# Commercial restroom- frequent toilet backups



## thumper (Aug 19, 2011)

The building maintenance wanted me to camera restroom drain due to frequent backups. Restroom was of course the Womens and it has an ADA and regular
gravity tank 3.5 gallon toilets. Drains are about 25 year old cast iron piping and looks typical for its age.
Here is the video, it is not what we send out to the customers. I made it for a friend whose kids use too much toilet paper and often plug up her toilet or drain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbCZQuT6Pnk#action=share

I know the camera is crooked! LOL


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

It looked like the first time you ran the camera in it went the wrong way, it was going upstream after the last turn it made. I have had jobs like that. The paper they were using was Charmin and would not break down with just water and caused many blockages. Once they went to the old style single ply Scott's they never had a backup again.

As for the sewer that is pretty typical. It can be made to look brand new again if you run a chain knocked through the line to descale the pipe. Also how often do you run the rod while the camera still in the line? Have you ever had to send your camera out for repairs? If yes how often?

I have sent my camera in lines with the rod still in the line to help guide the camera. But if I needed to run the rod I always removed my camera. This might be why I still am using the same camera head fir 20 years without repair. Don't get me wrong I have worn out the pushrod, but never broke my camera head.


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## thumper (Aug 19, 2011)

Thanks for looking at my first movie attempt SewerRatz. I still can't figure how to post pictures.

The camera did go down the line, I believe that was thru the branch of a wye fitting.

As far as running my rod while the camera is still in the line, my boss would agree with you. Actually if it was my Spartan 300 with 1/2" cable I would have pulled it out. I don't let the camera get past the head, so it would be the cable spinning against the camera cable. 

But yes it would be a good practice to pull out the camera 1st.


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

So, after running the camera, what was your recommendation to the customer ?


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## victoryplbaz (May 19, 2012)

I have had a lot of calls lately for women's restroom plugged up. Have always pulled the white mouse.. And a lot off them!


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## PlungerJockey (Feb 19, 2010)

Tell them to change toilet paper brands.

I've had a couple over the years that would back up, I would clear it and it would back up again.

We would camera the line and find the same thing, scale build up on the cast iron. We have even jetting a few of them. Tell them to lose the heavy quilted **** tickets and the problem will go away.


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## thumper (Aug 19, 2011)

So this commercial restroom also has seat covers, add that to a gravity tank toilet and you can expect occasional backups. They are not willing to remove the seat covers and will not have a monitor stay in the restroom to make sure the women don't flush down the paper towels, feminine products, too much toilet paper/seat covers....LOL.
My recommendation was to install pressure assist toilets, it would help breakup the toilet paper and seat covers during the flush.

The building maintenance usually take care of any backups, I was just there to figure out why it was happening.


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