# New customer, drain’s still not open



## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Picked up a new customer last week. They manage the maintenance for HOs, Ada bath remods, a bunch of other stuff too. 

I met the owner at his clients home Thursday for a lav drain. No big deal right. Tried cabling it, pulled back roots. Cast iron underground, but in the mechanical room next to the bathroom you can see a floor repair. The previous owner did a bunch of remodeling and the lav drain is pvc going into the floor. (Had to bring it up to code, it was an S trap.) After doing some more testing I believe the main was partially plugged, however not backing up yet.

We had a good amount of rain and the phone kept going off ringing with sump pump and flooded main lines including the company’s own house, which went well.

Got back today, met the HO and got more history about his house. Cabled the main, roots. Went for a second attempt at the lav. Pulled out more roots but still couldn’t get it to drain. Tried plunging, didn’t work. I hate doing this, but I shopvacked out as much water as I could and poured clobber into the clean out. Turned the stops off and going back next Monday.

I don’t have a whole lot of faith, once I get my clogchopper to the bad spot, about 3’ away, it’ll spin, not bind, but I had to give it a heck of a yank to get it out.

Just another oddball drain... just wish it wasn’t the first job for a new customer.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Forgot the pic....


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## fixitright (Jan 5, 2012)

Clobber??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????REALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

I know. Last ditch effort. If this does or doesn’t work the HO knows his floor needs to be busted up. I don’t think there’s a stack behind the stool to wash. Hoping to just get it open until we can schedule the bust up.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

fixitright said:


> Clobber??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????REALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


From the guy who always says he has 100 pounds of lye. Hmmmm?


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Hack plumbing and roots....Not good.

Make sure to wear a rain suit, face shield and rubber boots. Remember the thai post with the burned guy with acid?


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

It does drain, or I guess you could say seep, but, yeah, full on PPE!

I’ve used it once before and that time it was a whole bottle. This time I could only get a quarter in the line.


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## Standard Drain (Feb 17, 2016)

Candidate for some Root X?


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Standard Drain said:


> Candidate for some Root X?


I thought about that too. We didn’t have any on the truck, and the bottle of clobber claims it works on organic material. 

We’ll find out come Monday.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Just a few thoughts. If there ain't any water or not very much then the acid won't dilute so much to be ineffective. I wonder how long for the roots to break off.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

From my clean out to the 90 it felt like about 2’. I sucked outas much water as I could, I’m guessing 6” tops, so plenty of water.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Cabled the lav again today. Got past that spot surprisingly a few times. No more roots, drains but doesn’t really keep up with the faucet. Pulled back dirt. So we’ll be repairing it sometime in the next few weeks. Thankfully there are many more bathrooms in the house and this one is hardly ever used.


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## Debo22 (Feb 15, 2015)

OpenSights said:


> Cabled the lav again today. Got past that spot surprisingly a few times. No more roots, drains but doesn’t really keep up with the faucet. Pulled back dirt. So we’ll be repairing it sometime in the next few weeks. Thankfully there are many more bathrooms in the house and this one is hardly ever used.


Install a low flow aerator on the faucet and good to go :thumbsup:


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

It’ll eventually back up again. If there’s no stack behind the stool we can run a new line behind the stool wrap around the corner into a mechanical room and tie in a different stack.


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## sparky (Jan 8, 2014)

OpenSights said:


> Cabled the lav again today. Got past that spot surprisingly a few times. No more roots, drains but doesn’t really keep up with the faucet. Pulled back dirt. So we’ll be repairing it sometime in the next few weeks. Thankfully there are many more bathrooms in the house and this one is hardly ever used.


The clobber ate the pipe up and that why you getting dirt back lolololo:vs_laugh::vs_laugh::vs_laugh::vs_laugh:


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

House was built in the cast iron era. Lav drain is pvc into the cabinet base. When it was remodeled by the previous owner my guess is either they didn’t tie in with a proper connection or they tied on to old cast under the cabinet. Either way it’s going to be replaced or rerouted.


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