Half of drains cause floor drain in basement to overflow

[cardine45]

We most likely have a clog problem that we can't seem to resolve. These are the details:

The drain has been slow in the tub in bathroom #1 (located on the east end of the basement of our ranch home) for a while, but it was always keeping up pretty close and finished draining within 30 seconds of the end of a shower. Earlier this week, the toilet in bathroom #1 plugged so my husband plunged it, and a bunch of stuff backed up into the tub (he thought it was from the toilet, but I questioned if it had actually come from the garbage disposal). After that, the tub was extremely slow draining, and then water started backing up in the floor drain of our furnace room (there is no sink in this room, but the water softener and air conditioner drain there, and it's in the middle of the home to the west of bathroom 1). You could run less than a pencil sized stream of water before the floor drain started overflowing. We tested each of the drains after that, and bathroom #2 (located in the middle of the basement to the west of the furnace room) has had no effect on it, nor has bathroom #3 (located on the main floor to the west of bathroom 2 ). The kitchen (located above bathroom 1 on the main floor), and the laundry room (located to the north of the kitchen) both cause the furnace room floor drain to overflow as does bathroom 4 (located just to the west of the laundry room).

So far, we've tried Drano in the tub in bathroom 1, but that did nothing (we discovered the floor drain was backing up after we did that). We tried vinegar and baking soda in the kitchen, bathroom 1, and the floor drain and then slowly running water through, but that did nothing. We've tried dawn dish soap in all drains and then flushing them out (slowly in the drains that cause backups), but that did nothing. We tried a flat snake (loaned to us by a neighbor) through the floor drain, but we couldn't get it to maneuver the turns of the pipes. We tried forced air through the floor drain, but that just pushed back into bathroom 1 and started to cause a sewer gas smell. We tried leaving it completely alone for 24 hours, but that did nothing. We tried a 25 foot plumbing snake through the floor drain, but I'm fairly certain it kept going the wrong direction and kept heading east towards the bathroom rather than west towards the clog because it did nothing, and I can't imagine the clog is more than 25 feet to the west of the furnace room. We also tried the snake from bathroom 1, which likely only got us about five feet past the furnace room.

We then got a 50 foot snake, and ran it through twice from bathroom #1, but nothing changed. I attempted to run it from the floor drain in the furnace room but I couldn't get it past one of the turns because the 50 foot one doesn't have an auger on it (the 25 foot one did which made it much easier to get through the turns). None of our other drains are affected after using the 50 foot one, so it's not like I just pushed the clog further. Is it possible we have two outlets to the house, and what are the chances the clog is 50 feet away from the originating spot?
We checked each of the four vents through the roof, and they are all clear from a visual check as well.
Is it possible the snake is taking the wrong route without coming out another pipe? We looked and listened for any signs of it coming through the wrong area, and didn't notice that with the 25 or 50 foot snake.

 

[Ben-gee]

Sounds like a blockage.

Are you on main drains or Septic tank?
(Yes I know, not a nasty joke!)

I think you need to go outside and start lifting manholes until you find the blockage, this can then be rodded away.

 

[cardine45]

Sounds like a blockage.

Are you on main drains or Septic tank?
(Yes I know, not a nasty joke!)

I think you need to go outside and start lifting manholes until you find the blockage, this can then be rodded away.

We are on city sewer. Would we be likely to find the blockage outside if half of our drains are working perfectly fine? I feel like it has to be somewhere in the house between the lines if it's not affecting all of them.

 

[cardine45]

Update: We have a plumber scheduled to come out on Thursday (two days from now). We attempted the 50 foot snake through the floor drain, and I got it about 35 feet in before it was too hard to get it to keep going. I don't know if I hit the clog or if I was going through a bunch of twists and turns or something. I'll gladly take any suggestions if anyone has any prior to the plumber getting here so we could potentially fix it ourselves and save that money.

 

[cardine45]

Update: The plumber came out a couple days ago, and snaked from the nearest pipe to the outside which was a three inch pipe at the front of the inside of the house that I didn't know was there. They couldn't find an outside clean out. They made it about 60 feet when they hit something that was tough to get through, but they managed to clear it, and the remaining distance was clear. Based on the distance, it was highly likely tree roots. The plumber also said that it's unlikely we actually have two main drains, but we have two outlets to the house that meet up far outside the home to form the main drain which is why it wasn't affecting the whole house, and why they made it so far before hitting the issue. They recommended an enzyme for ongoing maintenance, and we will have it checked again in five years to see if we'll need to have it cleaned out regularly or if the enzyme is working to ensure it doesn't clog up again from the roots growing back through.