Plumbing Issue with a rental property

[Joey Fontenot III]

I recently put a new tenant into a rental and she called about excess sewage spewing into the tub when the toilet is flushed in one of the bathrooms. In addition she stated the washer was not working quite as effectively. The house is a 1950s property on city sewer and water. I am thinking that prolly the pipes have been stopped up and they need to be snaked. There are no trees on the lot, so I dont think that roots are busting through, but who knows. If you were in this situation would you call roto rooter or an actual plumber to fix the problem? and is there a way to prevent this problem in the future?

Thanks

[Brian Levredge]

More than likely there is a block under the house and not in the main outside the house. That is caused from tenants putting a whole role of toilet paper, baby wipes, etc. down the toilet. You'll need to have the main under the house snaked and that should solve things. Assuming it is tenant caused you can inform the tenant that this one is on you, but if you have to snake the drain again for something they did, then the charge is theirs next time.

When we do a turn, we run the water in the sinks and tub for about 10-15 minutes to see if water starts backing up. In addition, we'll usually have the main snaked prior to a move in and then certify in the lease (which the tenant initials) that there are no blocks in the plumbing and that it has been inspected by a qualified professional. Short of anything unexpected happening, that is usually enough to keep us from having service calls.