Plumbing the depths of your toilet
Last night’s dinner hasn’t exactly agreed with you, and you suspect you may have just given the toilet a little more freight than it usually handles. Not having any other option, you take the risk and hit flush, and soon begin to regret your decision as you watch with dread the water rapidly inching closer to the rim of the bowl and threatening to overflow.
This time you get lucky and your package finally lodges free of the pipes and goes on its merry way to the treatment plant. Things could have been worse. What if the toilet didn’t clear itself and you managed to give yourself one heck of clean up job?
Once you’ve finished the mopping, you are still faced with a blocked toilet? Do you call the local plumber, or do you feel confident in your handyman skills? More importantly, is your stomach even up to the task? Plumbing the depths of your toilet is a dirty, stinky job, but somebody’s got to do it.
How do toilets become blocked?
Toilet blockages can occur for many reasons, from kids who have grown tired of their Bob the Builder collection to one too many hot dogs from the night before.
What a child considers safe to flush can boggle the mind. From baked potatoes to LEGO bricks, they’ve all managed to find their way down to traveling the stinky highway at some point. The problem is, they don’t always successfully go the distance and often end up firmly lodged in the pipe.
Fortunately, most toilet blockages can be rectified with a little know-how using basic, inexpensive equipment. In most toilet blockages, the offending objects rarely make it past the first bend, and nothing more than a little rigorous elbow work with the toilet plunger is needed to get your toilet back into serviceable condition.
How to unblock a toilet?
First things first; make sure everyone else in the household knows about the blockage. It’s no fun when a small child drops a deuce in an already blocked toilet while you’re off collecting the tools.
Once you have successfully cordoned off the area, put on your HazMat suit. Just kidding; you’re not going to need a hazmat suit, but you may find yourself wishing for that impermeable layer of protective material and breathing apparatus when you start sloshing around in the nether regions of your toilet.
Seriously though, you will need some thick rubber gloves, a few absorbent towels, a toilet plunger, a bucket, and possibly a toilet auger. If the water level in the bowl is too high, you’re going to need to remove it using a jug. You could also use a siphon if you have one handy.
The standard kitchen sink plunger is no good in blocked toilet situations, as the design isn’t conducive to creating a reliable seal for suction. Toilet plungers have a solid rubber flap on the bottom which is designed to fold out from the inside of the cup and create a good seal that will create a decent amount of back pressure against the blockage.
Once the water is at a workable depth, you should get to work with the plunger. Pressing it in hard and then pulling it out slowly is the key to achieving maximum suction. If all goes well, the offending material will be pulled out to where you can grab it with your hands, and then it’s just a simple matter of flushing and cleaning up.
If the plunger doesn’t give you any joy, it’s time to bring the toilet augur into play. If you’re reading up on how to unblock a toilet, it’s unlikely you will have a toilet auger handy, so you may have to go out and purchase one. They range in price from $15.00 to $50.00, so are quite affordable, and are a good tool to have on standby in an emergency.
An auger is a cable like a drain snake, which is attached to a rotating handle. You can use a standard drain snake, but you may be left with unsightly scratches on your bowl. A toilet auger is designed with rubber sleeves to prevent scratching.
Gently feed the flexible cable into the toilet drain using the crank. The head of the cable is designed to work through and dislodge tough clogs when even the most vigorous plunging action has failed.
If you have no success with the plunger or the auger, then it’s probably time to call in the big guns. If the blockage has happened further down the pipe, then your local plumber using specialised tools will be able to locate the blockage and remove the offending material.
Time for a local plumber?
If it’s your first time calling a local plumber, then it’s hit and miss as to whether you will receive quality service. Most Australian states require plumbing work to be carried out by a licensed plumber but if you are worried about the reliability, experience, or quality they can deliver then read reviews online before deciding or ask around with friends and family.
Given the nature of the situation, you’re probably in a hurry to find a plumber, but one method to ensure your satisfaction is to use Tradebusters Connect, where all plumbers are vetted for quality and reliability before being listed on the site.
Other Useful Links:
Plumbers Campbelltown-Macarthur
Plumbers Chatswood & Upper North Shore