Question for you folks, since I am sick of having soaking wet floors:

I have a sewer system house, modem plumbing, nothing out of the ordinary...

Every 30 to 60 seconds the 2 toilets in my house shoot water up through the drain hole. I am assuming this is huge air bubbles, and in most cases will shoot the water a good
10-12" straight in the air. You can imagine the outcome of this while trying to use the plumbing! And yes, it really sucks.

I would appreciate anyone who has seen this, heard of this, or just flat out know what is wrong to get back to me on this. I seem to be totally stumped.

Things to consider:

1) it happens in both toilets.
2) it is so frequent that a minute of silence is golden.
3) there is no way that this could happen for months without running out of air, so air is getting into the drain line somewhere.

HELP... my sons have really wet butts!!

That's one of the strangest things I've heard about a toilet.

Let's see, you are on a municipal sewer system. You have two toilets and about every minute water spray up from the bowel. This happens in both toilets. Does this happen in both toilets at the same time? This goes on constantly 24 hours a day? This has been going on for months and you have not called a plumber. These are regular toilets, not power flush toilets.

Tell us more, do the toilets flush normally? What other water usage is going on when this happens. Do sinks and showers and tubs drain normally? How old is the house? Are there any odors from the drains of any other sinks or tubs.

Have you tried turning off the water to the toilets just in case it is not a drain issue.

This could happen is if the vent is clogged.

The question is what is generating that much pressure in the sewer system.

Hope that helps.

Medic-Dan's in error. Period! This isn't a clogged vent although his next question addresses the subject.
If your in a single family home and not a condo building this has just got to be coming in from the street main. Answer Harolds questions and we'll get right back with you. Regards, Tom

We are a single family home
Water pressure is fine everywhere in the house
Water draining is fine everywhere in the house
The house is 50 years old...
The toilets are < 10 years old (1.6 GPF)
Sewer is 7 years old
No other water is running in the house. Nor does it matter if any other water is running in the house.
This happens on both toilets at the same time
I have not tried turning off the water on the toilets.
Smell: oh yes... very sewer smelly.

I would say that you have a blocked vent. I would also say that the main sewer line down stream from you has a partial blockage.
When sewage up stream from you comes down the pipe, the air in the pipe has no where to go but out your toilet. Very surprised at the regularity of this. Pressure must be building constantly, then periodically (every sixty seconds) being released through your toilet.

I would contact the city sewer people then snake the vent . I would call the city before snaking the vent just to prove to them that there is a problem. If you are on real good terms with a neighbor you might ask them to temporarily block their vent just to prove the point, because city is probably not going to believe you.

You must have a real stinky house.

Edit: Could also be a city lift pump problem as opposed to blocked line.

I have always assumed this was coming from the town's main swer line, and placed 3 calls into them over the last 6 months, they don't believe me, nor do they think it is their problem. I have a plumber coming over in the next 1/2 hour for an "expert" diagnostic. If they say what I am thinking, I have having the plumber put it in writing. I will update with the status.

Please let us know the outcome.

Bet a pizza it's a lift pump problem. You also have to have a blocked or restricted vent for what you have described to happen. Do you have a clean out out side you home. If so, have plumber uncap it. If problem goes away that should prove the point of sewer gas coming back under pressure.

I pie it is...

Yes, please let us know.

Speedball, if the vent is open no pressure could build in the system and hk agrees the vent could be a problem.

Or am I missing something?

Plumber was here... totally confused him... no idea... checked the drain lines, no blockage...

Suggested taking off the vent cap on the vent line... Going to do this now... stay tuned...

I take it that the plumber wasn't curious enough to want to figure this out. Don't think it's a drain issue, think it's a vent issue in combination with a main sewer line problem. That thing in your yard is a sewer clean out not a vent. The vent is on your roof. By removing the cap on the clean out you are allowing main line gasses to escape there rather than your toilet. Did plumber check vent?

Solved...

For those of you who bet on Vent clog... you are correct... sort of...

In a nutshell:

When they installed the main line sewers on my street, they vented the sewer lines through the house vents (the vent on the roof)... problem is, I live on a hill on the end of the street. The 10 or so houses (including mine) started experiencing sever methane odors to the point where our yards smelled like an open sewer. The solution: place a charcoal filter ontop of the vents. Well my bag slid down the pipe and caused a clog in the line. I removed the bag of charcoal from the vent, and my toilets have not exploded since.

Insteresting side not of all of this: when I pulled the bag of charcoal out of the vent, the BOTTOM of the bag was soaking wet. I am guessing this means it was vaccuming the water back up the vent pipe.

.


Basically, I'm just interested to see what you find, and please do let us know. Lee.

Glad to hear you got it fixed.

Just out of curiosity, how are city sewer lines typically vented?

Charcoal filters on the vents huh? Sounds like the city is trying to save some money by halfassing instead of finding the real problem and fixing it. Please keep us posted when you encounter furhter problems,, (as I'm sure you will in the near future(hope not, but ).. Lee

So everybody has a bag of charcoal on their vent pipe, you live at the top of the hill and all the sewer gas comes up to you. Wonder what genius thought that up. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a vent pipe doesn't it. The wet charcoal would be the result of the moisture coming up with the sewer gas.

Guess I owe you a pizza. Town politicians owe you a lot more. Gawd, politicians can be dumb.

Suggest you ask all you neighbors to change their charcoal, you could threaten them with wet butts like happened to you.

What was (I really wish I could make this s@#$ up) really funny, as I was setting up the ladder to climb 30' into the air to the vent, my first selectman stopped by since we are in an election year. Man I reamed him out.

Anyway... yea, I either have methane in my yard, or exploding toilets... first thing tomorrow I am going to my town hall.

Yes, please let us know.

Speedball, if the vent is open no pressure could build in the system and hk agrees the vent could be a problem.

Or am I missing something?

OK, I could see that happening if the pressure cam from the main and every vent in the house was blocked. But if that happened that would not be the cause. THe vents will mot produce pressure, vents produce suction. If all the vents were revented back in the attic and the VTR was blocked that could possibly be it. I'd like to know where the toilets are in relationship to the outside clean out. I like Harolds Idea of removing the cleanout cover to check for outside pressure but the vents aren't the root cause of the potties blowing up. But hey Dan! I've been known to be wrong before.

Nexmeister,

Just had a brain storm (not a significant event in my small brain).

Tap in to the town main, put a vacuum pump on it and pull that sewer gas out and into a propane tank. Make all you neighbors happy and give you free heating. Wonder what pressure you could have to put on methane gas to liquefy it.

Of course if it worked your town council would probably sue you for stealing their s@#$.

Maybe the Obamarites and the EPA would give us a few million to do a pilot program of capturing methane gas for home heating. After all it would be "green energy". Anybody got any connections with ACORN?

Not a particularly important item, but the odor is not from methane since it has no odor, at least so says the internet:

Methane is a colourless, odourless gas which is lighter than air. It is formed by the decomposition of organic carbons under anaerobic conditions and is commonly found in or near swamps and wetland areas, peat deposits, woodwastes such as hogfuel, or in the area of old landfills.

Of course, I can well imagine a variety of sources for odor in sewage.

Like poop... lol