Help! Do I have a frozen P-Trap?

My wife and I bought a 110 year old house to fix up, closed 2 weeks ago on it. Went to wash the sheets as we’ve got some friends coming next weekend with us, a few minutes into the cycle the washer drain started geyser’ing with water and a little soap.

I’ve done 2 previous loads of laundry in this washer without issue

Current temp is ~ negative 10

Washer room appears to be an addition on a slab, I noted heat tape in the crawl space leading in that direction.

My current move is to pour some hot kettle water down the drain and crawl around to see if I can locate the supply and drain line.

 

Kettle was a dumb idea the water level was only a 4 inches down from the top of the pipe. Into the crawl space

 

I'd start by buying a steel snake to run down it. If worked earlier , may have been clogged and just enough of it was open to let most water pass, but with those temps could have froze just enough to stop it. Maybe try to suck some water out with shop vac ,and see how much you get out, then run the snake down it. Check to be sure heat tape is working, and probably buy new one . I'd try and get as much water out as possible now.

 

I'm assuming you have a situation like this-
You have a standpipe going into the wall, which your washer drain hose goes into? You can't see a trap because it is in the wall. This is pretty standard for recent buildings, but on some older houses the standpipe and trap are exposed and from there they dump into the wall.

Now, how is the water behaving when it over flows? Meaning does it overflow from the standpipe, then the water that doesn't pour over slowly drains? Or does it stand there for a long time?

 

I’ll try this out. Just saw the heat tape is on the supply lines and not the drain line. Gonna try the suck and snake then put some heat tape. Thanks man

 

Water and drain come up out of the floor not the wall. Currently water is just sitting in the drain tube not overflowing not draining.

 

Don't forget to take the paper filter out your shop vac. lol

 

Post a picture of what you have going on.

If the water is standing and not draining, then it sounds like it has been clogged. The kitchen drain and laundry drain have the hardest jobs in your house. You'll need a snake and a pair of leather gloves, preferably a powered one. The manual ones aren't good for anything.

once you get a snake, pour water in the drain until it is holding water. As you push the snake into the line be careful not to jam it. You also don't want to drop into a larger line where your cable can wrap around on itself. You'll feel tension at some point. Don't force it. Back off, slowly go forward again, back off, repeat. After a few seconds you'll see the water drain and your clog is removed. Good luck.

 

Snake bottoms out at the floor level and won’t go any further. I’m gonna cut a hole in the floor to see what I’m working with. The line are outside the wall because I’d the old brick exterior wall takes up the wall space(I think). I think we gotta get the Ptrap up out of the crawl space.

 

will a more powerful snake break up a frozen trap? I really think that’s my issue with temps as low as -15 last night, still in the negative now.

 

Here’s the view from top down

 

No, if the p trap is frozen that won't work, but if you emptied the pipe and poured hot water in there the ice should have thawed. Unless its so cold right now that your hot water is freezing rapidly. Maybe use a flashlight and a thin rod or coat hanger, look into the pipe and poke around to see if there is a layer of ice. I never did plumbing in the arctic, so if your water is freezing that fast I won't be of much help. I would try to shop vac any water put of that pipe, then pour in a hot mug or two of water.

There should be a p trap right below where that pipe hits the floor, and an arm that joins a vent in the wall. If the water isn't frozen its probably a very localized blockage. Usually a pile of lint caught on a burr(no frozen pun intended).

 

Sewer drain may be blocked just happened to me

 

Oh wow, looks like it passes through the floor then has a 90 to go horizontal and another 90 pitching it sideways? Can you see where that leads to? If there is a trap you may have more I've than you can thaw with water.

 

If the snake is bottoming out, there's a possible chance of some other blockage than ice. Was the house winterized prior?

 

Brutal

 

Clay sucks!

 

Fiber optical line pierced it?

 

There doesn’t appear to be a Ptrap after all. Just 90 that might be a low point then another 90 that makes a 10 ft run to connect to toilet drain.

 

Figures... same with my house too. I recently installed my washer/dryer into my closet and had to run a new washer drain with a p-trap otherwise septic smell was coming up.

 

I can only speak to the codes where I am at as I have only plumbed in my area. A vertical run to a horizontal shall have a long sweep, which you have a standard 90. Also, you stated that the 90 going from vertical to horizontal leads to another 90, and horizontal to horizontal shall also have a long sweep. That is definitely a bubba job, especially if there is no trap and vent in most situations. As far as your blockage, it is hard to tell without digging into it but the short 90's are why you're having issues getting a snake through.

 

Copy that, thanks man

 

I would cut the pipe at the second 90 & snake the rest. Reattach new pipe with a trap.

 

I would not put a trap under the floor , you'd be asking for more problems if it really gets cold under floor. I would add trap up above floor and just get it unclogged for now. That way the trap will be easily accessed if a future problem, and with trap up along wall it will also stop any gasses back to area. Never hide your trap , it only makes it harder to unclog later.

 

I agree with @Radworker observations and @Bucks04 suggestion. While at it, if you're tearing into things to revise this you may as well add a cleanout to the vertical pipe for easy snaking in the future. You won't have to dip through the trap that way, just shoot through the pipes.

Put long sweeps in as well. Those short 90s can be navigated but you need a broken in cable and some finesse. Long sweeps will be way better for snaking and draining.

 

Agree with the clean out -T-, also if possible you could run inside along wall as far as you could before dropping down thru floor this would keep pipes warmer. Just a thought, might not look that bad in a basement area.

 

Took 4+ hours but got it melted. Doesn’t appear to be any broken lines. Got heat tape and insulation on there for now. Thanks for all the suggestions.

-15 isn’t the norm but it’ll happen once a year or so. Gotta figure out a long term solution for this not happening again. Hopefully reducing the 90’s will help.

Probably next weekend I’ll add an above floor Ptrap and try to figure out a way to reduce those 90’s.

I can’t put the lines in the wall as there’s no room, previous owners covered tossed drywall over brick exterior with no space. But I’ll box them in between W/D.

 

I would replace 1.5” line with 2” if at all possible. Check to make sure pitch is correct.

45 are less restrictive than 90s. Long sweep 90s at a minimum.

P trap above floor to prevent freezing.

 

Man you replied 3 months late. Haha.

 

Haha didn’t check out the dates. It was at the top of my list so looked recent to me.

If the OP is like me, I put off home projects until the winter is over.