We have a recurring drain problem in the basement of a rental rowhouse in DC. Used to have to deal with it every couple years, but I just cleared the line two weeks ago (or so I thought) and it's back again. It backs up in the basement shower drain and does this when the shower or adjacent galley kitchen is in use. It is not affected by the residents upstairs - meaning it will not back up any further when upstairs runs water.

When snaking from the shower, blockage is several feet downstream, likely near the stack or where it connects to the main drain. There's one joint about 12 feet that I cannot get the snake through. Never could. So I went to the last resort and used strong chemical (Hot Power), then rinse. This time it solved the problem for only about 2 weeks, so I'm back at it.

Any ideas?

Other than snaking from the shower drain, do you think pulling the toilet is worth a shot or a waste? The toilet is flushing fine and does not seem to be affected in any way. Maybe I have to snake from the kitchen, Although the clog is downstream of where kitchen drain meets shower, do you think it beneficial to snake from the kitchen, too?

Thanks very much.

This post was edited by homebound on Fri, Jan 11, 13 at 8:46