jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
|
Post by jellybones on Jun 2, 2022 11:50:28 GMT -5
Our house is on well and septic. We get our septic pumped out every couple years which should be adequate since it's just my wife and me. The tech from the septic company also inspects our system and it has always been in good working order.
In the past couple years, we have been having drainage back ups into our kitchen sink. It's gross and it smells about as good as you'd imagine. The timing of the backups bear no relation to when we've last used water--they could happen hours after our morning showers, for example. Nor does it appear to have anything to do with a saturated field. We have it happen on bone-dry days and in the middle of our Chicago winters when it's well below freezing out.
In trying to solve this, we've got opinions from a couple plumbers ("it's a septic issue" and "your kitchen sink isn't vented properly" and/or "your upstairs bathroom plumbing is causing the issue") and from the septic guys ("it's a plumbing issue; your septic's fine"). Our contractor thinks that our lines need to be rodded out or at least inspected at the junction in our basement where all the pipes meet before heading out to the septic.
FWIW, our kitchen sink is the only place it does this. We have a couple sinks on the next lower level (laundry and powder room) as well as a floor drain in our laundry room. So you'd think that any back ups would occur at one of these lower drain sites. Not so.
Appreciate your opinions as we go about solving this Scooby-Doo mystery.
|
|
matryx81
Wholenote
I think I know the reason but I can't spell it.
Posts: 771
|
Post by matryx81 on Jun 2, 2022 12:37:19 GMT -5
your kitchen sink isn't vented properly I am hardly a plumber, but I wonder if it is this. Since it is only the sink, I would bet the problem lies there. If you still have cast iron pipes (I did until 2018), perhaps they are just old? |
|
|
|
Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jun 2, 2022 13:08:48 GMT -5
I would first cam the vent stack to see if there's any debris in there, and then cam the drain line from the sink into the soil pipe.
Reason: Chances are good the kitchen sink is not the lowest drain in your system. If you have a blockage in the main soil pipe feeding the septic system, other drains would be backing up and overflowing before the kitchen sink backs up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 2, 2022 14:18:50 GMT -5
How old is your house? Some older rural homes had the kitchen sink drain to a separate drywell, not to the septic. One way they can check is to open the septic, drain water through the kitchen sink that contains a dye and see if it is introduced to the septic tank.
Edit to add: This happened to my brother in laws house when we visited last summer. It was long thought that he had the separate drywell for the kitchen sink and was repeatedly told he had to get some re-plumbing done. Finally a guy did the dye thing and discovered that it was in fact routed to the septic. Plumbing hidden behind a dry walled basement complicated the diagnosis. A snake long enough to reach the septic took care of the blockage.
|
|
jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
|
Post by jellybones on Jun 2, 2022 14:53:46 GMT -5
Guys, thanks for the input.
Our drain pipes are PVC in the house. The house was built in the early '80s. I don't think there's a separate drywell. Geno, thanks for suggestion on getting a camera in there.
What I don't get is why waste water would randomly back up into the kitchen sink if nobody had been using water in the house for a few hours. Where would that water have come from?
|
|
argo
Wholenote
Posts: 398
|
Post by argo on Jun 2, 2022 16:04:15 GMT -5
Have you done any remodeling or other type of construction lately? Does the water slowly disappear by itself? My first vote would also be the venting, and then somehow check to see if you have a horizontal waste line and is it level, You do NOT want that!!
|
|
argo
Wholenote
Posts: 398
|
Post by argo on Jun 2, 2022 16:16:20 GMT -5
ALSO! Something must be creating a siphoning effect in the waste line, as if air is being introduced or forced into the drain. Does the smell or taste of your tap water change?
|
|
jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
|
Post by jellybones on Jun 2, 2022 21:47:41 GMT -5
We have done some remodeling including in the kitchen but this problem preexisted our remodeling work. We added an island with a small sink last year that is farther away from the septic than the original kitchen sink. When there’s a back up, it now happens in our new island sink. Not sure if it’s relevant or not that it’s farther away but we don’t appear to be having an issue in our main kitchen sink any longer.
When it backs up, it makes a bubbling noise quite loudly. Then it stops and I can hear the pipes make a faint groaning noise almost in response to a change in pressure or perhaps it’s a stethoscope–like effect as the water recedes down the drain line.
|
|
michael
Wholenote
Recent Retiree
Posts: 620
Age: old enough to know better and not care
|
Post by michael on Jun 3, 2022 6:04:09 GMT -5
that's a toughie... we had a similar backup problem in the laundry sink that turned out to be a clog past the washer that slowed the flow from it backing up into the pipes from the sink. the washer line WAS draining but really slow. it was filling up and backing into the sink drain, but there was enough pipe there to hold it all and it would drain, eventually.
but if we used the laundry sink the drain would fill and it appeared that the sink drain was the one that was clogged. i could never figure the pattern, because the laundry loads were never the same and different amounts of water were used so the drain time was different. i was snaking the sink drain but nothing was helping.
i started telling the saga but there were too many words, so to make it readable, i finally figured out what was going on and managed to get a snake down the washer drain and pulled out a huge wad of stuff. so far it's been free for 2 years.
the basement system is separate from the upstairs... cast iron pipes in concrete. i've read about how cast iron deteriorates and causes clogs. i've recently been shown a way to fix that problem... there is a liner they can insert. i'm not sure how it would work here. we have 3 floor drains, a shower, lavatory, commode, laundry sink and washer with a drain from each going to one corner where it goes outside. i hope we move before that becomes a problem.
|
|
|
|
Post by K4 on Jun 3, 2022 9:35:13 GMT -5
When it backs up, it makes a bubbling noise quite loudly. That is a sure sign of a venting problem. |
|
|
|
Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jun 4, 2022 0:56:14 GMT -5
What I don't get is why waste water would randomly back up into the kitchen sink if nobody had been using water in the house for a few hours. Where would that water have come from? Is your laundry area on the same level as your kitchen? The washer can dump several gallons into a common drain line; iif there's a restriction in the line, it could back up into the sink. Alternatively: do you have a sump pump? It's against code for a sump to eject into the main drain from the house, but some folks don't follow the rules... |
|
jellybones
Wholenote
Posts: 181
Formerly Known As: Gelee Bon (en francais)
|
Post by jellybones on Jun 4, 2022 8:25:08 GMT -5
Our laundry room is on a floor lower than our kitchen. Our main sump pump drains into a corrugated hose buried in our backyard.
Our second sump pump which very rarely runs – at least, I’ve never heard it run - does drain into our main line out to the septic tank. Again, just based on how infrequently it runs, I have a hard time believing that it would be the cause. But then again, I’m not a plumber.
|
|
