up before it gets under the washer/dryer/desk/litter box/etc. I get all the towels in place, get the rest of the water with a broom and dustpan, and notice some is going under thew all into my garage which shares a wall (never happened before) anyway that's not a big deal. I've got a dryer hose going through the wall so I removed it and slapped a squirrel cage fan in there to dry it all out.

Anyway, I go back in the laundry room and see the toilet bowl is now completely empty. I close the washer lid to start it draining again and boom it's like a geyser squirting up a couple of inches from the toilet and it starts to fill again, and starts to leak out the base of the toilet between it and the floor at about the rate someone taking a piss would piss, not a ton but quite a bit. I shut the lid again before it overflows. The towels wrapped around the toilet soak it all up, and the bowl drains again. I then close the lid again (to try and finish the cycle of baby clothes) and when the toilet fills I take a bucket and manage to dump a few bucketloads into the nearby sink and it finishes draining, then stops backing up/flooding again.

It did rain pretty heavily a few days ago, but we've done COUNTLESS loads of laundry without any issue during all kinds of rain before and I'm stumped as to what the issue could be. Where the washer drains out (right behind it) is BONE dry and nothing appears backed up there. There's a thing in the garage, not sure what it's called, but basically a manhole cover looking thing and the water it is about a foot down so that appears normal too and everything above that foot has never ever been wet since I owned the place, it's disgustingly dusty/dry.

Any ideas or suggestions before I call in a plumber and have him check it all out? Would something as simple as a failed wax ring cause all of this? What the hell is going on?



--- Here in a few hours I'm going to try to do another load of laundry to see if I can recreate this flooding. What blows my mind even more, is there have been a few times over the years when this has happened when the washer wasn't running at all. The dishwasher has ran and/or upstairs toilets may have flushed but I can't find any common cause for this.

Turd Herder posted:

You have a plugged drain. It is showing up at the lowest point (which is the toilet ) The clean out (manhole lol) should not have any water sitting in it. The drain should look dry or you should see water flowing in it when you look into it.

Tyson Tomko posted:

Thanks for the super quick reply and please forgive my ignorance lol. I've done a lot of random plumbing stuff but this stuff in particular is all new to me but I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. Here are some pics to show what I'm talking about.

The "manhole" thing and what I assume is the drain have sat under a desk in my garage since I've owned the place and I've never touched them. Please forgive the nastiness of it all, there's poo poo and dust everywhere that the flash only makes look worse.

Manhole/clean out:


Cover removed showing standing water:


Is this the drain I'd need to work on?



Like I said I'm willing to do anything and get my hands dirty but if I'm in over my head I'm not afraid to call in the pros.

Tyson Tomko posted:

Thanks for the super quick reply and please forgive my ignorance lol. I've done a lot of random plumbing stuff but this stuff in particular is all new to me but I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. Here are some pics to show what I'm talking about.

The "manhole" thing and what I assume is the drain have sat under a desk in my garage since I've owned the place and I've never touched them. Please forgive the nastiness of it all, there's poo poo and dust everywhere that the flash only makes look worse.

Manhole/clean out:


Cover removed showing standing water:


Is this the drain I'd need to work on?



Like I said I'm willing to do anything and get my hands dirty but if I'm in over my head I'm not afraid to call in the pros.

Turd Herder posted:

Ohhh that pit you showed isn't what I assumed. Wtf is that. That looks gross . With the corrugated pipe it almost makes me think it was a sump for rain water. But i'm not to sure what that is exactly.

PainterofCrap posted:

Uh, no, that's a french drain crock, designed to catch groundwater in your basement. If that starts filling up (which it may do after a lot of precipitation events) you should have a sump pump installed to carry that water away from your house or, if code permits it, into your sewer circuit.

Speaking of which, that is not the sewer circuit. Your problem has nothing to do with your french drain, which is a completely different, and closed, system.

