Problem: Solved!

I can’t say enough how fortunate I’ve been to live in a smaller town throughout this process. This was reaffirmed yet again during Clog-pacolypse.

It turns out I had a pretty major clog in the drain line below the kitchen sink. The kitchen is, of course, one of the rooms built over the crawl space. Luckily for me, a local plumbing contractor was able to come over (within about five minutes of me calling, mind you) and assess the situation. They found a point in the line where the cast iron ‘main drain’ transitioned down to galvanized pipe and then down again to PVC. All the transitions in such a short span and some abandoned drain segments gave food particles and other junk a place to pile up, hence, a clog.

Not only was I impressed that they could wiggle back into the crawl space, but I was further impressed when they had dug out a portion of the pipe, cut out a section, and replaced it with a nice new section of PVC that streamlined the whole drainage situation. Replacing this area fixed my clog problem and – hopefully – fixed any future issues I may have. And it wasn’t crazy-expensive – triple bonus!

Trouble. Right here in River City..

As we speak, there’s a skinny little plumber man in my crawlspace cutting pipes and straightening out old drain lines that have started to show their flaws. Hopefully by the end of the day I’ll be able to shower without water pooling at my feet AND drain the water from my kitchen sink..

Diggin' in the dirt

After cutting the old drain pipe out, Dad scooped some crud out of the pipe and we thoroughly cleaned it out with the hose. This way, we're sure there aren't obstructions in the line (for at least 20 or 30 feet) and that water will still drain properly - we didn't ruin anything! ;)

The old clay pipe was - you guessed it - a non-standard size. We used a pair of Fernco rubber couplings to decrease the size of the pipe from the 5" clay down to the 2" PVC. This also insures a better seal as you can't glue or solder to clay. (The skinny white pipe is drainage from the furnace)

Ta-Da! New drain installed and draining like a champ! AND, the sewer gas smell is totally gone from the house!
That little loopy-loop (P-trap) just below the grate stores just enough water to seal out any gas from backing up through the line into the room - the other drain was just a straight pipe with a drain hole, so it makes sense that it would have failed.
This project wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We're letting everything settle for a while before filling the hole in; once we're confident there are no leaks or malfunctions, we'll tamp the dirt, backfill with gravel, and pour new concrete sloping everything toward the new drain. 

What do you want to do today?

I've been having a little bit of a problem with sewer gas, lately. Not the most glamorous subject, but why start with glamorous now? Anyway, the most obvious culprit is the floor drain in the basement. It's a relatively easy fix and one that we can do cheaply enough. If nothing else, we'll be able to check it off the list of possible offenders before moving on to something more expensive.
Step one was scoring the concrete with a masonry blade..which would have been significantly less dusty with a wetsaw..

After scoring the floor with the saw, we broke the concrete out with a sledge hammer and carried it out in buckets. As you can see, we ended up making the hole bigger so that we could work around the drain a little easier. Once we removed some of the debris from the drain, it really started smelling..hence the towel plugging the hole.

This drain is what they call a "bell" style drain. We'll be replacing it with one that has an integrated trap - the trap creates a seal which prevents any sewer gas from backing up through the line and out into the room. Our challenge now is rounding up all the pieces and parts to fit this non-standard-size clay piping. More tonight..stay tuned!