Toilet nightmare

canyouhelp

Hello wonder if anyone can help me with any ideas here...

I live in a first floor flat and on Christmas Eve my toilet was completely blocked, I tried to clear it with the mop in a bin bag trick but no joy. In fact the toilet decided to start leaking from the back as well, possibly due to me trying to clear it with too much force.... the upshot of this was that I had to get a plumber to fix the toilet and an emergency drain clearing service (huge bill) to clear the blockage, which he said was just a build up of paper and other stuff in the part of the drain where it is shared with 3 other flats, between two flats in particular. The flat in question is a housing association one but the HA refused to pay towards the bill, they said if their tenant had called them they'd have cleared it but they wouldn't reimburse me my first question is whether they are allowed to say that!

So now it's blocked up again! Have been really careful with it since then and I only had a pee and the water went to the top of the bowl. This morning, tried with the mop again and don't know if it was a coincidence but it flushed ok twice. then the next time it filled up again.

Luckily the same company are going to come back as it's within 28 days, but it's a lot of mess and hassle if they have to come through the flat with the equipment again, and the drain cover is in my neighbour's garden so if i can try and work out anything before he gets here that would help. I just wondered if anyone had any ideas- if it flushed twice and then blocked up again, does that give any clue as to what sort of blockage it is, ie near the toilet maybe rather than further down? The waste pipe goes down the outside of the building and it's an old metal one, maybe stuff is getting stuck at the top of that?

thanks for any help you might be able to give....

Crinkmeister

Are there flats above and below yours? Are they having problems too? I would suspect that somebody is flushing stuff that shouldn't be flushed and it's catching somewhere and backing up. Wet wipes, sanitary towels are the worst offenders.

canyouhelp

There's a flat below but she has no problems, and nobody said they had a problem last time either.

The other two flats that share the drains are next door, I'm going to ask them now but last time it was only me

Crinkmeister

Could still be someone whose waste empties into the stack above yours that is causing the blockage. Hard to tell without seeing the layout of pipes.

Doozergirl

If it's in the shared part o the drain then there is no point keeping trying to unblock your toilet. It isn't the toilet that is the problem.

If the original company will unblock the drain again for free, that's good but there is possibly a wider issue. Now you need to explain your situation to the HA tenant and them to speak to the housing association and get it on to their priority list.

Who actually manages the block? Surely it's the HA?

canyouhelp

they are Edwardian terraces, so just ground floor and first floor flats. There's no management company although most have a freeholder (I'm share of freehold) Normally I would have to share costs with my downstairs neighbour, the problem here is that the drain joins with the 2 flats next door as well, so that part of the drain has toilets from: me and my downstairs neighbour (owners), upstairs next door (housing association) and downstairs (privately rented and can never get contact details for landlord)

Unfortunately nobody else seems to have a blocked toilet except me!

Hopefully the company will clear it again today then I will try writing to the 2 flats next door, landlords and freeholders, and see what I can get sorted....

Doozergirl

Okay, this is all outside is it?

Shared drains are the responsibility of your water company (the people
you pay your bill to).

If they are repeatedly blocking, then given the age, the drains could be damaged.

Call the water company.

You are probably the first upstream from the blockage, hence you have the problem.

canyouhelp

oh thanks I will also get in touch with them!

canyouhelp

Thanks for this, I wish I had known this before. Just spoke to Thames Water who were very helpful and confirmed that if I had called them in the first place they would have done it for free as it's a shared drain. Damn!! At least I know for next time. They said if the problem happens again they will do a proper clean and investigate the cause of the problem. Hope reading this will help someone else in the future!!

Beenie

Another thing that might help others is that when our toilet blocked, we were mystified.

We don't, and have never, flushed nappies, sanitary items or wet wipes.

The culprit turned out to be dental floss

canyouhelp

Dental floss??? You're kidding. I always flush mine!

A different bloke from the same company has come back and says it's just general blockage again, says he's disappointed the first one didn't recommend a 'camera survey'

Will be onto Thames Water if it happens again anyway. they said they would install CCTV to find out the cause, not sure how that would work??