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Guys, I think the OP is talking about drains, not the hot and cold water supply: sink drains, tub drain, toilet. You are thinking of supply pipes, which is not what he means by pipes.
What he has is biofilm: the buildup of soap, grease, hair, and dirt that makes a fine breeding place for all sorts of bacteria and funky stuff.
What is needed is something like this. Read the reviews for some hints, too:
lol now OP will remember to not ask questions on the Internet.
Is it an old house? We used a product like the above a few years ago because our shower clogged every other week. It was a built up of black gunk from the 60 years of use.
Gross? Very. But it's gone now.
The general rule is use Chemicals as a last resort. Try the snake first. doesn't help, then go with chemicals. Carefully.
lol now OP will remember to not ask questions on the Internet.
Is it an old house? We used a product like the above a few years ago because our shower clogged every other week. It was a built up of black gunk from the 60 years of use.
Gross? Very. But it's gone now.
The general rule is use Chemicals as a last resort. Try the snake first. doesn't help, then go with chemicals. Carefully.
The issue is not a clog. A snake will not work. It will not scrape the black gunk off the inside of the drain pipe. The chemical to use is enzyme based, not lye like Drano.
Best to replace the pipes , as the pipes leaving the sink and bath could be replaced for ten feet will make a difference ...Then the pipes coming in the house by the city pipes need to be checked and the pipes leaving the water heater need to be checked for build up and replaced if it looks bad enough ...... Cleaning the pipes may not get the old build up .....
Drains are WASTE lines.... The OP isn't referring to supply lines. The OP said that their drains all have the gunk in them. No mention anywhere of this gunk coming from the supply lines.
A. Well there are several things happening. First, all the drain/pipes are developing this black slime/gunk. First noticed it in the toilet bowl where the water flushes into the bowl. Each of the holes would gradually have this black stuff creeping out. When you clean the toilet, it sortof flakes off, so doesnt really stick to the brush like slime, hard to describe. After that I noticed that the drain basket thing in the dishwasher was having similar looking things. Again, it is easy to clean off, sortof black in color, doesnt smell. Then if you look down in the kitchen sink with a flashlight, you can see a build up on the pipe walls that is this slimy stuff. Now the water is always clear from all things, toilet tank is clear and clean. Water coming out of all faucets including laundry, dishwasher, etc is clear. So this black stuff is obviously growing on or attaching to the pipes themselves, not free floating through the water. The hot water heater is clean and new. None of the black stuff comes loose with flushing of the toilet, or running the dishwasher. Only if you rub/brush it off, then it comes free pretty easily. I have not stuck anything down in the pipes like a snake yet.
B. So the problem I just had of the back up into the unused bathtub came from a problem a few houses over someone messed up the fire hydrant and the company shut off the water to fix it, then they turned it back on and told us to turn on all our faucets to push out the air and sediment that had gotten into the lines. While doing this, they broke another pipe a few houses over so we lost water again. Then when they got that fixed they told us we are on 48 boil water notice and to run water in all our faucets for 20 min to flush them. So while doing this last step, a lot of air came out, more than usual, and we already have this clogged pipes issue so I think that is what caused the bathtub to back up. Also, the wax seal on the toilet bowl gave out and flooded the bathroom. So that was fixed last night, and while replacing that, I noticed there is the black gunk in that pipe too. I've been checking today, and no leaks.
C. So a couple of questions about this. 1. I've seen the enzyme organic safe around children drain cleaner and septic tank cleaner that is basically good bacteria that eats the organic gunk but does not hurt the pipes or your tank or your children. So is this true? 2. Is there a way to know what condition your septic tank is in without calling a guy to come out and dig? For general care purposes and yearly maintanence. 3. The water knob outside the house that turns on/off your water to your whole house. When you have it on the "on" position, should this be a full on? Or should it be half way on, how much do you leave it turned to? 4. When cleaning out all of the pipes. Do I fully try to clean one at a time? Or is there a good order in which to clean them?
Thanks for the help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nlambert
Drains are WASTE lines.... The OP isn't referring to supply lines. The OP said that their drains all have the gunk in them. No mention anywhere of this gunk coming from the supply lines.
The stuff I highlighted above is referring to supply.
Personally, I think it's probably just mineral buildup from minerals in the tap water. Or, it might have come from sediment from the fire hydrant issue down the street. But, these are separate issues, and unrelated to the bio film buildup in the drain lines.
A little confusing but I think you're talking sewage lines.
You said you have a septic tank? When was the last time that septic tank was serviced? That's where I'd start. And pronto. Septic tank water is black gunky sludge. Ugh! Don't touch that stuff. Sounds like your septic tank is overflowing! Rare - but it can happen.
A little confusing but I think you're talking sewage lines.
You said you have a septic tank? When was the last time that septic tank was serviced? That's where I'd start. And pronto. Septic tank water is black sludge. Ugh! Don't touch that stuff. Sounds like your septic tank is overflowing! Rare - but it can happen.
Septic tank backup would result in obvious sewage refluxing into waste lines, not the black seepage the OP is describing.
Septic tank backup would result in obvious sewage refluxing into waste lines, not the black seepage the OP is describing.
The OP's description is confused. You have to read it carefully. Sewage is backing up.
Drain on the dishwasher? The garbage disposal? The bottom of the tub? ... ITS THE SEWER LINES! First off, that plumber was a dope or just gladly took the money, said nothing, and got the "heck" out of there. Get that septic tank, its weep field and the sewer lines leading to it looked at.
One in a million chance water supply lines would do any of this. ONE IN A MILLION. In fact, no such thing.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 06-22-2016 at 12:40 PM..
The stuff I highlighted above is referring to supply.
and that is what some of us also read. The OP clearly isn't articulating the issues clear enough, (and mixing up the terminology), to know if its only the sewer or if there is something also with the supply. That was why I suspected possibly some type of cross contamination.
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