mlinton978
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- Aug 12, 2023
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Hi guys! Came here for help! Im not a plumber just a DIYer looking for some advice from those who know better!
So i bought a singlewide thats been remodeled and i love it. Got an inspection and everything checked out for the most part. Both toilets flushed for the inspector and that merited no investigation i suppose.
Ive got 2 bathrooms, the master bathroom functions perfectly but the guest bathroom is giving me some problems.
Basically, the toilet flushes weak and intermittedly. I could flush it once or twice, then it would fill up. I got a bubbling sound from my sink. If i waited an hour or two it would flush again as everything had drained. I figured there was a stoppage causing the main sewer line to drain slowly.
When we bought the house the previous owner left us a note which i read upon noticing this issue. It said that she had no problems except for the spare bathroom which "she only flushed fluid down" and said her plumber mentioned "the main line didnt have enough drop so it could clog easily" the main line is ABS (or black pvc idk the difference) and is 3" pipe that runs straight down the line of the singlewide.
I figured it was a clog, so i went into the crawlspace and found a really big DIP in the line (called belly?) Where they had installed a cleanout port haphazardly and it wasnt straight.
I cut that portion of the line, drained and snaked everything and removed the blockage completely and reinstalled a section of new 3" pvc pipe. When i went to removed the bent portion of the line i was literally able to tear it right off the cleanout T. Then i pulled the cleanout T right off aswell.. i figured i would keep the rubber coupler there for future access and thats what i ended up doing.
I found alot of scaling (i think thats what its called) that i managed to break up and removed aswell for the most part. I used my garden hose with a screw nozzle and a 40ft flat steel snake. It took a while but I could shine my light all the way through the back of the line (theres a cleanout port there) in its entirety and see the end. ive attached pictures of the before and after aswell as a picture of the bark like scaling i found when i cleaned the pipes out. I cleaned everything from to the rear of hluse from the pipe i replaced and snaked maybe another 20 feet forwards of that and removed all the scaling i could find. I was able to push the snake furthur then the 20 feet but i figured id be hitting the portion where the master bathroom was functioning perfectly and didnt hit anything along the way.
There really isnt much room to adjust the level of the main sewer pipe, i find it hard to believe it wasnt function correctly at the angle its sitting at at least some point as it was built in the 90s. Ive read 3" sewer pipe needs to drop 1/4" every foot... i didnt measure it precisely but what i did it was at least very close to that in the portions i observed..
After doing all that i found i could flush the toilet like 6 or 7 times before it filled up and it flushes pretty weakly everytime... when the toilet fills up it doesnt over flow or anything it just draims slowly probably taking about 30 seconds or so.
i had thought maybe it wasnt vented enough so i installed an oatey AAV under the sink (which stopped the gurgling sound) i havent checked the roof vent yet (i dont own a ladder yet) but currently think maybe there is some scaling or something furthur down the line... i havent gone forward of the part that i repaired as it seemed the obviously culprit and well, it gets pretty tight down there in the crawlspace. Also, since the master bathroom functions perfectly i figure that if there is another bad spot in the line then its got to be between the spot i repaired the wherever the master bathroom toilet is tied in.
The guest BR toilet in question is newer its a 2 button toilet that lets you flush more or less water. I wondered if the siphon jet was clogged or something but i couldnt dislodge anything when i tried to clean it. The jets seem to be functioning aswell but i havent torn the whole contraption apart yet cause i figured its not the toilet.
Is there a chemical solution to remove scaling in the main line? Im sure there must be some in front of where i accessed What do ya'll reccomend for the toilet jets? Is there something else im missing here?
Currently only flushing liquids- and its not really giving me problems unless i over flush- i want to be able to flush solids but im not gonna try it untill i can improve the flushing power. Is it normal for your pipes to have like a flushing capacity? I never thought about it really but i guess it might make sense that your not supposed to flush your toilet every couple minutes or whatever...
