Need info from someone who knows!

[COlin Hopgood]

Someone below named “Shasta” seems to have this same problem…

I live in Northern VA and we have had as much rain in the first 6 months of this year as we normally get all year round. I live in the basement and recently the toilet began to do some strange stuff. At first I heard bubbling noises and saw the water level go way down in the bowl. Then after waking up the next morning I noticed the rug was wet around the toilet, and even out into the main room. Here are the symptoms:
-waste is backing up into the bowl, including stuff from an upstairs toilet, but more strangely we saw green blades of grass or some other type of foliage… how could that get in there??
– when we turn on the water in the sink the toilet bubbles and more comes up… but it hasnt overflowed…
– we had this problem back in January and the year before that in January as well. A plumber came out and couldnt find anything wrong… it just sort of seemed to right itself… but this time its been 5 days straight and each morning I have to wake up and wet-vac up the water from the carpet.

If you have any idea about what this might be please post your msg.

Thanks

[John Aldrich1Participant]

Puertopotty, I assume that your home is served by a centralized sewage collection system. The presence of blades of grass or foliage in the sewage indicates that the sewage is coming from a flooded sewer main that is backing up. The grass and foliage also indicate that the sewer main is in bad shape and is allowing extensive inflow and infiltration of storm water, or the sewer may be a combined sanitary sewer and storm sewer.

Installation of a check valve or one-way valve in the sewer outlet pipe will prevent the sewage in the main from entering your home, but if the sewer main is flooded, the sewage generated from your home will not flow into the main. In other words, you are “sewage out of luck” if this is the case. You must convince the sewage service provider to upgrade their sewage collection system. Good Luck!!!

John Aldrich (Septic Tank Yank)
Septic System Consultant
Timnath, Colorado

[PuertopottyParticipant]

Thank you so much for your information. I’ll get on the phone with the city and see what I can do.
Take care
Tim

[Robert Stephen MortonParticipant]

John, the problem may well be that the household drainage system is simply blocked & the upstairs tenants were raided by the fuzz & so flushed their grass down the loo.
Bob

[John Aldrich1Participant]

Bob, that possibility never entered my mind. I am quite familiar with the Alexandria, Virginia, USA area. I served three years of military service at Fort Myer, Virginia, as a soldier in the US Army Honor Guard, and Alexandria is in very close proximity to the Fort.

The reason that I discount your marijuana theory is that most of the population of the Alexandria area are faithful and dedicated employees of the United States Government. I choose to believe that these dedicated folks would not have anything to do with an illegal mind altering substance. For you see, the possession, use, or sale of marijuana is against the law here in America, the land of the free. I understand that the great land of OZ also prohibits the use of this substance.

Perhaps if we repealed these laws that remove some personal freedoms, and some of the Federal employees were to take advantage of some “kind bud”, we Americans would experience better performance on the part of those employees, and perhaps more reasonable federal policies on all fronts. :>)

Sorry for the delay in responding, but this is my third attempt. The first two attempts were foiled by AOL. I composed the responses while on-line. Both times AOL decided that I had been on-line long enough, and disconnected me without the opportunity to save what I had composed. This same scenario has occurred on several other occasions, so from now on I will compose my responses in a Word document and then paste it to the response page.

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