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darkhorserecords · Dec 19, 2006, 06:49 PM

This is my first post so Im not sure where this belongs. I just thought plumbing is fitting. We recently finished off our basement with a full bathroom. About 4 months later the toilet seems to be bubbling and gurgling seemingly out of nowhere. This will sometime produce a horrible smell and sometimes leave a black film around the inside of the toilet bowl. We are on a septic tank system. ANY ideas about how this is happening and how to fix it would be GREAT. Thank you.

speedball1 · Dec 20, 2006, 07:21 AM

Let me explain about "Bubbles & Gurgles".
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 untill it hits a partial clog. Then it rebounds back sending a "bubble" of air,(sewer gas) ahead of it. 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 somwhere, in this case your toilet. The noise you hear is the air being pulled through the trap by suction, (gurgle).

For the "bubble and smell I would first check the septic tank to see if it needed to be pumped. Then I would open the cleanout and flush the toilet if there were a belch of air coming out of the cleanout then there's a blockage on down the line. While gurgles indicate a vent problem, in this case anything downstream of the toilet is suppect. Good luck, Tom

BillyRay Stephens · Dec 20, 2006, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by darkhorserecords

This is my first post so Im not sure where this belongs. I just thought plumbing is fitting. We recently finished off our basement with a full bathroom. about 4 months later the toilet seems to be bubbling and gurgling seemingly out of nowhere. this will sometime produce a horrible smell and sometimes leave a black film around the inside of the toilet bowl. we are on a septic tank system. ANY ideas about how this is happening and how to fix it would be GREAT. thank you.

It seems as though you have a venting problem which is not allowing the water to stay trapped in your toilet