PainterofCrap posted:

If you have a septic system, then boy howdy I have some bad news for you if your soil line is clear out to the leach field.

You will need to pull the toilet, unless you have an actual cleanout somewhere downstream of it (which is what your second photo appears to be; I am guessing that that cleanout is not near, or at least not in line, with the sump pump crock in the first photo) and either:

a) rent a power auger from somewhere and get cracking; or
b) hire a drain cleaning service who can do a) and then also run a camera if/when they hit something solid downstream and tell you why you have a random poo poo fountain.

Tyson Tomko posted:

I knew it was for water overflow to an extent but ignorant me didn't know exactly what for. The previous owner said it had never gotten above a certain line (way down into it) and the fact I live on a little mound of a hill I'm sure does me all sorts of favors there too.

The flash being on made it look way grosser than it actually is. Most of that scuzz is a very fine layer of dried dirt/dust/sawdust that's worked its way under the little metal shield. I admit I didn't realize there were a few dead bugs down there. Once I get this whole situation taken care of I'm cleaning that sucker up. Knowing it's called a french drain crock (DUH I've got french drains/weeping tiles) makes nothing but sense now looking back on it.

I'm totally fine with getting a sump pump for it if necessary but it's never came close to overflowing in the years I've lived here. There's a fine layer of dust near it that's to my knowledge never once been interrupted... at least until today when the water rushed in so hard it went under the wall. More on that in a sec.


Good deal! Like I said just above duh makes sense now, I've known about weeping tiles for a bit but never put 2 and 2 together. I just wanted to included all the info I could just in case.


No septic system, so that's one thing I don't have to worry about thankfully.

I'm game for pulling the toilet, but to answer your next question yeah it's all relatively close actually.


(the fact water rushed under the wall, then was dried with a fan left all kinds of dirt/dust/sawdust everywhere I need to clean up still, I've only pulled the baseboards at this point. Of course this happened when I hadn't swept)

The sketch of the laundry room and toilet shares a wall with what is pictured here (back of toilet and back of dryer are up against said wall). I've done some googling around on cleanouts and have learned a shitload. My front yard is treeless so I should be ok root wise but the previous owners had several girls so I wouldn't be surprised if there are some super long term tampons hanging around. This problem has mostly likely existed in some for or another for a long time, and may even explain our occasional toilet flushing/low drainage issues. It feels really drat good to be almost to the bottom of things.

I'm either going to bust into the toilet and/or that cleanout with an auger or may cave and hire someone to do it for me. Any other suggestions or advice before I get cracking?

-- Actually googling around for random diagrams of cleanouts and how it all connects to the main city sewages lines makes me realize I'm in over my head here. I was thinking it would be a few feet of pipe similar to a clogged toilet/sink but if it's anywhere between the cleanout and the end of my long rear end driverway (under dirt and concrete) all the way to the main sewer that's a long rear end distance. There are no trees in that area thankfully (my driveway is a part of a circle drive type layout) but all of our utilites are ran underground (no overhead lines rule) and gently caress me if anything needs dug up. Thanks for the good rear end diagnosis my goon friends!

Turd Herder posted:

You can figure out how far the clog is. Run a garden hose into the washing machine drain till it starts to back up out of the toilet (this may take minutes or 25 minutes. Then go get yourself a stick of 3" abs (im assuming its 3" and not 4".) can one end of the ten foot stick and time how long it takes. Now divide how long the toilet began to back up by how long that 10 ft stick took to fill and you can get a rough distance.

Lladre posted:

Is PEX and or Shark Bite still a no go for a bathroom?

Turd Herder posted:

(im assuming its 3" and not 4".)

Jadunk posted:

Huh, do they not require sewers to be 4" where you live?

JimbobDobalina posted:

I've got a toilet that is constantly running. I can see ripples in the bowl water, but the tank never refills by itself, so I am unclear in where the water is coming from. I've lowered the float level, so the water is well below the overflow.
I've also replaced the flapper valve (about 3 months ago for an unrelated issue) and it still runs.
Where else can a leak come from?

