I have two toilets. When I flush one, the other one bubbles up. The one that bubbles won't flush at all. This started yesterday.

My house was built in the 50's. It's a one story house with a crawl space. In the 80s, they installed a septic system for the toilets, but the sinks and showers still drain to a creek out back (I'm way in the country so it wasn't a code violation back then). So only the two toilets are on the septic. There's only one vent, and it's right next to the toilet that works (not sure if it's upstream or downstream). The toilet that bubbles was installed in the 2000s (conversion of a bedroom into a bathroom when the previous owner became handicapped). It's about 15 feet upstream with no vent.

The toilet that flushes is closer to the septic. The weird thing is, it flushes just fine. I went up on the roof and checked the vent and it doesn't look clogged. I shined a flashlight down the vent and I saw water reflecting deep down. I had one of my kids flush it while I was up there, and it looked fine to me (although I'm no expert).

Any idea where my problem is? Thanks in advance.

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I have two toilets. When I flush one, the other one bubbles up.

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This tells me that you have a partial blockage downstream from the toilet that's bubbling, Or it could mean your septic tank needs pumping.

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The one that bubbles won't flush at all.

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Please explain. Does it back up and overflow? Raise up and just swirl around? What? Let me know, Tom

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Originally Posted by speedball1

This tells me that you have a partial blockage downstream from the toilet that's bubbling, Or it could mean your septic tank needs pumping.
Please explain. Does it back up and overflow? Raise up and just swirl around? What? Let me know, Tom

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Most of the time, it overflows. But I can plunge it out.

Last night, I poured some drain-o down the one that wouldn't flush. This morning, it flushed just fine the first couple times. Then, I flushed the 1st toilet (the one that's worked all along), and the 2nd toilet bubbled up a lot. After that, the 2nd toilet wouldn't flush again. It backed up and I turned the water off right as it was about to overflow. I could hear it was draining, but very slowly. It took about 5 minutes to get back down to a normal level.

Thanks.

Do you want to take the toilet that bubbles up and snake the drain or will you be calling in outside help? Let me know. Tom

Is that what you think the problem is? What else could it be?

I haven't decided yet about calling in a pro. I'm really busy with work for the next week or two, so it depends on if the wife can wait that long for me to deal with it : )