Hi,

I am hoping for some general advice before I start shelling out.

We got our bathroom upgraded recently - (new shower toilet and bath) and all was fine for a few weeks - so I don't know if subsequent problems were caused by this or it's just coincidence.

We live in one of the ground floor flats of an old three storey tenament. And what we have noticed is as follows

• Toilet water level is always quite low and there is bubbling as it lowers after flushes
• Toilet seems to block very often - it seems to backup after flushes quite a lot as well - before dropping low
• Every so often I have to use a plunger which aleviates the problem for a while (but never completely shifts it)
• Every so often there is a bad smell (stale - acrid) in the living room - which comes up through the floorboards that have a bit of space between them - bathroom doesn't smell too clever either...

Smell does not always co-incide with use of toilet either - so I was wondering if it might be a communal thing...

Someone we know suggested that there may be cracked pipe or something similar. Does it suggest anything obvious to any experts out there?

Thanks in advance

Quote:

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Originally Posted by southsidebud

Hi,

I am hoping for some general advice before I start shelling out.

We got our bathroom upgraded recently - (new shower toilet and bath) and all was fine for a few weeks - so I don't know if subsequent problems were caused by this or it's just coincidence.

We live in one of the ground floor flats of an old three storey tenament. And what we have noticed is as follows

• Toilet water level is always quite low and there is bubbling as it lowers after flushes
• Toilet seems to block very often - it seems to backup after flushes quite a lot as well - before dropping low
• Every so often I have to use a plunger which aleviates the problem for a while (but never completely shifts it)
• Every so often there is a bad smell (stale - acrid) in the living room - which comes up through the floorboards that have a bit of space between them - bathroom doesn't smell too clever either...

Smell does not always co-incide with use of toilet either - so I was wondering if it might be a communal thing...

Someone we know suggested that there may be cracked pipe or something similar. Does it suggest anything obvious to any experts out there?

Thanks in advance

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My thoughts are that you may have a vent that is not located in the correct location for the drainage system to work properly or no vent at all depending on the( plumber) and the smell could be coming from a trap that is being sucked dry by the drainage system in search for a vent to pull air through at this point there would not be any water holding the sewer gas back hope thi is helpful good luck

"Toilet water level is always quite low and there is bubbling as it lowers after flushes
Toilet seems to block very often - it seems to backup after flushes quite a lot as well - before dropping low
Every so often I have to use a plunger which aleviates the problem for a while (but never completely shifts it)"

You have just told me that you have a blockage in the vent from the bathroom.
"Bubbles" and "Gurgles". They are both indicters that something's going on in your drainage system.
A "bubble" indicates a clogged line while a "gurgle" indicates a blocked vent. Let me explain. When you flush the discharge drains down the pipe until it hits a partial clog. Then it rebounds back sending a "bubble" of air ahead of it. This is where the sewer gas comes from. When you flush a toilet or drain a bathtub a suction is created by the water rushing down the pipe. This suction is relieved by a open pipe that runs to the outside called a vent. When a vent's stopped up the suction has to relieve itself somewhere, usually the nearest fixture trap.
The solution would be to snake out the bathroom lavatory roof vent. Put out enough cable to reach the base and about 20 feet more.
Good luck, Tom