[vaindioux]

Hi

We own a modest house in Georgia that we purchased new 10 years ago.
I have 2 bathroom and 1 toilet does not flush much anymore.
If you put a little too much toilet paper it just backs up. On a couple occasions it overflowed.
What should I look into first? Replace the flush? Call a plumber?
Dump some sort of drano product in there?

Thanks so much for the help

Patrick

[massplumber2008]

Hi Patrick...

Head on down to home depot or similar home improvement store and pick yourself up a closet auger... see image. This is a $20.00 tool that every homeowner should have in his arsenal... ;)

Then you'll want to snake the toilet through the toilet bowl. If you're lucky this will fix the issue. If you're unsure how to use the tool spend a minute with a plumbing associate and you should be all set.

Back to you...

Mark

[vaindioux]

Mark

We went to Lowe's and got one of these auger tool. It's fairly easy to use, unfortunately it didn't fix the problem.
We turned the handle hoping to retrieve something and nothing came back each time.
So I hoped that maybe we could have pushed something through but no.
I flushed some toilet paper and it took 2 tries for it to go down.

Thanks for the help

Patrick

[massplumber2008]

Hi Patrick...

Bear with me on this... OK?

Try the auger again... use it many times. The idea here will be to spin the snake into the toilet but then pull it back strongly so that the pull can actually grab and pull anything in the toilet back into the toilet bowl. Spin in.. yank out... spin in... yank out. Here, the gold and orange tubing stays still and you yank on the snake... make sense? Try this 5-10 times and then try the toilet paper again,

If that fails to fix this I want you to double check that the water in the toilet TANK is about an inch below the overflow tube in the center of the tank and also be sure that the fill tube that comes from the fill valve is placed into the overflow tube... these aid in completing a flush!

You did, however, mention that the toilet overflowed a couple times so if all this fails then you will need to lift that toilet and see what is blocking it from underneath.

Pop back and let me know how you're doing...

Mark

[vaindioux]

Mark

Ok I haven't tried the auger again but I did look at where the water was in the tank and it was right at the overflow. So I adjusted it somewhat at 1 inch below it (It doesn't stay right at 1 inch but close) and I threw a heavy dose of toilet paper in there twice and twice it went through fine.
I am cautious about declaring victory here. Tomorrow morning I will have the whole family do their business in this bathroom (LOL) and see how it fares.

Will keep you updated.

Thanks so much

Patrick

[massplumber2008]

Hi Patrick:

Yup... if victory occurs it will be because of the earlier auger work... not the lowering of the water level... although the lower water level will probably save you a little dough! Try toilet tomorrow... if that fails use the auger again as described... thanks for the updates!

Mark

[vaindioux]

Mark

Well it is a lot better but it's not 100%. I will keep on using the auger and see if it improves more.

Thanks again for all the help

Patrick

[ballengerb1]

Stop with the dosing of toilet paper. Give the auger and plain water a better chance to work. A toilet should test perefctly with nothing but water, lets get to that point first.

[massplumber2008]

Yeah, like Bob, I'm thinkin' it may be time to lift that toilet and see if anything is blocking the outlet.

Keep us posted.