My mother has a raised ranch house with a small bathroom with sink, commode and shower at ground level. There is no basement.

She has been plagued since she bought the house with clogged sewer line problems.

She last had a clog cleared with a snake in July.

I am temporarily staying with her for her health reasons and within the last month sewage backed into the shower twice.

I called in a plumber to use a camera to look in there and see what is going on. He said that the line from the small bathroom joins the main sewer line at a T. Clear water from the sink and shower makes it through but not so material from the commode. Ick.

The house was updated in the 1990's just before my mother bought it in 1996. The original toilet was probably replaced with a low flow model.

The plumber suggested that we replace the toilet with one that has pressure assist to help push the waste beyond the T.

I am all for it but my mother thinks it won't work.

I would appreciate advice.

The other options are to: dump a bucket of water down when we flush or remove the toilet and just have a "shower room".



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I'm not a fan of pressure assist toilets.

I prefer to modify existing toilet ( if possible ) to use more water per flush. If not possible to modify, buy one that you can.

I have done this several times with good success.

Raised foundation ? So you have access to piping ? Can offending fittings/pipe be replaced to correct problem ?

Plastic piping ? Cast iron ?

What is wrong with the tee to cause the stoppages ?

Thank you for your input.
The pipes are not accessible. They are under the garage floor. I don't think that there is anything that we can do other than with the commode. The fellow who cleaned the sewer pipe and then put the camera in just said that the stoppage was at the T but did not say that there was anything wrong with it.
I presumed that the toilet did not provide enough pressure to push the waste through because he said that adding more water with a bucket would help. That's an ok option if you don't have guests but it would be a bit embarrassing to ask guests to dump a bucket of water down when they flush. My mother is of the generation where that would matter.

Pressure assist toilets empty the bowl with less water, they don't increase pressure further down the line. They're vented to the outside air, so they can't. This plumber gave you bad advice. Something's wrong at the stoppage. It may be the way it is made or something that has happened since, such as a buildup of scale or a break. I think you need a better plumber. I suspect this one wants to sell you an expensive toilet.

Most tees underground are issues because they should most likely be a wye
It’s a waste of water but try double flushing after depositing solids



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Thank you for your response- to Mr Peabody.

I am sorry if my post was misleading, but the plumber did not suggest the pressure assist toilet. His thinking to add more water by adding a bucket of water to the flush. I came up with the idea of the pressure assist toilet because I did not understand that they did not add pressure down the line, so thank you for your explanation as I will no longer consider that type of toilet as an option.



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Thank you for your response- to bsipps,

The plumber did say that the connection should be a wye. He did not think it would be a good idea to try to change it at this point as it would cost a lot of money.

He put a camera in there so that I could see the problem. There is a bit of scaling but no break. All of these years we just had the sewer cleaned out when it clogged but since the frequency of these clean outs has increased, I decided it was time to take a look. Also, no one had ever asked the question "why is the backup in the shower and not in the garage floor drain"?

This is the first time that a camera has been used to look at what is going on. He found the problem in about 30 seconds as the clog was at the tee only a few feet from the cleanout. He cleared the clog and went back in with camera and showed me on the screen that there was nothing wrong with the sewer line from the tee on. I was astonished and very happy! I saw for myself.

His thinking was in line with yours and previous respondents to increase the amount of water in a flush.

I appreciate what I have learned from the responses in this forum.



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Perhaps if you were to post a picture or two of the inside of your toilet tank, someone might be able to give you suggestions to increase the amount of water per flush. It might be as simple as changing the flapper to a style that will stay open longer.



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We have a similar situation with our lower level toilet, and our solution is to hold the handle down when you flush any solids to be sure the tank empties fully and provides enough water to float the solids down the line.

Most lo-flow toilets only empty part of the tank when you flush, the flapper has a control to allow only part of the tank to empty before it closes. What's required to modify your flusher depends on make and model, so if you want to explore that I would post some photos so folks can see what you're working with.

For me the easy solution is just to hold the handle down on #2's, and you still get the benefit of lo-flow on #1's.



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Different opinion: now that you have identified the problem with high confidence, consider sawing into your garage floor to replace that T. To me, the peace of mind knowing that we will not have sewer backups into the house any more is worth the cost of a hatch in the garage floor.

I'm recommending sawing then installing a hatch instead of jack hammering then patching because it's neater and allows future access.