Concrete in drain

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

Have a little problem… When my tile guy was setting the tile in the BR, he slipped thinset into the toilet drain (found out after I moved in and the toilet didn’t work) it’s about the size of a potato just past the first elbow (about 3 feet down). The house is on a slab and I want digging to be my last resort. Does anyone know of anyway tool to break it so I can pull it out? Or any other idea would be greatly appreciated.

HELP!!!!!

[SylvanLMPParticipant]

Wow Déjà vu, I had this exact same job about 12 years ago in a nursing home.

It appears this tile guy used thin set and plugged up this 3″ cast Iron floor drain in the nursing homes kitchen.

The problem was the Quarry tile was already installed and these folks moved in when the board of health cited this non working drain.

They had two options

1- Chop open the floor and render the kitchen useless for a few days as this piping was replaced OR
2- Let me try to clear it using a heavy duty snake.

They decided to let me try and using a General 3/4″ wire snake we worked 14 hours straight switching heads several times per hour chipping away at this cement and gravel ball in the dip of the trap. After 14 hours we finally broke through and had full flow.
Now realize the following, there was no guarantee we could get this drain working and it did cost this nursing home $3,500.

Looking back in retrospect the nursing home did make out considering we were able to clear this stoppage with little loss in kitchen services.

This is a judgment call and like Dirty Harry says “Do you feel lucky”?

You can hire a drain guy to try several spear heads until they can increase the diameter of the cutter heads Good luck and TRY to back charge the thin set culprit

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SylvanLMP
[Edited by SylvanLMP on 08 May 2000]

[hjParticipant]

My customer’s drain had 10 feet of the stuff in it and there was no way to remove it without cutting the floor. His was a $8,000.00 job.

[Author]

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