Toiled bubbleing when sink is drained..

[eblend]

So I am building my bathroom in the basement and just hooked everything up. The whole basement was roughed in already and I didn't move anything, simply set the toilet on the pipe that was sticking from the bottom, put P trap on the sink and connected it to the inlet on the vent (I think its a vent, long pipe going up with a T at the bottom with another pipe section which I tied into, and for the tub there was a pipe under the cover to which I added a p trap and was all set. Just hooked things up a few days ago and noticed that when running the tap on the sink the water would curgle in the toilet, and then eventually the tub would start to get filled with water from the drain side.

Anyone have any idea what this could be? I am reading online and some people say it is a venting issue, while others say it is a clogged line.

Any suggestions? Any plumbers on board that want to help me out?

Thanks

By the way, all of the pipeing passed city of calgary inspection under my plumbing permit

[dr_jared88]

Well it could be either of those but it's more likely a venting issue. Is it possibly the vent is capped off on the roof?

[eblend]

Originally posted by dr_jared88
Well it could be either of those but it's more likely a venting issue. Is it possibly the vent is capped off on the roof?

I guess it is possible, but isn't the vent required for the rest of the plumbing in the house, or are there separate vents for different bathrooms.

All the other pipes were capped off in the basement, I just assumed that the vent pipe was shared, no?

If it is capped off, I will need one tall ass ladder, what does the vent look like at the top?

[Mibz]

Bubble bubble toilet trouble

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/24/66697520_c45d1ff78a.jpg

[garnet]

are your other bathroom or kitchen directly overtop of, or sharing the side wall of the vent line you are using?

if not, then possibly are not tied into that, and so it could be capped, not being in use (til now)

if your existing bath or kitchen are on same wall above, then vent line would be in use (shared) and not capped

it's unlikely, but roof vent could be blocked by snow/ice over?



Originally posted by eblend


I guess it is possible, but isn't the vent required for the rest of the plumbing in the house, or are there separate vents for different bathrooms.

All the other pipes were capped off in the basement, I just assumed that the vent pipe was shared, no?

If it is capped off, I will need one tall ass ladder, what does the vent look like at the top?

[garnet]

if you pour a bucket of water into the toilet does it come up in the tub, and vis versa?

[speedog]

We had the same issue in our basement bathroom this past year - we verified all vents were clear and properly installed and what the trouble eventually proved to be was a back-up valve in the sewer line for that basement bathroom that was stuck partially closed and was getting jammed up with wet-ones that one family member was flushing down the toilet. Fixed the back-up valve, redefined the rules of what should be flushed down the toilet and all has been great now.

[garnet]

^^ that's exactly what to try and determine, if water rises between the 2 lowest drains (toilet & tub) then we will know if the main drainage is a problem, otherwise the water should escape to that direction first

[eblend]

None of the bathrooms overlap, and are in different locations on each floor, so it is possible. I will try to climb up on the roof once it warms up a bit and take a look.

Running the sink by itself causes the bubbleing in the toilet, and then after a while the bath tub starts to fill up, if you flush the toilet at this moment more water will fill the tub. Seems to escape after a while and drain

[garnet]

okay, so there is definitely some blockage between your toilet/tub and the main drainage, and result is the backup from one ot the other

being at the lowest level, those drains would/should tie directly into the main 4"

otherwise the water would flow out the main directly (path of least resistance)

how old is the house?



Originally posted by eblend
None of the bathrooms overlap, and are in different locations on each floor, so it is possible. I will try to climb up on the roof once it warms up a bit and take a look.

Running the sink by itself causes the bubbleing in the toilet, and then after a while the bath tub starts to fill up, if you flush the toilet at this moment more water will fill the tub. Seems to escape after a while and drain

[eblend]

Originally posted by garnet
okay, so there is definitely some blockage between your toilet/tub and the main drainage, and result is the backup from one ot the other

being at the lowest level, those drains would/should tie directly into the main 4"

otherwise the water would flow out the main directly (path of least resistance)

how old is the house?




Built in 2006, so not that old. I guess time to get some tools and try to snake the line.

[speedog]

We snaked our line quite a bit and that only temporarily fixed the problem and it wasn't until I opened up the back-up valve that I found the problem. Had the city in to scope our line to the main sewer (50's neighborhood) and could see everything was clear to the main - that showed me the problem was internal to our own mains, secondary sewer main for the downstairs bathroom had it's own back-up valve that was the problem. Check to see how many back-up valves our in your house.

