I recently moved into a condo and am having some plumbing issues. I'm wondering if it's something I need to hire a plumber for or if it's something the building needs to hire a plumber for (could it be out of my unit and further down the line.) I own the unit and am on the 4th floor which is the top floor.
It first started when I noticed the dishwasher wouldn't fully drain. I cleaned out the dishwasher filter really well but am still having issues with draining. I thought it's just an old dishwasher and needs replacing. So I've started hand washing dishes in the sink with no issues at first buy just slowly running the water and washing 1 dish at a time. I ended up filling up one side of the sink to wash something larger and when i unstopped the sink the water backed up into both sinks. I plungered the sink and had no real progress on draining. The water eventually went down about an hour later. I then used two packs of the green gobbler drain cleaner in the sink but there's no real change it didn't seem to make a difference.
I decided to look inside the pipes under the sink. I basically unscrewed the pipe from the sink and the disposal and they were clear and checked the p trap, also clear. The disposal and the pipe connecting the disposal to the drain is also clear. I cannot remove my p trap because it looks welded together and I don't have a large enough wrench to undo the big copper pipe going from the p trap into the wall. I got a little 20 ft snake and tried going through the p trap and down the big wall pipe but it wouldn't go further than the second bend in the pipe. It went through the p trap fine but it felt like it wouldn't turn the corner to go down the big pipe. I'm not having any other sinks or the tub backing up it's just both kitchen sinks.
So basically at this point running even a normal amount of water in the sink a causes water to back up into both sinks and it takes a long time to go down.
Does this sound like something only causing issues in my unit or could it be the whole floors below me also having an issue and it's something wrong further in the building like a clog in the pipe or vent? Should I contact a plumber first on my own to look at the pipes under the sink? Or tell the building there's an issue?
These two photos are of the pipes before taking them apart and then showing how the pipes looked when I tried snaking the p trap and wall pipe.
Thanks
It first started when I noticed the dishwasher wouldn't fully drain. I cleaned out the dishwasher filter really well but am still having issues with draining. I thought it's just an old dishwasher and needs replacing. So I've started hand washing dishes in the sink with no issues at first buy just slowly running the water and washing 1 dish at a time. I ended up filling up one side of the sink to wash something larger and when i unstopped the sink the water backed up into both sinks. I plungered the sink and had no real progress on draining. The water eventually went down about an hour later. I then used two packs of the green gobbler drain cleaner in the sink but there's no real change it didn't seem to make a difference.
I decided to look inside the pipes under the sink. I basically unscrewed the pipe from the sink and the disposal and they were clear and checked the p trap, also clear. The disposal and the pipe connecting the disposal to the drain is also clear. I cannot remove my p trap because it looks welded together and I don't have a large enough wrench to undo the big copper pipe going from the p trap into the wall. I got a little 20 ft snake and tried going through the p trap and down the big wall pipe but it wouldn't go further than the second bend in the pipe. It went through the p trap fine but it felt like it wouldn't turn the corner to go down the big pipe. I'm not having any other sinks or the tub backing up it's just both kitchen sinks.
So basically at this point running even a normal amount of water in the sink a causes water to back up into both sinks and it takes a long time to go down.
Does this sound like something only causing issues in my unit or could it be the whole floors below me also having an issue and it's something wrong further in the building like a clog in the pipe or vent? Should I contact a plumber first on my own to look at the pipes under the sink? Or tell the building there's an issue?
These two photos are of the pipes before taking them apart and then showing how the pipes looked when I tried snaking the p trap and wall pipe.
Thanks
