Hello,

I purchased a home about 2 years ago built in the 1950's ON SEPTIC. When we first moved in we needed the washer drain line snaked. The other day I did a load of laundry, came downstairs to check on it and there was water all over the floor and in the utility sink. The water smelled terrible. Then when using the kitchen sink upstairs the water kept backing up into the downstairs utility sink.

I read some posts here on the forum, took the p-trap off the kitchen sink and began snaking. A lot of dirty water, sediment, etc backed up into the downstairs utility sink. If I run water now from the kitchen sink the water still backs up into the downstairs utility sink but is it mostly clear. When I am sucking up the clear water with a shop vac and point the hose to the drain I can suck up more stinky water.

Any ideas?

Sorry for the novel!

I greatly appreciate any advice.



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Hire a plumber to 'snake' your main drain, then inspect the septic system as necessary.

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

you should not be snaking from the upstairs kitchen, because the blockage is much further downstream.

the blockage is downstream of the downstairs washer, that's why when you drain from the kitchen it comes downstairs and when it runs into the same blockage the washing machine is running into, it backs everything into the washing machine pipe and utility sink. Do you have a downstair bathroom? If so it's probably backing into the tub or shower there too.

I would hire a pro to use the right size snake to snake the main line and check the septic. Have you checked the septic is it full?

Thank you. I just had the tank inspection in March of this year and was told didn't need pumped until next inspection (3 years). We do have a downstairs bathroom toilet, sink, shower and none of it is backing up.

the fact that the swptic tank has been recently inspected and the fact that the downstairs bathroom drains normally makes me think the kitchen and laundry may drain into a separate grey water tank ??

I added pictures of the laundry drain, utility sink,and other pipes.

[postimg.cc]

In picture 5 could I remove that cap and snake it? Is that a cleanout? I know it's not the main one.



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yeah.. you can shake thru that in pic 5.
keep the bucket handy when you open it.. slowly.
it impossible to tell if that ties into the septic or goes to a separate grey water tank just by looking.
there are companies that can stick a probe into the pipe and follow it with another device to see where it goes.
i'm not saying you definately have a separate tank, just taking a wild guess.

You can try rodding from there but when you get about 4 feet in you will hit that tee. If you can get past it great but if not you need to find another way. If you take the union apart you might move the plastic drain enough to get a snake in there. The plumbing under that sink is "interesting" and might take a plumber 2 or 3 hours to repipe if you want to do that. Good job on the pictures.

Rachel,

Do not ignore Packy's suggestion that you may have a separate grey water tank/drain field. My last home was set up this way for some sinks, showers and and the washing machine.

This is easy to discover. Run the water into each drain, one at a time. If the water does not drain into the main septic tank, there is another.

In our case, a 1940's septic field failed in the 1990's, so the previous owner routed that tank to a new, smaller greywater drain field and dug a new septic tank and field. Both were somewhat smaller than a single tank and field would have been.