I live in a mobile home in a mobile home park. Recently we experienced drainage problems throughout the house and water coming from under the toilet. Thinking we had a clogged toilet drain we attempted to snake the toilet. It did not work.
I removed the toilet in an attempt to gain better access for the snake. After 25' of snaking, the problem persisted. We contacted the property owners. They indicated to us that another tenant was having the same problems. After pouring a lot of different chemicals down the drains that didn't work, they finally broke down and hired a professional plumber. This plumber used a HUGE power snake that DID NOT unclog our pipes. (Although it did quite a number on our PVC pipes)
Ultimately the property managers were told that the main sewer line was cracked. The managers failed to follow through with the recommended repairs. In the interim, we isolated the toilet drain so as to avoid the stench, used an alternate toilet off the property to do our business, but were able to use the remaining drains SPARINGLY to take showers, wash dishes, etc. as they seemed to drain as long as not too much water was used.
A while later, the managers came to us stating that the problem had been fixed for the other tenants by pouring chemicals into their drains. As our drains seemed to be working fairly well at this point we decided to go ahead and re-install the toilet.
HOWEVER! As soon as I finished re-installing the toilet, EVERYTHING backed up into our bathtub, and out from under the toilet. Hindsight pointed out to me that there was still water in the drain pipe of the toilet indicating that it had never been drained but I didn't remember this until all was done.
My question is this. How come simply re-installing the toilet would cause the rest of the household drains to back-flow into the bathtub? And how come the water doesn't drain now at all? Not even slowly anymore? If I removed the toilet again, would the drains start to work again like they did before? I'm really confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I removed the toilet in an attempt to gain better access for the snake. After 25' of snaking, the problem persisted. We contacted the property owners. They indicated to us that another tenant was having the same problems. After pouring a lot of different chemicals down the drains that didn't work, they finally broke down and hired a professional plumber. This plumber used a HUGE power snake that DID NOT unclog our pipes. (Although it did quite a number on our PVC pipes)
Ultimately the property managers were told that the main sewer line was cracked. The managers failed to follow through with the recommended repairs. In the interim, we isolated the toilet drain so as to avoid the stench, used an alternate toilet off the property to do our business, but were able to use the remaining drains SPARINGLY to take showers, wash dishes, etc. as they seemed to drain as long as not too much water was used.
A while later, the managers came to us stating that the problem had been fixed for the other tenants by pouring chemicals into their drains. As our drains seemed to be working fairly well at this point we decided to go ahead and re-install the toilet.
HOWEVER! As soon as I finished re-installing the toilet, EVERYTHING backed up into our bathtub, and out from under the toilet. Hindsight pointed out to me that there was still water in the drain pipe of the toilet indicating that it had never been drained but I didn't remember this until all was done.
My question is this. How come simply re-installing the toilet would cause the rest of the household drains to back-flow into the bathtub? And how come the water doesn't drain now at all? Not even slowly anymore? If I removed the toilet again, would the drains start to work again like they did before? I'm really confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
