Main bathroom tub and sink were both very slow. Water from sink would come up in tub. We also wanted tree roots augured out of main line; something we try to have done every year.
Main line was cleaned out, roots were not bad. Charged $175 for that, which a little higher than I've paid in the past (typically $125-$135). He was not able to clear the bathroom drains at all due to the fact that they met in a T rather than a Y; the rooter would go down the tub and come up the sink and vice versa, rather than travelling down the common drain pipe. He said we'd need to call someone with either a micro- or even a nano-camera to see what was going on. I could tell he didn't like this outcome and wasn't used to not being able to fix something; I sympathized because I know it is a bad design that we've been dealing with for over 15 years. After he left, I filled the tub hoping that the weight of the water would eventually get through and went back to work. 6 hours later I came home and the water had not drained even a fraction of an inch; it was now totally clogged instead of just slow. Apparently the rooter, rather than clearing the T, had actually smeared gunk over the inside of the T, plugged it up completely. So I went to Home Depot and got some pure lye crystals. Then I plugged the bathroom sink and filled it with water (there is no overflow) to hold that end air and water tight, then removed the overflow plate on the tub and firmly shoved a rag inside of a Walmart bag into the overflow. Then I plunged the heck out of the tub drain until the water level started dropping. After all the water was gone from the tub, I release the sink which drained (did not come up in the tub, but it did gurgle). Then I did 3 treatments of the lye crystals according to the package directions, going from both the tub and sink ends, and now my tub is draining better than it has in years. The bad design is still there, and the real fix would be to jackhammer up the slab and replace at least the fitting if not the line itself, but the inside of that bathroom was just redone less than a year ago and we don't have the cash or inclination to tear up the floor right now. A plumber with a camera should be able to tell us exactly where the T fitting it which would be helpful. For now we are going to limp along by being fanatical about hair and other debris going down the tub and sink, and sending chemicals down periodically until we can tear up the floor and fix it right.
