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pistolpete
Feb 3, 2009, 04:55 PM
Hey everyone. Was hoping someone out there can help someone new to home repair.

Have been having problems with a particular toilet clog in a mobile home bathroom. Decided it was worth borrowing a snake to fix it. The problem seemed fixed for a couple days. The toilet was flushing fine and all.

But now...

The toilet decided to "run" every now and then. By run I mean when the water fills up kind of like after a flush. It doesn't take long to get to the point of overflowing now, and I am worried that if I stop scooping water out of it (say, if I decide to sleep at some point tonight) that I will wake up to a completely flooded mobile home.

Also, the shower drain in this very same bathroom seems to drain EXTREMELY slowly all of a sudden.

Any help would be greatly appreciate, thanks in advance.

ballengerb1
Feb 3, 2009, 05:01 PM
Sleep tight. Sounds like your flapper valve is allowing the tank to slowly drain into the toilet and then it must refill the tank. You are wasting some water but your toilet should not over flow if I read your problem correctly. To save water shut off the stop under the tank until you must flush or you have time to repair the flapper. I always feel the round sealing surface for nicks or debris, same on the flapper too. However areplacement flapper is only about $2 so you might want to pick one up at the hardware store.

rail1911
Feb 3, 2009, 05:01 PM
For the toilet, try opening the top part up and making sure the plunger is sitting down flush against the bottom of the tank. If it is not, the water will continue to run because it never thinks the tank is full

mygirlsdad77
Feb 3, 2009, 05:16 PM
If water is reaching top of overflow, you will most likely have to fix or replace fill valve, or adjust fill valve. For now, I would just shut the stop under the toilet off, and get some sleep, then let us know what kind of flapper and fill vavle you have. We should be able to help you change one or both of them.

maryallen
Feb 3, 2009, 05:24 PM
I don't know how toilets run where you live but where I come from the float rises when the cistern starts to fill up. So if you do have a float inside the cistern lift it up and see if te plunger shifts down if nothing moves the shut off mechanism must be faulty or worn you can manually bend the float down. Or there may be a hole in the float in this case you will need to replace the float. Its not too difficult. Just have a play around with the inside of the cistern. If you have another, it is always good to see how that one works and what is different. Then you will find the answer

Nickcom2007
Feb 3, 2009, 05:37 PM
I had this problem a month or so back when I first moved into our new apartment. We did the same thing borrowed a snake, snaked the toilet a couple of times, took the toilet off to see if anything was clogging it. Turned out to be our sewage pump, it died. All your waste goes somewhere, usually down a sewage pipe to a plant or in our case down the pipe to a sewage pump that grinds all of it first then it ships somewhere under the street. You could try calling the Fire and Waste department in your area, usually they are responsible for this. But if you are responsible for your waste and the pump you may have to call someone to come out and fix it. Try call the Fire and Waste department first, explain what's going on and then they can tell you what to do from there.

mygirlsdad77
Feb 3, 2009, 05:50 PM
Calling fire and waste for a slow flushing toilet. Hmmmmm, don't know if I would go that route. They are not plumbers, which is what you need at this time.

pistolpete
Feb 3, 2009, 08:10 PM
Thanks for the advice so far guys. I have tried a few things so far suggested but here is an update.

I removed the drain cap from the shower, and cleaned it out and also poured a little drain-o down it. It seems whenever I use the shower or the sink in this bathroom, the toilet starts to bubble, or when, or vice versa.

This wasn't a problem until I used the snake I mentioned before. Do you think it's possible that I just pushed a clog that was neutralized in the toilet further down to clog the rest of my pipes in that bathroom?

I also fear that the cold weather has led my pipes to freeze, but I don't see any obvious signs of that.

Oh and by the way, the toilet that is the initial problem has no emergency shut off valve, so I tied the thing that reads the level of the water in the tank so it won't channel any more water up, leaving the tank empty and preventing the toilet from overflowing at least.

As you folks can tell I am in slightly (or majorly) over my head, any more advice from my updated position here would be awesome (even if it means that I am screwed and need to call a plumber)

Thank you to everyone who has helped me out so far. I only hope that I can help someone else out on this forum to repay you.

pistolpete
Feb 3, 2009, 08:12 PM
By the way, I have given everyone a positive rating for taking your time to help me out on this one. My old lady gets home soon and at least she won't come home to a flooded bathroom.

maryallen
Feb 9, 2009, 08:16 PM
Hi again from down under. Don't use draino if you have terracotta pipes. It is a different system you have there. Our septic tanks work different and we don't have water level gauges so sorry I couldn't help you, I was thinking you had a problem with the tank that fills to flush. Reading your latest about the draino and the snake sounds to me like there is a broken pipe somewhere along the line or one or more joints haven't been correctly sealed and the air is getting into the pipes. I am having difficulty figuring exactly what the problem is but if there is air in the pipes you have to turn on all the taps at the same time. This usually happens when the mains has been turned off then you have a knocking sound when you turn on the tap