Just bought a house a couple months back. It's not a new house, it was built sometime in the 60s. Had hookups for a washer & dryer, but didn't come with one. Today we got them installed.

Tried to do the first load of laundry... I'm sitting in the living room playing the fantastic New Super Mario Bros Wii when I hear a gurgling sound from the kitchen. I come in to see the sink full of blueish grey water.

Run into the utility room and the floor has about an inch and a half of water on it. There is water coming out of the pipe the washer drains into. Fortunately the utility room has a cement floor, so it wasn't too hard to clean up the water, just soaked it up with towels. To make things even more awesome, it's cold and raining outside, where i'm ringing out the towels. My hands are just now warming up as I'm typing this.

I dried everything off and tried to let it run again. It can only run for about 20 seconds before it starts spraying water again. So I got a bucket and held the drain hose deal in it until it filled up, unplug washer and empty bucket, repeat, until the laundry was done. It was just a blanket ( that i had to wash because one of our new kittens decided to piss on it ) so I have it hanging out in the carport to dry. Didn't want to try the dryer yet, the floor isn't completely dry and I don't want to risk more problems.

I've also noticed that the shower doesn't drain as fast as it should.

It's 2:30am and I have to be up at 5:30.

TL;DR- Nothing in my house is draining fast enough. Tonight was bull****. FML.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your pipes are clogged.

I would think it may be caused by clogged pipes.
Where is the washer located in the house? (eg: is it in a basement if you have one or on the main floor?) A friend of mine lives in a basement apartment and whenever his upstairs neighbors have a clog in one of their pipes his kitchen floods from the sink drain.

Calling in a plumber should be a LAST resort. You'll get raped dry. You know how to use the internet, use it (which you are, I'm just saying).

You need to narrow the problem. You say NOTHING drains fast. Is it a single story home? 2 story?

Septic tank or sewer?

Yeah, probably something clogged, or a pipe that's not wide enough somewhere. Everything is on one floor, the utility room is fairly close to the kitchen.

I guess I'm lucky it didn't overflow the sink in the kitchen.

Know of any way to find out where it's clogged?

That doesn't involve calling someone out to fix it. I'm a cheap *******.

Also, I was playing a game staring a plumber when all this happened and that amuses me.

It's sewer I believe. There is a septic tank, but the previous owner said they switched it over to sewer. We are getting billed for it, so I hope that's true.

Also the past few days the dishwasher hasn't been working worth a damn.

Super Mario?

Buy a plumber's snake and go to town? Can't say for sure it will fix the problem. Really no way to tell what's wrong from the net but you could give it a shot. From the sounds of it, this problem could be pretty deep underground.

Do you have less of a problem in the morning after everybody has been sleeping and not using the water, giving the clog time to drain out slowly? Ie, it takes awhile for the clog to start backing up to your sinks?

Find some home improvement forums, you'll find a real plumber there.

Super Achelois?

in the drain for the washer and let it sit

Get some sodiumhyrdoxide, do some electrolysis on it. Get the sodium, put it in your sink and add some water

Be careful with drano, it will corrode metal pipes. A mechanical solution (roto rooter) is generally preferable to a chemical one.

the washer sounds like the one at my old house. it just wasnt connected directly to the sewer drain so he installed a sink type tub in there to let the pipe drain and go into the sewer. anything else... i dunno look online.

thats what we have, it works pretty well and then you also have a basement sink (if you hook it up that way)

Put a little bit of drano in the pipe where the drain hose goes. Slowly add warm water. If possible, use a measuring cup so that you can keep track of how much water you're using. Keep adding water until it reaches the top. From there you should get an idea of how deep the clog is. If it's shallow enough, a plumber's snake may be able to get to it. If not, then you'll have the trace the pipes under the house. Loosen and then tighten back the pipes at each joint until you find where it doesn't leak water. That'll tell you what section the clog is in. Depending on the clog, you may have to replace the pipe. It's pretty easy and straight-forward to replace a pipe. Remember to use plumber's glue to put the pipes back together with (even if it's threaded). If you have trouble getting a pipe off with a pipe wrinch (especially if you have limited room), you may need to slide a pipe onto the handle of the wrinch to give yourself some extra torque.

Rotorooter can snake it even if it's very deep.

If the sink is backing up when the washing machine drains, the clog must be somewhere in their shared line. This is any point after their drains come together. Since it's a single level home without a basement, you probably have a crawlspace, so you should have easy access to all the pipes right up to the sewer connection.

And don't assume the shower is related. It could be clogged all on it's own.

Rotorooter.

If it were just the shower I'd suspect poor venting, but that's probably not happening to a washer in the basement.

We go through this once or twice a year. The washing machine will start backing up water in the showers and occasionally from under a toilet.

Our main sewer line gets blocked by roots and we call Roto-rooter out to run his spinny-blade up the line and everything runs fine. It's about $80. Totally worth it.

I don't think his house is subterranean.

Rotorooter might be a good choice if you don't feel like crawling around under the house to troubleshoot the system. You also have to be careful with such an old house as you might end up with pipes breaking and causing a bigger expense and headache if you try tackling it yourself.

It's not in a basement, it's in my utility room, which is on the same level as the house. One of my friends parents has a snake and such, so he's coming over with it sometime this week and we're going to see what we can find. I don't see an easy access for it anywhere, that could be interesting. Thanks everyone!

Just for the record, often just using a plunger can clear blocks. They're not just for toilets. Fill up the lowest tub or sink in your house with enough water to cover the plunger, then give it a few plunges.

I'll try that tonight! Thanks!

Congrats on the house. When are you getting married?

Thanks! Jan 23rd, only a little over a month away.

Trying to have the house ready so when she moves in, we don't have these little problems.

I had this problem and it was a root in my septic line. Cost me around a 100 bucks. (I had it pumped as well, since it was 3/4 full.)

FIXED.

Went under the house and found caps you can take off to presumably remove clogs. Shoved the garden hose in there, with the water on. Blew out some nasty stuff. Everything drains great now!

Happy days