How I Clogged My Sewer Line with Grease and Learned a $1000 Lesson

One of a home owner's worse nightmares is a backed up floor drain, especially one that fills a basement with sewage.

Our nightmare happened a few months ago after a recent basement bathroom remodel. The first time the new toilet was flushed, the bathroom filled up with two inches water. The next flushing, pumped sewage out of the storm drain and into two other rooms. It was time to call Roto-Rooter.

One of the first things that Roto-Rooter always tries is an industrial sized snake. These things are about 3/4 of an inch wide and several hundred feet long. The plumber reamed out the sewer line clear to the alley. He didn't seem to run into any obstructions, nor were there pieces of root on the snake when he coiled it back up. He flushed the toilet and the basement filled right back up with sewage again.

"I think you might have a collapsed line," the plumber said.

The diagnostics

The plumber recommended a video inspection of the sewer line. Line inspections cost around $180 but is the best way to pin point a leak or broken line. The plumber hooked up the camera and began feeding the snake into the pipes. At the 26 foot mark, we noticed a thick, white slurry coating the walls of the pipes. The slurry was so thick, that the drain water only had about a quarter inch opening to pass through. The obstruction continued on for another 10 feet, and then the line was clear again, all the way to the alley.

The white slurry turned out to be grease. Plain, old, ordinary kitchen grease.

According to the Roto-Rooter plumber, kitchen grease tends to collect somewhere in the pipes between 20-25 feet. This is the point where the hot tap water cools off , and liquid grease solidifies. All those years of draining grease down the garbage disposal caused this huge, sticky buildup which was now clogging our sewer line. Every time we flushed the toilet, the sudden gush of drain water hit the obstruction, and backed right into our basement.

The fix