I live on the top floor of a four family house. When doing dishes by hand our kitchen sink will regularly fill up with water. It will then slowly drain. However, sometimes this does not happen at all and the running water drains normally. None of the tenants below us have this problem.

Since this appears to be intermittent, I think I can rule out an obstruction. But what could it be? And how should I attempt to rectify it?

Is this a 4 story house or 4 story apartment? Was it designed as a 4 family building? Was all construction built to code?

Best Wishes

the building is 3 stories, probably originally a two family, with tenants on each of the 3 floor and someone living in the basement. not built to code.



Edited 1 times.

Thanks for the updated info. I've seen some stories on tv, when people have taken homes and converted them into multifamily dwellings. These houses were not converted, to local codes, but provided inexpensive dwellings to several families. If this applies to your dwelling, I hope you can bring in a Licensed Plumber, to inspect the plumbing work that was done to determine if the work was done properly. Then, the plumber, can find the issues. As we both know... drain issues rarely to never resolves themselves.
Call a Licensed Plumber.
Best Wishes