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[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

Dunbar Plumbing was contacted by a customer today in Walton Kentucky. The location of this property was close to Mary C. Grubbs Highway where it intersects with US25. Main Street in Walton is the short 2.5 mile section of US25 that stretches from where Walton-Nicholson road intersects with US25 onto Mary C. Grubbs Highway intersection.
 
Customer had an issue with all three fixtures backing up on the second floor of the house.
 
Toilet
Lavatory
Tub
 
Customer mentioned that when the lavatory and/or the tub faucet was ran, the toilet would start to gurgle instantly. Since no other drains were affected in the house, this lead to the issue being isolated to the 2nd floor only in the structure.
 
The customer already removed the toilet before we arrived, as it was confirmed that the drain system would have to be accessed through that vantage point to clear the obstruction. As we noticed upon arrival, wastewater was sitting in the closet bend and any water ran from the tub or lavatory in the same bathroom instantly raised the water level in the closet bend that serves the toilet.
 
Using our medium machine, we inserted our drain cable into the toilet arm to remove the obstruction. What was immediately stopping us was not known initially as we would enter the drain roughly 2 feet approximate and get hung up badly inside the drain. A quite unusual circumstance as the piping leading from the closet flange is minimum 3" and most if not all structures in the Northern Kentucky Area are 4" when stretching 40+ years or older.
 
We made 4-5 attempts to clear the obstruction with next to no success. It was when the property owner pointed out to us in the lower level of the house that all the piping was visible to the bathroom by removal of a panel. This property is new to both the property owner as well us, and the property is being rented by tenants.
 
The house had also sat vacant for a few weeks before being occupied which would be partially the issue at hand why we were called out to clear an obstruction in this drainage system. Once we were able to get a visual on the piping arrangement it was clear to see "why" the cable was jamming up inside the piping arrangement.

The drain piping immediately went from 3" to 4" cast iron piping. The major issue was a tee laying on its side which is a clear code violation in today's requirements. Serving out of the top of this 4" tee was the 2" cast iron drain serving the lavatory drain in the same bathroom. Once that connected to the tee, the drain continues at a slope heading towards a ninety degree turn vertical into the closet and heading towards the basement.  Being able to see this piping arrangement gave us the ability to understand why the cable was jamming inside the tee as it was trying to head back through the 2" drain serving the lavatory drain.
 
With some much needed trial and error, numerous shots into the drain finally got us heading the cable towards the vertical 4" drain pipe heading into the piping. This instantly addressed the clogging issue allowing the water inside the closet bend to slowly start dropping, signifying that whatever was holding back the waste matter and wastewater was finally leaving the piping system. We continued to run the drain cable machine inside the piping and took the drain cable the full length to make sure that the waste matter was clearly out of the drain system.
 
Along with running the tub faucet and lavatory in the same bathroom at full force while the cable was still inside the drain. This technique is a great way to keep all that was built up inside the drain continuing on out, using the water as the helper to rid the piping of waste matter.
 
It was our assumption that during the time this house sat vacant that possibly the toilet was used for the last time before the house went vacant, the waste matter never made it out of the horizontal bend of the piping. This waste matter then had time to sit and solidify including toilet paper that turned into hard paper mache in consistency. With the new tenants arriving and unaware of this situation, the buildup started against this hardened mass inside the piping and eventually closing off the pipe completely, disallowing flow through the pipe.
 
This happens quite frequently when homes are vacated and no one is there to keep the water running through the drains. This situation can happen both in a new home where pvc pipe is commonly found for drainage piping, just as much as say an older home could have with cast iron piping, galvanized or copper. If you have a home whereby you're going to sell in the near future, make sure that when you leave the property for good that the toilets and all fixtures are ran heavily for repeated times to remove any waste buildup inside the piping.

This will prevent the unexpected surprise when the new property owners move in, looking at the previous homeowners like they hid some disasterous piping inside the home that's going to be a chronic problem. (they think)
 
The customer in this case (since the toilet was already pulled) reset the toilet after our job was complete. This was a cost saving measure afforded to the property owner to save money on our expense to show up and resolve the issue. This was a first time customer that reached us via internet through Google trying to find someone to resolve the plumbing issue 'today' as it was the only bathroom in the structure serving the needs of 3 people living in the home.

[DUNBAR PLUMBING]

We were called back out to this location in regards to "leak coming from second floor ceiling underneath toilet."
 
When talking to the customer we asked if the wax rings supplied by us for the reset of the toilet were used. They in fact were used, but apparently this toilet was reset two times since we cleared the obstruction. The customer bought a horned wax ring not understanding why we were against the use of such product. Horned wax rings are not recommended by Dunbar Plumbing as the application serves absolutely no function or purpose on a perfectly good leak free toilet closet flange. It is also an item that the closet flange itself can readjust the horn to bottom out to the flange or the bottom of the toilet in the process, not allowing any wax to provide the positive seal between the plumbing piping system and the toilet fixture.
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The customer made the decision to replace the toilet, have us come and install the new toilet to end the issue of leaking under the toilet. The customer chose to install an American Standard Cadet 3 toilet. This is an all-in-one toilet found at Home Depot that offers a good quality flush for under $150.00. This comes with a no tools necessary design, a slow closing toilet seat. We were also supplied with a new toilet supply line and two wax rings to make this replacement complete.
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The installation of the American Standard Cadet 3 went smoothly and before the toilet was set, we removed the old horned wax ring, used 2 wax rings before setting the toilet. One of those wax rings was used to "butter" the flange to prevent any water seepage from entering the wood structure below to prevent damage in the case of a leak or a blown wax ring from plunging.
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Once the flange was ready for the installation of the toilet bowl, we installed new brass toilet bowl bolts and proceeded to install the toilet. The American Standard Cadet 3 comes with all the necessary components to install this toilet quite easily. It's a very good operating toilet for it's cost with minimal issues regarding performance. Dunbar Plumbing installs a great deal of American Standard toilets in the past few years due to public product choice. We are comfortable with this product choice as the complaints/defects on these are minimal. Customers are satisfied with the results of flushing as well.
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We were happy to solve this customer's problem, not knowing that any problems existed as the customer stated they would reset the toilet themselves. All in all the new toilet will serve its function well and the expense to upgrade to a newer toilet was warranted. It was an older toilet that had been modified by the changing of a flush valve that most likely was to blame for our initial arrival, a clogged drain line from the toilet.
 

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Tags: clogged toilet  bathroom  walton ky  walton  kentucky toilet toilet backup plumbing clog