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JCDammeyer's 42 projects

I did nothing on the LinuxCNC machine today. No writing of the document describing how it works. No testing with larger direction change

Instead responded to SWMBO calling from downstairs bathroom. Upstairs toilet had been flushed earlier. Downstairs was overflowing with brown liquid. Show stall had 4" of brown liquid. Water all over the floor leaking under the walls into the rest of the lower level.

Plunger useless. Went outside. Opened first access to sewer. Hose water into that. All vanished down the pipe so blockage before that. Bunch of bailing of water from shower stall dumping it into outside access. Plunger ineffective. Pushed liquid into toilet rather than down drain.

Pulled toilet out and ran snake (25') and unable to clear obstruction.

Finally found a plumber who had a camera and might be able (overtime) to do it later in the day. So Linda and I headed out to go eat something since the sewer system in the house was non-operational. Five minutes out we go a call that he was on the way. Managed to get turned around in rush hour traffic and arrived back at the house 1 minute before the plumber.

BTW. He loved the machine shop and noted that it as running Linux.

Anyway to make a long adventure short his camera showed an obstruction and he pushed it through.

After that he ran a cool tool with dual cutting blades to get rid of roots etc. At end of it all discovered that some of the ABS pipe appears to have been cracked and compressed. The bigger blade couldn't get past it while a smaller went under and cleaned out the rest of the ABS pipe.

So now I have to dig a trench, uncover the pipe that leads from the house to the first access point and find the broken section. Likely right under a concrete curb.
 
Ugh. By curb do you mean potentially on your property vs city? Next door house went through something similar. The scope/data showed obstruction clearly under the street but it took some yanking to get City crew mobilized. Of course the best time for this to happen is when its -30C
 
jcdammeyer said:
I did nothing on the LinuxCNC machine today. No writing of the document describing how it works. No testing with larger direction change

Instead responded to SWMBO calling from downstairs bathroom. Upstairs toilet had been flushed earlier. Downstairs was overflowing with brown liquid. Show stall had 4" of brown liquid. Water all over the floor leaking under the walls into the rest of the lower level.

Plunger useless. Went outside. Opened first access to sewer. Hose water into that. All vanished down the pipe so blockage before that. Bunch of bailing of water from shower stall dumping it into outside access. Plunger ineffective. Pushed liquid into toilet rather than down drain.

Pulled toilet out and ran snake (25') and unable to clear obstruction.

Finally found a plumber who had a camera and might be able (overtime) to do it later in the day. So Linda and I headed out to go eat something since the sewer system in the house was non-operational. Five minutes out we go a call that he was on the way. Managed to get turned around in rush hour traffic and arrived back at the house 1 minute before the plumber.

BTW. He loved the machine shop and noted that it as running Linux.

Anyway to make a long adventure short his camera showed an obstruction and he pushed it through.

After that he ran a cool tool with dual cutting blades to get rid of roots etc. At end of it all discovered that some of the ABS pipe appears to have been cracked and compressed. The bigger blade couldn't get past it while a smaller went under and cleaned out the rest of the ABS pipe.

So now I have to dig a trench, uncover the pipe that leads from the house to the first access point and find the broken section. Likely right under a concrete curb.
Click to expand...
Eegads. That I get and would only wish that on my worst enemies. Sewer backup destroys so much and is so nasty. My condolences on your situation. I hope insurance won't be a battle for you also.
 
That is a massive pain, the only things that have been designed to prevent backups don’t work with a blocked/restricted pipe, and can cause other problems that still end with a backup.
Good luck with the dig and repair.
 
Status. At the first clean-out I found the top of the ABS pipe that leads to the house. That's 19" from the grass surface. After the first 5" or so it's hardpan with big rocks. Like the one in the second photo. The trench becomes wider when that has to be removed.