JimbobDobalina posted:

If the flapper was leaky, the tank level would drop and it would refill?

This doesn't happen, it's a constant flow. I'll try that anyway, just in case.

Turd Herder posted:

In washington it has to be 4" out of the building but up to the exit of the building it wouldn't be. What does your code require?

JimbobDobalina posted:

I've got a toilet that is constantly running. I can see ripples in the bowl water, but the tank never refills by itself, so I am unclear in where the water is coming from. I've lowered the float level, so the water is well below the overflow.
I've also replaced the flapper valve (about 3 months ago for an unrelated issue) and it still runs.
Where else can a leak come from?

minivanmegafun posted:

Disclaimer: I'm not a plumber, i'm just a clumsy homeowner.

However, you don't seem to know how toilets work. For a quick demo, grab a bucket of water and slowly trickle it into the bowl. The water level should stay where it is, as water slowly gets pushed over the edge of the bend and into the waste side.

Now refill the bucket and dump it in - you'll get a flush.

The first scenario is what a leaky flapper looks like. You just slowly waste water into the bowl.

Oh, also, as the poster above said, you could be dumping water down the overflow.

Guy Axlerod posted:

The tank would need to refill eventually as the flapper valve leaked. That's what they are saying isn't happening, but if it's slow enough they may have just not seen it yet.

Bad Munki posted:

Not sure where best to ask this, maybe this thread works:

I just ordered a pond aeration kit, going to work on restoring my pond a bit. So I want to put the pump in my barn, which is about 100' from my pond. No big deal there, but I'll need to run the air line to the pond and then transition to the weighted tubing as it goes into the water. My question is: does anyone have a recommendation for what sort of tubing I can use for a shallow direct burial? It's only going to be running at, like, 20psi (the relief will trip around 40psi), just enough to push the air down through the submerged hose, so whatever shore-side tubing I use doesn't need to be crazy, I just want something that isn't going to fall to pieces after being in the dirt for a few years. Thoughts?

lol internet. posted:

Bought a new house and the plumbing in the master shower sucks.

The faucet is just one handle that turns on the shower head. It starts at cold with fairly high pressure and as I move it toward hot or warm whatever. The pressure cuts off and it's literally just hot water. There really is no warm water. In the meantime I have been setting the tankless water heater to 115f and taking a shower with the faucet at max hot.

Now the question is i think the issue is with the water temperature stop limiter. Is it broken or should I be replacing it?

lol internet. posted:

Bought a new house and the plumbing in the master shower sucks.

The faucet is just one handle that turns on the shower head. It starts at cold with fairly high pressure and as I move it toward hot or warm whatever. The pressure cuts off and it's literally just hot water. There really is no warm water. In the meantime I have been setting the tankless water heater to 115f and taking a shower with the faucet at max hot.

Now the question is i think the issue is with the water temperature stop limiter. Is it broken or should I be replacing it?

Tyson Tomko posted:

Ok that's a really smart rear end idea that makes 100% sense. My only concern there is I don't think it's a complete clog, otherwise my thousands of loads of laundry/dishes would have been all backed up somewhere (unless there's a break in the pipe somewhere or some jazz) but either way I'll give it a shot, thanks!


Now for a MUCH simpler and less scary question, and what I planned on posting today before this minor flood disaster happened. The same toilet we've been talking about has a leaky shutoff valve and I've been meaning to replace the water line with stainless and put on one of those metal rings to cover the hole in the drywall.

Here's a pic before my question:



So I want to replace the valve. I've worked with copper a ton but not much plastic/PVC. Does the existing valve just unscrew here? I'm worried that it's glued or something else and the last thing I need to have happen now is to bust a water pipe requiring me to shut off the entire house's water to stop. Would it be as easy as grabbing the plastic/pvc end with a wrench and grabbing the valve when a wrench and turning?