I had a renter break a lease and now that I have someone new in that apartment (duplexes) we realize and confirmed with a plumber's camera, that she poured concrete down the toilet before she left. To dig up the yard and replace the pipe is going to cost a fortune. We broke some of it up so the bathrooms can be used but this is going to be an ongoing problem. Could miratic acid work? Has anyone had this happen before? Should I go after her legally? I don't think I can really prove she did it.

Help!

I would think a plumber and video and her being the last tenant would be enough evidence for small claims. YES I would go after someone for this.

the pipe is PVC and about 10 years old. Is there anything that will dissolve the cement without damaging the PVC? Has anyone had this happen? What did you do?

Let me try this one more time. The original post did not go through.

I doubt the tenant poured concrete down the drain. Why? Because tenants are lazy, and this would require real effort. You would also see the spilled concrete around the toilet.

Here's what I think are your two possibilities:

1. Tileman poured the leftover grout down the pipe. Unfortunately, this is common. Sometimes it is not discovered for years. I found this at on rehab built in 1974, I'm sure it had been there that long.

2. Tenant poured cat litter down the drain, from the illegal cat. Again, tenants are lazy, so why not just dump that stuff down the toilet instead of hauling it all the way outside to the trashcan? Cat litter is clay, and becomes kinda bricklike in the pipe.

In either case, if you can access the pipe from below, it's fairly easy to remove. You are lucky to have PVC pipe, either substance will not stick tight. Cut the pipe, clean out the stuff, reglue.

I suspected that it might be cat litter, never thought about tile grout.....it is on a slab. If I used the pool acid how much and how often would I use it?

The thing about concrete, real concrete with aggregate, is that they would not be able to get it very far into the pipes before it clogged and started hardening. If they did this through the toilet, even less. I am tempted to try this just to prove my theory, but I am guessing you couldn't go more than a foot.

Cat litter seems more likely, and may have even been accidental.

If it's cat litter, acid won't do you any good. Pull the toilet and use a good snake. If you come back with chunks of clay, it's cat litter. This is good. You can blast the cat litter on down the drain with a "drain king". It's a black rubber bladder that screws on the end of the garden hose. You jam it as far down the hole as it will go, and turn on the water. The bladder swells up like a toad frog and lodges itself in the pipe. Then it starts spraying water out the other end. The water's gotta go somewhere... Keep working the hose farther into the line. When it goes all the way through, you should be done.

You MAY be able to clear the line from the cleanout plug outside the house.

You can buy large quanities of acid from pool companies or construction suppliers that deal with brick/block. The brick cleaners are sold in 5 gallon and 30 gallon containers. Yes, its costly but it wont hurt PVC and it will be much cheaper than digging up the pipe.

As long as you are getting water through the drain, you may want to try a chemical free way and use a pressure washer hose to blast it out but that assuming you can get something down there without much trouble. A roto-rooter may work or it might get bound up if it hits a large amount but a roto-rooter should break it free from the PVC. Concrete dont stick to PVC very well, expecially with the PVC is "dirty" inside or wet.

If you use acid and water is going down the drain, you may have to make some kind of a sprayer so it wets down the parts of the clog that would be missed by just pouring the acid down the drain. If you just pour it down the drain, it could just run past the clog and end up doing nothing but literally pouring your money down the drain.

If the tenent did use concrete and its not kitty litter, its highly unlikely that there is much there. An 80 pound sack makes maybe 10 gallons of concrete and its doubtfull they got it all to "stick" in the drain to create a clog. It might be easier to get this clog out than you are thinking right now.