Granted the depth will decrease a bit as I get closer to the house. The guess is the damage to the pipe is below the concrete curb there in front of the flower/garden bed. Hopefully it's not under the planter or pad.
I'm already feeling to old for this level of digging.
1760725472716.png1760725506396.png
 
jcdammeyer said:
I did nothing on the LinuxCNC machine today. No writing of the document describing how it works. No testing with larger direction change

Instead responded to SWMBO calling from downstairs bathroom. Upstairs toilet had been flushed earlier. Downstairs was overflowing with brown liquid. Show stall had 4" of brown liquid. Water all over the floor leaking under the walls into the rest of the lower level.

Plunger useless. Went outside. Opened first access to sewer. Hose water into that. All vanished down the pipe so blockage before that. Bunch of bailing of water from shower stall dumping it into outside access. Plunger ineffective. Pushed liquid into toilet rather than down drain.

Pulled toilet out and ran snake (25') and unable to clear obstruction.

Finally found a plumber who had a camera and might be able (overtime) to do it later in the day. So Linda and I headed out to go eat something since the sewer system in the house was non-operational. Five minutes out we go a call that he was on the way. Managed to get turned around in rush hour traffic and arrived back at the house 1 minute before the plumber.

BTW. He loved the machine shop and noted that it as running Linux.

Anyway to make a long adventure short his camera showed an obstruction and he pushed it through.

After that he ran a cool tool with dual cutting blades to get rid of roots etc. At end of it all discovered that some of the ABS pipe appears to have been cracked and compressed. The bigger blade couldn't get past it while a smaller went under and cleaned out the rest of the ABS pipe.

So now I have to dig a trench, uncover the pipe that leads from the house to the first access point and find the broken section. Likely right under a concrete curb.
Click to expand...
Sh!tty..... well, at least you have good digging weather.
 
jcdammeyer said:
Status. At the first clean-out I found the top of the ABS pipe that leads to the house. That's 19" from the grass surface. After the first 5" or so it's hardpan with big rocks. Like the one in the second photo. The trench becomes wider when that has to be removed.

Granted the depth will decrease a bit as I get closer to the house. The guess is the damage to the pipe is below the concrete curb there in front of the flower/garden bed. Hopefully it's not under the planter or pad.
I'm already feeling to old for this level of digging.
View attachment 71580View attachment 71581
Click to expand...
Pony up the cash and call a hydrodig truck. They'll have it uncovered in short order without making a huge mess.
 
The typical culprit is incorrect backfill layer/procedure over the pipe. Some folks are of the opinion the ditch is a great place to push back rocks or boulders. Even if not compromised by this action, the weight or normal heaving can stress the pipe to failure. Mind you, even roots from trees have been known to breach perfectly good pipes. 101 ways to mess up your day. Good luck.
 
Doggggboy said:
Pony up the cash and call a hydrodig truck. They'll have it uncovered in short order without making a huge mess.
Click to expand...
Given that I went through 8 plumbing firms to find one who could come quickly I'm not sure how long I'd wait for a hydrodig truck and what sort of additional damage them might do.

The camera measurement was 10' or so from the clean-out and that junction is somewhere under or just to the left of it in this photo. I've excavated 5' so far. What's interesting too is there is a joint at about 2' that appears to be surrounded by concrete.

I get out of breath so quickly the next 5' will take another 5 hours I suspect.

1760733523339.png
 
Here's a snapshot of what the plumber called crushed pipe. He couldn't get his larger cutter through. Had to drop down to 2.5" and even there he figures it turned sideways and slipped under.

This is about 10' from the white PVC clean-out pipe which goes down at an angle towards the road. So my guess is I have to maybe dig another 4'.

PipeCamera-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
jcdammeyer said:
What's interesting too is there is a joint at about 2' that appears to be surrounded by concrete.
Click to expand...
Common to negative buoyancy pipes in water/offshore applications, but not your back yard dirt LOL. I wonder if it was some kind of attempted protection/stabilized 'fix' over a joint. The mystery continues.
 
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