You know when the song Rain, Rain Go Away really makes sense? WHEN IT'S RAINING INSIDE YOUR HOUSE. Last Tuesday, we had a major plumbing issue. We gave kate a bath after dinner, I put her down to bed and went to wash my face. The water wasn't draining and we thought that was very strange. Scott came in and asked by it smelled like eggs. Little did we know that it was raining in our basement. Scott was smart enough to turn off the water to the house, but the damage was already done.
Water was pouring out of our downstairs toilet onto the floor. I mean POURING. It was about an inch deep in the bathroom and was leaking through the hardwoods and raining in the basement. A LOT of water. I called our neighbors Kelly and Michael who were nice enough to come over and help us. Michael and Scott went to search for the overflow valve in the yard (never found it) while Kelly helped me carry stuff outside to dry out. I called the county and they arrived about 30 minutes later to check the sewer main.
Turns out a tree root had blocked our sewer line, all the water from the bath, my face washing, dishwasher and washing machine was coming out of the lowest exit in the house...our 1/2 bath toilet. Thank goodness it wasn't raw sewage!!!
Public safety announcement:
1) If you have a home built before the 90s, locate your emergency sewage overflow valve in case you ever have an issue. It turns our only one was IN our house, in the basement. My parents house was built in the mid 80's and they had to have one installed.
2) Look online and use the tree root eating grannuals in your toilet. It may have prevented our issue.
This all happened Tuesday night around 9pm. Wed they tried to snake the line with no success. Thursday they had to wait for the utilities to get marked, then Friday they started doing this:
This is what they found to be the issue. This is not our pipe, it's what caused the blockage. It's tons of tiny tree roots smushed together.
We were without water until Friday late afternoon. We stayed with my parents Wed. night but toughed it out otherwise and I showered at the gym. Thanks grammy and grams for the sleepover. They came back out to dig up the rest of the sewage pipe for replacement on Monday and Tuesday and now we are back up a running, just with a huge yard of dirt instead of grass. Oh well. I was hoping for new windows in our house instead of paying for a new sewer line and main water line..while our yard was already dug up figured we'd do that too.
I'm now a little more knowledgeable in basic plumbing and I guess that's what you get for buying an older house. At least we don't have to worry about ever again. Case closed.
This is what they found to be the issue. This is not our pipe, it's what caused the blockage. It's tons of tiny tree roots smushed together.
We were without water until Friday late afternoon. We stayed with my parents Wed. night but toughed it out otherwise and I showered at the gym. Thanks grammy and grams for the sleepover. They came back out to dig up the rest of the sewage pipe for replacement on Monday and Tuesday and now we are back up a running, just with a huge yard of dirt instead of grass. Oh well. I was hoping for new windows in our house instead of paying for a new sewer line and main water line..while our yard was already dug up figured we'd do that too.
I'm now a little more knowledgeable in basic plumbing and I guess that's what you get for buying an older house. At least we don't have to worry about ever again. Case closed.
