This client regularly used a plumbing firm for years, well, till we came out at least. They told her her upstairs 2nd floor sink had soil backing up into it from the main sewer, and that their 25’ long drain machine cable needed to be longer and put in the main sewer cleanout on the outside of the house behind the kitchen sink wall.
The showed back up unannounced at 9 pm in the late evening in the dark with more equipment, knocking on her door which did not leave the young mother with the newborn feeling at ease. Kind of creepy! She sent them on their way.
Just over the phone, we knew that plumbing firm was fabulist because sewage under a two story home does not climb up the second story.
The slop in the sink was just decades old organic debris comprised of old hair, washing hands, dead skin cells and bacteria that colonized it all into a black brew. We disconnected the drain p trap as there was no cleanout, being careful not to damage the soft plastic trap crown seal, a common scam tactic by the foot-in-the-door high pressure sales plumbing companies that offer drain services for way below cost, we cabled it with a 25’ foot cable, encountering the problem in about 8’, got through it, reassembled the drain, rain the sink for 15 minutes, and cleaned up the whole area like the house help. The previous plumbing firm claimed the main sewer cleanout outside coming out of the kitchen sink wall was backing up and they needed to send a main sewer able in it. That wasn’t truthful either, there was no evidence of it backing up and we tested it anyway. It was a 2” diameter drain cleanout for the kitchen only, no professional would ever do something as negligent as putting a powerful main sewer cable in a 2” plastic drain…well, unless they were trying to make up for the foot-in-the -door lowball price they quoted by selling the client more procedures they did not need at all.
We inexpensively resolved the lavatory sink stoppage with our 25’ long power feed cable machine, saving the client a lot of money and aggravation. We did advise her not having a proper pop up or grid strainer in the sinkas seen below allows hair to get intothe drain and clog it, and worse, foreign objects by toddlers to get intothe drain system.
Drainage reestablished, completed cleaned and disinfected by us as part of the service as seen below:
