Ok. I live in a house built in the 50's it's a ranch with a basement/garage. I have a bathroom in the basement, and one on the main floor. The pipe on the main floor bathtub drain is older and smaller than the rest of the plumbing, but drains into a larger white drain pipe which also has other drain pipes feeding into it. Here's what's been happening -- I'm a complete novice, so no making fun of my terminology. LOL

About 1.5 months ago, the township was digging up the street in front of my garage -- no notice from them about anything, but there was water pouring out at the edge of the lawn/street (almost like a natural spring) between my house and neighbors house. Our water was shut off while they were doing the "work". Again no mention of anything from the township about what they were doing and when. I didn't think anything of it.

The only thing I remember noticing after they were done and the water was back on was that the water was brown for while, and the the toilet was running weird for when it hadn't done that prior to them doing the work... I honestly figured it was just the silt in the water since the behavior stopped after a couple of weeks.

So end of October we used the shower and all was fine. I come home hours later and the bathroom is covered with condensation -- the tub (which drained fine during the shower) must've backed up with hot water and made it steamy in the bathroom. The water was brown which was weird. So I plunged -- no good. Drain cleaner -- no good. Later that night, it drained on it's own (so I thought). Took a shower the next morning and then go into the garage ... which is covered in about 1" of water -- seems the elbow int he ceiling of the garage came loose from all the plunging and the tub drained into the garage. Cleaned that mess up, re-attached the pipe, run some water and the drain isn't draining again. I ended up buying a snake, used all 20ft of it, and the drain cleared, even though nothing came out of on the snake. We're all good with no issues for about 2 weeks.

A couple of nights ago, this sound from the tub drain actually wakes me up ... it's like a rhythmic knocking, and the some glubs. I run a little water, the tub doesnt drain but the noise stops. I leave the water there, get up the next morning and it has drained. Last night my daughter takes a shower, all good. I go into take a shower this morning and the tub is all filled with brown water again. A snake isn't doing the trick this time, even though I can get all 20ft in the pipe. I've not run any water today except for the dishwasher and I used the garbage disposal (these are in the kitchen on the same floor). The water that backs up in the tub is always brown, with particles of stuff in it, but it doesn't smell like sewage. I'm completely confused as to what is going on. The toilet and sink in that bathroom have no problems. The dishwasher seems to be draining fine (unless that's what's in the bathtub -- although I've used the dishwasher countless time since the issue started and got no water in the tub), the other bathroom, washing machine, kitchen sink, all have no issues. Any thoughts as to what the heck is going on before I put out an SOS to the plumber?



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The real mystery is why this is happening on the upper floor. depending on how the sewer line is installed, it should happen in the basement.

Way to keep ur eye on the ball hj, I was getting confused.



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