40's appliances are great, but...

[pulsator]

the plumbing SUCKS!!! Just a few minutes ago, while I was doing a meduim load in the DD Kenmore, floor drain backed up and flooded th whole room with an inch of water, 6 inches of water over the drain!!!!!! AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I gotta get a new place in my house for my washers, the garage sounds like a heaven now!

 

[westytoploader]

I can say the same about the standpipe in my laundry room! Being 1967 vintage, the standpipe is too low to allow for good head pressure (force required for the water to go through the trapway and out into the main line), and more than once it has backed up and flooded the floor. I can't run the GE Portable (at the sink) and the Maytag DC at the same time. Newer standpipes seem to be mounted much higher on the wall so this problem doesn't exist.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You might just need to clean the vent pipes that go from these drains to the roof. If the air can't be displaced fast enough, the water will back up. Then again, you might want to give the lines a good reaming out like Roto-Rooter. Stuff builds up.

 

[Cybrvanr]

Yep, I know about plumbing problems living in a 60 year home myself! Over the past few years, I have had to replace all the drain pipes with new PVC stuff. That cast iron stuff really cloggs up when it gets old!

I experienced the first drain backup the day I moved into the house, which was on Superbowl weekend. After spending the previous few days moving, I had all my friends over for the Superbowl, and we cooked up a serious feast! That serious feast amounted up to a serious load of dirty dishes! My friends were rinsing off the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. Little did we know that the mess being washed down the disposer in the kitchen sink was coming back up in the bathroom sink!!! In the middle of the superbowl, Home Depots are pretty much deserted...and here we were buying plungers, drain snakes, drain-o, monkey wrenches, and other plumbing tools. Luckily, all the other drains flowed OK in the house that evening.

The shower though has been running slower and slower, so just here recently, I made up a new pipe for it to tie into the washer hookup line that I installed a few years ago. The washing closet hookup, and the shower now share the same 2 inch pipe. I tested it the tub draining and the washer draining at the same time, and the shower drain sucks the water down so fast know you'd better get out the way, or it'd suck you down too!

My next task is to figure out why the water pressure is so low on the hot water side!!!

 

[kenmore1978]

plumbing

"My next task is to figure out why the water pressure is so low on the hot water side!!!"

Are the water pipes still galvanized iron? It may be copper re-plumb time. The hot water pipes in old galvanzied iron systems always slow down first because the heat accelerates the rate of corrosion inside.

Once a month or so I I put chlorine blean in the bathroom sink and shower/tub drains after the last use for the night. Most of those clogs are due to hair and soap scum that build up over time. In washer drains, do the same thing. Stand pipes can be extended higher. And they tend to collect lint, which again the bleach will destroy overnight