Continually Blocking Toilet

devnull

Trying to unblock a toilet that keeps blocking even when unblocked.

It takes fluids down but nothing else will flush and when you do flush the toilet bowl fills right to the top and drains very slowly.

So after trying all the usual tricks, I went to the toilet snake and put that down it, I got all 7m of it into the pipes without much problem. The bit where the blockage seems to be is the horizontal waste pipe.

The back of the toilet bowl pushes the water up, then sends the water to the left when flushing. The problem seems to be that on the corner between the top of the bowl and the pipe on the left seems to be a magnet for soggy toilet roll in small chunks.

I got all of this out with the snake after identifying that, and cleaned it, toilet flushed fine. Put a couple of toilet roll pieces down 2-3 times, and again it blocked same way, snake had to clear little soggy bits of toilet roll again.

Any idea what causes this? It's a pain in the ass to have to use the snake EVERY TIME.

Victor

Might there be damage to the pipe that is snagging the paper?

whelan2

What brand of toilet roll? Lidl toilet roll terrible for blocking toilets

devnull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118664537#Comment_118664537

https://www.regina.uk.com/personal-care-products/regina-seriously-soft

Maybe it's a bit too soft, which is the problem!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118664536#Comment_118664536

True, that could well be the case if there is somewhere for it to catch. Sadly because the pipe goes off horizontally rather than vertically, I don't have gravity in my favour!

maestroamado

I expect that its the mechanism that allows the water into the bowl not flushing the water with enough force... some of the ones with the two separate flushes are kinda dodge...

Victor

Pipe may be too horizontal. How accessible is it? What floor?

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118664615#Comment_118664615

Yes, that's what I'm thinking.

We have a toilet which backs up the odd time - really depends on the sheet-count of the paper being used -as a result we don't use the 6/8/10-ply quilted stuff any more. But the main problem is that the toilet has a long horizontal run where the fall is poor. As a result, you'll often notice the water backing up in the bowl for a few days before it backs up completely and then gets blocked.

If I see the back-up now, I now run in with a 10l watering can of water and flush it all down to clear the backlog. Works.

devnull

So to add the next chapter to this saga, I flushed the toilet today and the water flew up through the shower drain.

Now anything that goes down a plughole first came up through the shower, now anything is coming through the toilet as well such as the bathroom sink, so I assume that the water level is too high for shower now so is working it's way up toilet.

We have had a plumber out again who can find no blockage either at the street end or in as far as he can access in the house end. Also no neighbours have the problem. He believes it is a pipe somewhere in the house.

We are now awaiting for a drain engineer to come out and probably will need a drywall contractor as well after that. In the meanwhile we have got five buckets of fresh mains water and a portable chemical toilet.

Sleeper12

Man that's depressing. Hopefully someone will get to the bottom of it. Drain guy will most likely send camera into the drain

devnull

So we've had the drain engineer out, he's put a camera down there and saw an almighty blockage of what looks like a giant ball of toilet roll, he's tried to unblock it with the tool attached to the camera and his jet and high power drain cleaning machine and can't shift it.

We've now also had some small water leaking from the ceiling downstairs when he flushed the toilet to check it near a light socket, so we've now had to turn all the power off to all the light sockets downstairs.

He's now had to refer the matter for further work and some industrial strength machinery as he cannot shift it.

bambi eyes

The sealing ring from the multi wick may have got stuck down the pipe. Have you disconnected and reconnected the pan lately ?

Wearb

They can cut through wood with some of those drain cleaners.

Have a look, starting halfway through this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ITxecOAlA

Crocodile Booze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118737672#Comment_118737672

Spoiler Alert in that video : he feeds undigested poop sweetcorn to a plastic pet rat .

devnull

Had an electrician round today who has isolated the cables and the light socket below the bathroom so we can now use lights and power to downstairs alarms again as he says it is now safe to use. Has also got plumbers opinion on this.

No news on the actual drain problem today, I'm told that they need to have a discussion about it tomorrow and will come back to me as to what the best action will be. They wanted a full electrical safety check done in light of the leaking before they touched anything anyway.

k123456

Is it a good or bad idea to occasionally put drain cleaner down the toilet (leave for 5 minutes then flush) , to prevent build ups ?

Or will the pipes be damaged