[garnet]

hm, it might not be a blockage you can snake, if there was that much of a main blockage, you should have seen other issues before now, like slow drainage

it appears to be between that branch and the main, limiting flow and causing the backfill
i'd say it's acting like a negative flow situ, but being the below slab, tied direct to main, that isn't too likely

it's possible you have a backflow preventer on that branch, and is causing a problem, having moving parts, they can potentially cause problems, sticking partially closed/open

blocked venting is possibility too, would cause slow drainage, but it wouldn't necessarily cause water to backfill



Originally posted by eblend


Built in 2006, so not that old. I guess time to get some tools and try to snake the line.

[eblend]

Got the problem resolved! Thanks everyone for the input. I was going to snake the line, but my all knowlegable realtor (barmanjay) sent me a txt message informing me that the valve should be easily accessible through the floor panels that I have in the basement. I lifted the panel and after removing like a ton of rock, I saw a hand tighened screw cover. Unscrewed it, and sure enough, there was the back-flow valve, and sure enough, it wasn't moving easily, was kind of stuck. I pried it opened and cleaned the rubber surface as it appeared to have some abs glue on it. Put everything back in and whola, no more problems! Jay informed me that since the 2005 flood (i think thats the year) a backflow thing has to be either installed or accessible (don't recall which, sick as a dog when I got the messages), and feeling reasonably okay today I decided to go looking for it.

Thanks guys

[Mibz]

Grats, can everybody now pay attention to how hilarious my post was?

[Mar]

Originally posted by Mibz
Grats, can everybody now pay attention to how hilarious my post was? I laughed out loud. And when my dad looked at me funny I had to explain everything to him, he was doubly interested since he just put a bathroom into our summer home.

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Mibz
Grats, can everybody now pay attention to how hilarious my post was?

toilet trouble? Brilliant!!! It had me slapping my knees with laughter for days!! :thumbsup:

[Mibz]

Haha, thanks guys. I appreciate it.

[Kloubek]

You ARE the man Mibz.

Now that we have eblend's question answered, I have one of my own:

When we built our house, we paid extra to have a 3pc bathroom roughed in. Sure enough, there is a drain pipe in the wall for the sink, and a tube with a cap for the toilet.

But there is nothing for the shower drain. The only thing we can see in the area are three of those blue plastic discs embedded into the concrete. When we lift up the covers on these discs, all we see is gravel. Is there supposed to be a pipe hidden under the gravel for us to tie into, or is a roughed-in bathroom supposed to include the drain in the same manner that the toilet is? (Sticking up through the concrete and capped)

[Mibz]

Our rough-in also has a blue disc for the shower but we've never pulled it up. Now you've got me wondering.

[Kloubek]

We have three of those blue discs.... I guess they are giving us options?

I know I just posted, but someone on here has gotta know the answer....

[barmanjay]

dig down under that cap

will either be:

clean-out access
back-flow valve
shower/tub drain

if not,.. you got screwed and you'll have to break out the concrete to add that drain

[Kloubek]

Thanks Jay. How does one know what is what when digging? I mean, I'd venture to guess both a drain and a clean-out access would appear as a capped tube.... no?

And if they didn't install it, then I'm not screwed. THEY are screwed since I'll be bringing them back in to install a drain. :)

[barmanjay]

typical back-flow valves i've seen used in calgary,.. the 2nd one is more common (cheaper):

*images picked off google

http://floodgateireland.com/images/pipes1.jpg
http://www.canplasplumbing.com/images/products/specialty_plumbing/backwater_valves.gif

And on this mess below

there are 2 main clean outs and of course the toilet stack with the orange cap

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/Calm_Blue_Ocean/PlumbingPuzzle.jpg

The tub/shower should be a 2" capped pipe under there,.. blue or orange cap that would still need a p-trap.

May have to dig down up to 8-12" below the top of the concrete.

[eblend]

The blue disks are what I was talking about for the access covers in my post, under those is where i found the valve, and under there is also where I found my tub drain. For me it was easy to understand what is what as whoever roughed the bathroom in had a good idea of how it was going to be layed out, and that is exactly how i made it function. Have to dig about a foot into the rocks to see what is there.