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Posted

Two weeks ago, the upstairs bathroom tub basically drained right through the ceiling, into the kitchen floor.  Neither toilet (upstairs) would flush.  

I thought it might be the roof plumbing vent based on what I read.  The plumbers acted like I was crazy and, instead, blew the drain out from upstairs stating that it might have been someone trying to flush baby wipes down the toilet.  Nobody in my house does this, but I didn't want to argue.  The fix worked up until just now.  Same thing with the ceiling leak and nonworking toilets.

Any ideas?  It's not the main line.  Downstairs is fine.  Before eating more money, I'd like to have an idea about what it could be.  Odd that there's no lead-up -ie slower flushes or mini clogs.  It just suddenly happens.  Thanks in advance.

Posted

When you say the toilets won't flush, does that mean the water goes nowhere from the bowl?

And I am sorta confused about how the tub drained through the ceiling.  Was the drain sluggish/stopped and it somehow leaked around it?  Or backed up into the space between floors?

 

Posted
33 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

When you say the toilets won't flush, does that mean the water goes nowhere from the bowl?

And I am sorta confused about how the tub drained through the ceiling.  Was the drain sluggish/stopped and it somehow leaked around it?  Or backed up into the space between floors?

 

Per the toilets, the water backs up when flushed as if they're clogged.  This has only happened twice in 8 years here.  Both times when we had the ceiling leak from the draining bathtub.

I'm not sure about your second question.  Essentially, when draining the bathtub, water pours through the ceiling and onto the downstairs floor.  It's more than a drip.  I'd estimate about 10% of what was in the tub, so some of it is draining properly.

The only time either toilet has clogged OR the ceiling has leaked has been during these two incidents.

Posted

I think you have two issues.

The clog is somewhere between upstairs and downstairs after all your upstairs fixtures and where it meets downstairs

The bathtub leaking because of a clog is not good and a second issue. It may be leaking even during normal times

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Posted
are you filling the tub higher than the overflow? 

Doesn’t that just tie in to the drain line?

I wonder if the tub drain is slowly leaking and it just gets worse when the turds hang up the toilets.
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:


Doesn’t that just tie in to the drain line?

I wonder if the tub drain is slowly leaking and it just gets worse when the turds hang up the toilets.

it does, but often the seals fail (or were never installed properly in the first place)

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Posted

Sorry.  Out of town yesterday.

So, the issue disappeared.  To answer a couple of questions,

There is no evidence of a leak except for both times the aforementioned had occurred.  That's what's weird.  ZERO plumbing issues - leaks, flushing, or clogs - except the two times when all hell broke loose.  And now... It's gone. I'm perplexed by the lack of warning signs like slowly draining water or water stains.  

 

 

Posted
Sorry.  Out of town yesterday.
So, the issue disappeared.  To answer a couple of questions,
There is no evidence of a leak except for both times the aforementioned had occurred.  That's what's weird.  ZERO plumbing issues - leaks, flushing, or clogs - except the two times when all hell broke loose.  And now... It's gone. I'm perplexed by the lack of warning signs like slowly draining water or water stains.  
 
 

Stop beating off in the shower, or tell your wife’s boyfriend intake his condoms with him and not flush them.
Posted

I think @Updawg is probably right that you have two problems.  Think of something like the diagram below.  On this sink, the chrome tailpiece sits inside the white PVC extension.  Even if the connection is loose, most of the time water will just flow straight down and there's no problem.  But if the drain is clogged water could back up past the tailpiece/PVC joint and that's when you could get a major leak.

 

sink-plumbing-feature.jpg

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Posted

If that shit gets misaligned it won’t drain properly either. Those damn slip nuts are ass my dude. I hate them. They will slide off at some point just enough to let water seep out.

Posted
On 12/13/2025 at 8:07 PM, Gil Bang said:

are you filling the tub higher than the overflow? 

Parents upstairs shower had a leak through the overflow.  The overflow had a bad connection to the drain so whenever the water hit the overflow, it would leak in the ceiling 

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