about 6 years ago one of our toilets suddenly started not really flushing that well. It would flush, and liquids went down fine, but once you put any kind of solid or even toilet paper in it, it would slow waaay down as to be useless until I plunged it to death, at which point it would be ok for liquids again but the next time somebody went #2 it would have to be plunged again.
I snaked it from up top, and then backward from the cleanout in the basement, and couldn't get anything. It was a hall bathroom and we only had one kid at the time, who was still in diapers, and rarely any guests so I let it go on longer than I would have if it happened today, but finally I'd had enough and ended up pulling the toilet off the floor to find some ring shaped plastic toy, can't remember exactly what other than that my kid had been playing with it and apparently had flushed it. It was sized just large enough to wedge in above the wax ring and not go down, and depending on how it was oriented would either mostly block the passage, or block just enough of the passage as to let the snake right by and only be a problem for solids.
Now you had to mention snaking a drain.
Mrs App noticed a basement floor drain had backed up in our utility room Monday. I take a look at it and make an attempt at snaking it. It’s backed up, can’t see what’s going on.
I put 25’ of snake down the drain and hit nothing.
I have her call a plumber and they say they’d send a plumber out to snake it Tuesday morning for $100.
Plumber comes out and then they call me at work. He tells me that the drain also has the line from the kitchen sink running into it, so it’s the garbage disposal and dishwasher trash that was the problem. Ok, that’s good to know.
Then he says I need to decide what I want done.
He said to snake the kitchen line and then basement line it’d run us $1000. Or $500 for just the basement. Then he said we should have the lines jetted and he said on the phone that would be $15k.
When I heard $15k it soured me a bit. Ok, a lots of bits.
He planned on charging $50 for the visit. Again we were told $100 all inclusive.
I said put Mrs App back on the line
I asked if I was on speaker and she said no.
I said “tell him to get the fuck out of our house”
Apparently he heard what I said.
After I’m off the phone he said he’d talk to his manager and see if he could snake the basement for the original $100, including the visit.
She called me back and asked if that was ok. I said sure since that’s what we originally had him come to do.
He did, took him 20 minutes and everything flows fine now.
there’s some question on whether he accidentally said $15k and meant $1500 or not. But he did tell Mrs App they offer financing for it.
The local rental place has the jetters for $125/day or $375/week. I could take a class on plumbing for $750.
It still pisses me off thinking about it.
In hindsight since I didn’t know there was any other drain tied into the floor drain, I’m wondering if I snaked the wrong line and went up to the kitchen sink instead.
Now that it’s clear of water I know what to do next time.
Ive done apt maintenance in the past..
