Plumbing problem -- what is this??
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Well, it looks like we have our first plumbing problem (yay!)
We have a basement bathroom with a shower, toilet, sink and utility sink. AFAIK, these all drain into a dedicated "sump pump" (extruder?) that pumps that waste water up and joins into the main sewer line. The two bathrooms and showers etc. on the main floor don't go into that sump pump drain.
So Mr. SK has been using the basement bathroom almost every day for a week and a half, no problems. Yesterday, he took a bath on the main floor (also no problems). And he uses the toilet in the basement all the time (several times a day) because his office is down there. Today, when he went to take a shower, the shower drain was clogged up. He took a plunger to it, and these weird things came up. From a distance they look like small grains (the size of rice?) Up close, I wonder if they're some kind of bug eggs/larvae??
We'll call the plumber tomorrow, but I would love to have some idea of what these are... (hopefully it's not something awful and embarassing...)
This is what the shower pan looked like after Mr SK used the plunger, so you can see the size:
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Not sure, but maybe drain fly eggs?
I would try to clean the debris from the shower pan and put the cleaning materials outside. Also put something over the drain, like an inverted empty jar, so if they start to hatch you don’t get them in the house.
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Oooh good call, thank you!
It’s probably drain flies, or rather their larvae. Mr SK just covered the drain, thanks for the suggestion!
I will read more about it, but the drain is probably clogged and there are probably drain fly eggs down there.
Hopefully the pump for the sump pump/ extruder isn’t broken…
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Ha! I’ve never heard of drain flies. Sounds like covering the drain until you get rid of them is a good idea!
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Pretty sure if your pump was broken, you'd have other issues (toilet would be overflowing etc.) We have one of those at work (affectionately known as the "pooper pumper") and when it isn't working, it is VERY obvious in an unpleasant way.
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Lisa, thanks! No smells, so I’m guessing it’s not the pump!
But unfortunately we had a power outage so I had to cancel the plumber and now I’m not sure when he’s coming.
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BTW I was able to get the plumber rescheduled and he’s coming tmrw morning. Hopefully it’s not something that costs an arm and leg!!
The power outage messed up everything but it was so widespread that everyone was impacted and people seem very mellow about rescheduling, which is nice. Had to cancel the piano tuner but he’s back on my calendar for next Tuesday as well.
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Plumbing problem fixed!! The pump is working fine (I also found out that the pump is only about 4-5 years old). It was just clogged up somewhere, they snaked out the toilet and shower drains and everything is moving fine now. Nothing "came out" so I suspect that it may have been our toilet paper. We probably just need to not use the toilet paper we usually buy in that toilet, get something thin, single ply etc.
Whew, relieved to have it fixed!
And super happy to have found a good (and local) plumber! This was the same company as the one who installed our water heater.
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Oh yes. The "good" TP - especially Charmin! - is death to things like septic tanks and grinder pumps.
You can get nice plushy TP that dissolves quickly though - you don't need to force poor Mr SK to use singleply scratchy stuff. Scott Comfort Plus and Angel Soft are plushy but distintegrate quickly. I've been trying to boycott Angel Soft because it's a Koch Brothers product but sometimes I end up buying it anyway because they are out of Scott Comfort Plus and I know it works for our plumbing. Glad your issues turned out to be nothing major!
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Ooh good tips, thanks!
