Older house. When I flush the toilet sometimes it works fine. But most of the time the water does not drain. Here is what I have done so far. I rented a commercial drain cleaner machine and took off the toilet and snaked it to the clean-out plug in the basement where the line then goes to the street and the city sewer line.
The toilet worked fine for 6 flushes or so... then the water would not go down and big gurggling in the toilet with large air bubbles.
Thinking it must be the vent line I went to the roof and ran a hand snake line down 20 feet which was as long as the snake was. Then I pushed a garden hose inside the vent on the roof and pushed the hose until it hit the trap at the bottom and turned on the water. I let it run at full pressure for 5 minutes. But when I flush the toilet the same problem exists. The sink, toilet and tub/shower share the same vent line to the roof. Those fixtures are about 5 feet from the vent line to the roof.

I did find that if I leave the cleanout plug out (removed) in the basement that it flushes properly. If I close the clean-out plug and flush.. the toilet does not drain. When that happened I went to that basement cleanout plug and removed the plug and there was a sudden whoosh of air. Then the toilet drains fine.

Can you help me pinpoint what I need to do.

Jay

Good morning Jay,

If you had a blocked vent problem that put a vacume on the system and your toilet would "gurgle" as it pulled air attempting to vent.

With a partial blockage in your sewer line the discharge will go down OK until it builds and begans to back up. The rush of water hits the blockage and backs up pushing a "bubble" of air ahead of it and that is what you see in your toilet.
Rule of thumb. Blocked vent=gurgle in the toilet or a fixture trap.
Partial blockage= a blow back of air and bubbles.

You have pinpointed the blockage yourself. It is past the cleanout further on down the line. The "whoosh" you got would have come up as bubbles in the bowl if you hadn't relieved the pressure by opening the clean out.

The solution is to snake the sewer line to the end, (septic tank or city sewer?) Good luck and Merry Xmas. Tom

Thank you speedball. I will run the snake to the street from the cleanout plug. I really appreciate your help. I am glad you told me it was partial blockage from the cleanout plug. I made the assumption that it was the air vent being clogged with hair or something. I figured the air vent did not get cleaned from the snake and water hose.

Now I will get it working. Thank you so much.

Jay

Hi Jay,
I've found most blockages to be at thet raiser, (where your sewer ties into the street) If you bring back roots click on back and we'll see what can be done about that.
Good luck, Tom