Unblocking the toilet - any ideas?

ankspon

Always used a mop when i was doing it for a living,vacuum effect is brill.

[Deleted User]

Back in the 1970s when we lived in a terrace of four houses my unbelievabley stupid neighbour flushed half a loaf of bread down her loo.We were next on the 'run' as the end of terrace and of course the drains backed up.The chap in the other house luckily has some drain rods to rod through the drain from the road.My OH went out to help saying don't let the children out in the alley as the drain hatch cover is off .I duly locked the back kitchen door also the back gate To this day I will never know how my eldest DD got out into the alley.She was 4 years old and a nosey little girl.The obvious happened and she fell into 12 foot of sewage.Luckily my neighbour heard her yell and hared up the alley She bounced off the bottom and had just surfaced as he grabbed her by her long hair and yanked her out covered in god knows what and smelling to high heaven.We hosed her down and rushed her to the local A&E as we didn't know if she had swallowed anything.They were brilliant and pumped her stomach (which she certainly didn't like ) and sent us home with her wrapped in blankets and still smelling a bit niffy.Everytime she burped she smelt disgusting. She survived o.k. and a fortnight later we were at a friends house and she was playing in their garden and had been told to keep an eye on her little sister.Five minutes later there she was dripping wet on the back doorstep having fallen into the fishpond .I think she has nine lives as out of the two of them she was the one who always fell off her bike ,out of a tree and once even down a steep embankment and got covered in stinging nettles.No wonder my hair started to go white at 25 :)I have an awful fear of blocked drains ever since .If you can get some drin rods they will pay forthemselves over the years though I bought my son-in-law some two years ago when their drin got blocked by the dishwasher One of the boys always forgets to rince off the plates before stacking them and it saved them a fortune in plumbing bills at least three times since I think they cost about £15.00 in B&Qs and are well worth the money.

annem38

would definately go with the plunger, they are not expensive and can be used for when one of you pours lamb fat down the sink and then wonders why the water won't go down:eek:

also, you will always have it in, so no waiting for the shops to open or for products to work overnight (seriously how long can you go without a loo??)

and on a last note it will also save you the £65 (so very mse) call our charge that a plumber with a plunger (oo-er missus!) will charge you for 2 mins work on a sunday night after oh has gone out to work and left you to deal with a blocked loo

hth

anne

Sassy26

Have just had this problem and i found the answer to this is boiling a couple of jugs of hot water and pour in toilet and leave for 5 to 10 minutes and then it should flush, worked for me!!

SpreadPyar

I have just tried one of the methods mentioned as my toilet was blocked today... in the past I had tried few of the others like toilet unblock-er liquid I even bought a expensive plunger it did not do the job so I had to call for a plumber who at the time charged me £60 although not that expensive it was still a hole in my pocket.

You must be saying for God's sake tell us what you did...
I tried the so much talked about mop -in-a-bag.... initially there was no vacuum but after perseverance it worked... how much did it cost me £2(Even though I bought a £12 lliquid which I didn't need wow this was well worth visit to Pound shop(I have a £10 mop nearly new so I didn't want to use that, set of two mops £1 and handle £1 but only used 1 of the mop so in effect it will be £2 for two blockages if it happens again)

Thank you guys.....

ash28

Queenie wrote: »

Try pushing your loo brush down and then rapidly pushing it in and out. (you will see the water level decline to almost nothing)
Then add the following:-

.... in B&Q they sell caustic soda which should shift the blockage it's about 79p a bottle but you'll need to follow the instructions very carefully!

Never tried the Mr Muscle-over-priced-for-name-brand stuff - can't think why

Do you use the plastic rim freshners? If you have one of those stuck down there, no amount of cleaning product is going to shift it!

Good luck!

We have had one of those plastic rim fresheners blocking the toilet before - after a party - we ended up buying one of those winding things - that you unwind into the toilet - they're flexible and go round bends easily. Got the rim freshener out when all else failed.

Looked a bit like this - there are lots of different types around.

RexBanner

coys wrote: »

For future problems, Get a mop and a rubbish bag/bin bag, wrap the bag securely around the mop end, and use it as a plunger, this is very effective and cheap.

That's literally the best advice I've ever had off the internet.

Worked a treat.

Thanks a million.:)

lindseykim13

Don't know if someones mentioned it but the coke bottle thing works everytime in our house-chop the bottom off a bottle and use it like a plunger very fast-creates a suction or something but it works!

derekcfoley

Its not that difficult to remove the entire toilet if all these approaches fail. Its something you can do without a plumber if you're feeling confident and are reasonably practical.

Toilets are normally only screwed down using two bolts on each side of the base, once those are free its just a matter of sliding the toilet forwards gently (very, VERY carefully, remember its a ceramic). Depending on how your pipework at the rear is mounted, it should release the rear soil pipe - sometimes also the flush pipe - which are normally just "pushed on", you can also try loosening them by hand first if you can get to them (which depends on the type of toilet).

Sometimes the hardest thing normally is cutting away at the silicone sealant if present around the seams before you remove the toilet.

Then of course its on with the marigolds and the unpleasant job of scooping what is blocking the u-bend into a bucket.

This is sometimes the best approach if you live in a rural location and have a sewage digester plant on your system, as all the fierce chemical unblocker chemicals will end up killing all the bacteria in your sewage digester and causing problems.

Butterfly_Brain

I always use boiling water to start with, then a good plunge and the toilet clears like a dream