Sewer Backing up in our Basement Toilet! Help, Any ideas?
Phil Masucci Plumbing
973-763-8420
philtheplumber.net
Anyone here end up having to replace the line to the street? Who did you use and were you happy with the work?
chitojr said:
Just happen to us on Tuesday. Raw sewage (poo) all over laminate basement floor. Plumber said it was a combination of roots in the sewer line and two ply toilet paper. Servpro came and ripped out the floor. Has anyone installed a stamped and stained concrete floor? This is the second time this has happened and I am done putting in floors!
Consider a back flow preventer before doing any other floor work. Concrete is porous so I don't know the implications of having sewage laying on it...
I had sewage back up into my basement and it was awful. AWFUL! Anything touched by sewage is contaminated and should be thrown out. I had thousands of dollars worth of stuff hauled away, and whatever was left was cleaned with industrial strength bleach and then dried with big fans. I had the basement toilet removed, and the pipe sealed and cemented over. I also had a back-flow preventer installed. It was an expensive nightmare but I felt like Scarlett shaking my fist at the sky and shouting "As God is my witness, I'll never have this happen again."
This thread reminds me that it is time to apply the root killer again. We have been doing this twice a year and it really helps. Not sure how to do this if the basement toilet has been sealed as in Rivoli's case. Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of the process could advise.
I had the same problem (basement toilet) many years ago. The plumber snaked it all out to the street and told me that in these old houses (mine is 1914) we can't use "fancy" toilet paper. He recommended only using the one ply "Scott 1000" or similar CVS or Marcal single ply. Ever since that change we have no problems, even while using flushable wipes sometimes.
It is a problem that no one never wants repeated...yuck!
Received the same advice from a plumber a couple years ago too -- the standard scott or marcal dissolves very easily in water and will not contribute to any backups ...
OliveBee said:
I had the same problem (basement toilet) many years ago. The plumber snaked it all out to the street and told me that in these old houses (mine is 1914) we can't use "fancy" toilet paper. He recommended only using the one ply "Scott 1000" or similar CVS or Marcal single ply. Ever since that change we have no problems, even while using flushable wipes sometimes.
It is a problem that no one never wants repeated...yuck!
We are in a "rural" area of NJ, Warren County. Here, we have to have our own septic systems. At about $29,000, we just installed our own system. Amazing. Our yard is too small for a standard system, so we had to put in an alternate one. It's hooked up to.a phone, which calls the maintenance office automatically if there's a problem. This, after nearly 30 years of very primitive shared tank system.
It's been an extraordinary year.
Tilia