I have city water so no septic tank btw.
Thoughts?
So i bought a singlewide thats been remodeled and i love it. Got an inspection and everything checked out for the most part. Both toilets flushed for the inspector and that merited no investigation i suppose.
Ive got 2 bathrooms, the master bathroom functions perfectly but the guest bathroom is giving me some problems.
Basically, the toilet flushes weak and intermittedly. I could flush it once or twice, then it would fill up. I got a bubbling sound from my sink. If i waited an hour or two it would flush again as everything had drained. I figured there was a stoppage causing the main sewer line to drain slowly.
When we bought the house the previous owner left us a note which i read upon noticing this issue. It said that she had no problems except for the spare bathroom which "she only flushed fluid down" and said her plumber mentioned "the main line didnt have enough drop so it could clog easily" the main line is ABS (or black pvc idk the difference) and is 3" pipe that runs straight down the line of the singlewide.
I figured it was a clog, so i went into the crawlspace and found a really big DIP in the line (called belly?) Where they had installed a cleanout port haphazardly and it wasnt straight.
I cut that portion of the line, drained and snaked everything and removed the blockage completely and reinstalled a section of new 3" pvc pipe. When i went to removed the bent portion of the line i was literally able to tear it right off the cleanout T. Then i pulled the cleanout T right off aswell.. i figured i would keep the rubber coupler there for future access and thats what i ended up doing.
I found alot of scaling (i think thats what its called) that i managed to break up and removed aswell for the most part. I used my garden hose with a screw nozzle and a 40ft flat steel snake. It took a while but I could shine my light all the way through the back of the line (theres a cleanout port there) in its entirety and see the end. ive attached pictures of the before and after aswell as a picture of the bark like scaling i found when i cleaned the pipes out. I cleaned everything from to the rear of hluse from the pipe i replaced and snaked maybe another 20 feet forwards of that and removed all the scaling i could find. I was able to push the snake furthur then the 20 feet but i figured id be hitting the portion where the master bathroom was functioning perfectly and didnt hit anything along the way.
There really isnt much room to adjust the level of the main sewer pipe, i find it hard to believe it wasnt function correctly at the angle its sitting at at least some point as it was built in the 90s. Ive read 3" sewer pipe needs to drop 1/4" every foot... i didnt measure it precisely but what i did it was at least very close to that in the portions i observed..
After doing all that i found i could flush the toilet like 6 or 7 times before it filled up and it flushes pretty weakly everytime... when the toilet fills up it doesnt over flow or anything it just draims slowly probably taking about 30 seconds or so.
i had thought maybe it wasnt vented enough so i installed an oatey AAV under the sink (which stopped the gurgling sound) i havent checked the roof vent yet (i dont own a ladder yet) but currently think maybe there is some scaling or something furthur down the line... i havent gone forward of the part that i repaired as it seemed the obviously culprit and well, it gets pretty tight down there in the crawlspace. Also, since the master bathroom functions perfectly i figure that if there is another bad spot in the line then its got to be between the spot i repaired the wherever the master bathroom toilet is tied in.
The guest BR toilet in question is newer its a 2 button toilet that lets you flush more or less water. I wondered if the siphon jet was clogged or something but i couldnt dislodge anything when i tried to clean it. The jets seem to be functioning aswell but i havent torn the whole contraption apart yet cause i figured its not the toilet.
Is there a chemical solution to remove scaling in the main line? Im sure there must be some in front of where i accessed What do ya'll reccomend for the toilet jets? Is there something else im missing here?
Currently only flushing liquids- and its not really giving me problems unless i over flush- i want to be able to flush solids but im not gonna try it untill i can improve the flushing power. Is it normal for your pipes to have like a flushing capacity? I never thought about it really but i guess it might make sense that your not supposed to flush your toilet every couple minutes or whatever...
I have city water so no septic tank btw.
Thoughts?
