Check out this roto rooter

[stevej37]

Fun job!

[RWebb]

did it scoot out?

did you hoot when finished?

and... did you find any loot?

[Bill Douglas]

I've got a smaller version of that. It really works! My drain unblocker man has much the same thing. A coiled steel thing that looks like a spring, that rotates with an auger on the end.

[stevej37]

His foot is not on the go pedal...

Plus...his shirt is still blue.

[Baz]

I have a smaller version as well.......

[stevej37]

That Ryobi looks good for the job...but that blue thing needs three hands to work it.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by stevej37

That Ryobi looks good for the job...but that blue thing needs three hands to work it.

Yeah - I think that blue one was an impulse buy from HF......we all know how that goes...lol.....

The Ryobi rocks!

[porsche930dude]

I was doing a bathroom on the second floor of a big old house it was fancy. Alot of work to tear out. The old tub was solid plaster. super big and heavy. We never saw anything like it. The floor was impossible to tear out. They put planks 3" below the top of the floor joists and filled the whole thing with mortar so the floor was about 5" thick. Anyway a week after it was done we got a call the toilet wouldnt go down. After pulling the toilet and snaking it we determined it wasnt going to unplug. It must have gotten some debris down the drain that blocke what was left of a hole.
The clog was in the basement where the cast iron turned 90 degrees to go across the basement.
We determined the best course of action was to cut out the section and replace it with pvc. So we cut out the section and down came the flood of ***** we caught most of it in a garbage pail but luckily this was an old dirt basement it got everywhere. It was about 8 oclock at night on a friday by this time. Even luckier was the fact that all the other plumbing in the kitchen on the first floor was downstream of the clog. We were happy that week was done and the poor sawzall was never the same.

[stevej37]

^^^ That's why plumbers deserve the big bucks.
I could never do that in my own place...let alone someone elses.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by porsche930dude

I was doing a bathroom on the second floor of a big old house it was fancy. Alot of work to tear out. The old tub was solid plaster. super big and heavy. We never saw anything like it. The floor was impossible to tear out. They put planks 3" below the top of the floor joists and filled the whole thing with mortar so the floor was about 5" thick. Anyway a week after it was done we got a call the toilet wouldnt go down. After pulling the toilet and snaking it we determined it wasnt going to unplug. It must have gotten some debris down the drain that blocke what was left of a hole.
The clog was in the basement where the cast iron turned 90 degrees to go across the basement.
We determined the best course of action was to cut out the section and replace it with pvc. So we cut out the section and down came the flood of ***** we caught most of it in a garbage pail but luckily this was an old dirt basement it got everywhere. It was about 8 oclock at night on a friday by this time. Even luckier was the fact that all the other plumbing in the kitchen on the first floor was downstream of the clog. We were happy that week was done and the poor sawzall was never the same.

That how they use to prep the floor for tiles. They cut the joist like a mountain ridge and install a 1x material jsut below the ridge, and fill it with mortar then tile on top of that. Its a bear to get out without a big chipping hammer.

Plumbers really ain't afraid of no ****. I was pulling into an underground parking lot of a tall building. I see a couple of guys on a cherry picker with a couple of big wrenches. I told my wife, " Thank goodness we aren't plumbers". Her respond was, as least they don't have to crawl under the house. I smiled and said, "You know what's in those big 4-6" pipes?" They are plugged up now and that's why they are up there trying to clear it. Her respond was, Oh siht" and I said ,"Exactly".

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Baz

I have a smaller version as well.......

When we still had a house, I had a shower that would clog once every couple of years, and the clog was deep, a 10 or 15' snake wouldn't do it. I had the Rigid version of the small blue on in your shot. It always did the trick (after I replaced the plastic locking nose piece with a metal collar and screw).

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

That Ryobi looks good for the job...but that blue thing needs three hands to work it.

Hahah, they can be a bit of a handful at times. I found the secret was to keep as little of the snake portion "out" at a time as possible. AKA, the gap between the nose of the blue part and the mouth of the drain needed to be small. If you have too much snake exposed, it can bind up and wrap around itself.

[A930Rocket]

Looks like they’ll need to furr that wall out to hide the waste line.

Or chip out the concrete and move it.

[Alan A]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-115-Volt-K-400-Drain-Cleaning-Drum-Machine-with-C-32-3-8-in-Integral-Wound-Cable-and-Tool-Set-52363/206405033

Bought one of those 13 years ago when the first kid came and we started getting wipes down the drain blocking the line. It was $399 back then.

We have a below grade bathroom with a pump up toilet setup. It pressurizes the system if it blocks and it’s quite unpleasant.
First rotor rooter visit was $500. That was what spurred the buy...

It’s been used 7 times in 13 years, so my estimate is it’s saved me $3k plus. It lives next to the access plug in the basement.

[sammyg2]

I have one of these from harbor freight, IIRC I paid around $210 for it and it's paid for itself many times over.

Had to replace the cable after loaning it out, won't do that again.
Cost me $40 AND a friend
Serial, it works great.

[john70t]

I bought a 50' coiled big piece of wire from a box store late at night.
Spent a few hours running it to the street.
It had just a small spiral end. No cutter. All hand cranking or clumsily attempting to. A mess pulling it back out.
It turned out the blockage was at about 52' or so.

Roto-Rooter dude knew when to feed the line fast out, when to slow down and test, when to yank back fast many times to cut the blockage smooth.
A bit scary but they did the trick.

[stevej37]

Now these are fun to use! Many times, as a teen, my father put me in charge of using one of these.