Lost plumbers snake down pipes HELP

17 years ago

Plumbing is SO not my area of expertise, so I will lkiley use ths wrong terms, but I am hoping somebody here can give me some advice on where to start.

Our 50 year old home is on a slab. Over the years the drain pipes have gotten rather sluggish. When they do my husband either pours some pretty heavy duty drain cleaner, or when that fails, he climbs onto the roof or our ranch home and uses a "power spinner" to work a 50-75 long snake down through the pipes, entering through the vent on the roof. (I am sure "power spinner" is not really the right name, but hope you get the idea.)

These methods use to help more, but over the past few years it has gotten worse, and our washing machine now backs up into the kitchen sink when it drains.

The last couple of times my husband has used the snake method he has used an even longer snake.

This afternoon he went onto the roof once again. After a lot of work he got the snake to pass the bend, and then worked the full length of the snake through the pipes. This time though he had a lot of problems getting it retrieved. (My guess is it coiled in the pipes.) Then - the big problem. Only half of the snake came back up. IT turns out that to make it 100' he had joined two 50' snakes together. (OK - SO the first thing you will all say is that was a bad idea. )

The good news is the washing machine is draining - at least for the time being. The bad news is we have a snake buried someplace in our pipes.

So what do we do now? Is there anything a plumber can do to help us? The "good" news (perhaps) is we are about three weeks from tearing apart our kitchen for a total remodel. Are we going to have to have our slab torn up?

Any suggestions?

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Comments (5)

davidandkasie
17 years ago
you should have a clean out where the drain exits teh side of the house. open it an dsee if the snake shows up there. if so, work it until you can get ahold of it and pull it out. any snake that fit thru a kitchen vent likely is way smaller than the main drain line, so should be retrievable.

before tearing up the slab to find it, hire a camera to run the line, they can tell you exactly where it is and it may be reachable thru another opening.
dcwesley
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you. We will try both of those.
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brickeyee
17 years ago
"IT turns out that to make it 100' he had joined two 50' snakes together. (OK - SO the first thing you will all say is that was a bad idea. )"

The mechanical mechanism that attaches snake section together is pretty solid, but it often takes some light hammering to engage the catch fully (and then a screwdriver and a hammer to unlatch them).

The other recommendations are good.

Check any clean outs you can, ten have a camera run.
If the snake is in the main drain it WILL eventually cause an obstruction.
paul21
17 years ago
Hope you find the snake! But on to the drain problem. I don't know where you are but where I am, many drain clogs are the result of tree roots entering cracks in the line. In our case if you are lucky , the tree is the one that sits on the verge between the sidewalk and the curb, and belongs to the city so they assume the cost. Don't know about your area , but check it out, you may want the camera whether the snake shows it's ugly head or not !
dcwesley
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you all. You are making me hopeful we will not have to have our slab demolished. Many, many thanks. I can sleep easier.