DUNBAR PLUMBING FORUMS

On March 1st 2010 Dunbar Plumbing was called out to clear a floor drain that had been backing up whenever the washing machine was ran in the home. Black wastewater was emitting from the floor drain on the floor in the laundry room of this home. The house is on Village Drive in Edgewood Kentucky. A very nice neighborhood that is fully established. Edgewood Kentucky is regarded as one of the safest cities to live in along with one of the best cities in Northern Kentucky. This home is a two story home that is approximately 45 – 55 years old. Most of the piping inside this structure is galvanized drain piping along with cast iron drains which lead to clay tile piping that runs to the main city sewer.

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The drain problem with this plumbing actually created itself a few days prior when we was called out to clear a laundry tub that was backing up whenever the washing machine was ran during operation. This turned out to be quite a task as the piping arrangement is old, undersized piping was used to incorporate a makeshift washer box that should of been ran in 2″ piping. The piping used was 1.5″ which makes for resistance when that much wastewater is discharged into the piping system.

We used our smallest drain cleaning machine to attempt to clear this drain like we do every other common laundry tub clog. The “majority” are cleared instantly and it takes years to hear back from our customers as we did that thorough of a job to correct the situation. This one however proved to be more than just a “simple” job. 3 separate passes with our cable encountered very hard obstructions just maneuvering around the trap at the base of this washing machine standpipe, then progressing downward into the floor. Once we made it past those two areas the machine handled the cleaning with little or no effort. At no time was the floor drain showing any indication that the larger piping system connecting to the washing machine/laundry tub was affected. After numerous attempts with cleaning the drain piping, we didn’t have that 100% acceptance that we were leaving the piping in a solid good condition. Sometimes with older piping you just cannot get it clean enough by mechanical means. Piping that is nearing 60 years old has served its life and managing the piping system through periodic drain cleaning will be the rule, not the exception anymore.

After the above was performed, a call came in from the customer stating that now black wastewater was emitting through the floor drain. We mentioned prior that a larger machine might be required to go through a larger drain opening but the floor drain wasn’t considered, since the problem with the laundry tub was not relating to the floor drain. Attempting to clear the floor drain first would prove a misstep as this would not clear the laundry tub specifically. Furthermore, our customers would tend to believe that we were suggestively upselling them by performing an unnecessary task. Simply not true, this is just part of a normal routine that you follow the piping arrangement that includes the fixture that’s malfunctioning/clogging and then consider the larger piping arrangement if numerous issues are collectively backing up, showing problems.

Dunbar Plumbing has some of the best drain cleaning equipment in the Northern Kentucky area for clearing obstructions in plumbing systems. We’ve always made the statement that “If we cannot get your drains opened, most likely you’ll be contacting someone to dig it up and repair it.” Of course, sometimes patience can win the best of many battles and extensive time trying to beat or win against the clogged drain can be costly to the consumer. Our years of drain cleaning provide the experience needed to understand what methods work best to clear an obstruction correctly and as quickly as possible.

Our Spartan 300 drain machine with the 100 interchangeable drum was used in this manner to clean the obstruction from the piping. A root cutting blade along with the cable bent approximately 1′ back from the leader to act as a whip in the drain to extensively clear any obstruction it faces, travelling down the path of the drain. The floor drain opened rather quickly but the drainage went down considerably slow. During this time the equipment was running, we had the owner of the property flushing the toilet as we were running the washing machine dumping the water into the drain at an accelerated rate to see how the maximum flow affected the water sitting in the trap of the floor drain.

At first, we thought the drain was 100% clear but numerous flushes of the toilet along with the constant running of water through the laundry tub and the toilet flushing, the system started to back up again. Two more passes with the machine taking the cable out to 20 feet made a remarkable difference and the wastewater inside the trapway discontinued with raising above the trap’s current water level. When we removed the cable from the drain, roots were attached to the aggressive root cutting blade. Contact Dunbar Plumbing at 859-359-4833 to schedule your drains to be cleaned so that we can get your plumbing back into a condition that provides the best free flowing piping arrangement. Call Dunbar Plumbing today!

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