Weird toilet/drain problem

I live in a Redrow 4-bed end of terrace, built 7 years ago. It has a bathroom/toilet on the top floor, which I never use; an en-suite in my bedroom on the 1st floor, and a little cloakroom-type one on the ground floor, which I use fairly frequently.

I’ve never had any problems with blocking etc – most of the time I use the ones in work, and am often not around at weekends. However, the one on the ground floor seems to block about once a year, possibly around the same time (now), but obviously I haven’t kept records – so, when I flush it, the bowl fills up with water, then drains fairly quickly, like a few seconds. Under normal circumstances though, it doesn’t fill up at all when flushed.

This may seem a strange idea, but this blocking doesn’t seem related to toilet use – it just happens, as I say, maybe once a year. On previous occasions, it’s lasted a few days, then suddenly cleared just as mysteriously.

This time, it’s been like that for maybe a week now, so I tried caustic soda with no joy. Today, I got one of these green flexible plastic plunger affairs you can get, and spent quite some time with it – no effect at all; so I tried a long flexible steel coil thing, which I was able to get in at least a couple of feet, jiggle around, push in and out etc, but no good either. There was no trace of any matter stuck to the end of it either.

So I’m wondering… is it possible something could be happening in the drain at this time of year, to make it back up? Presumably the other two toilets empty to the same drain… but they’re at the other end of the house, which might make a difference – also they are up on the 1st and 2nd floors, so would have 10 or 20 feet of soil pipe to drain into – if that drained even slowly, I guess you wouldn’t get backing up in the actual toilet.

Any ideas guys? I always get the weird ones

Thanks

Perhaps your house is on end terrace and on the start of drain run, maybe shared with rest of house in same terrace and one of them got a block drain and has been cleared.

Do you have manholes? You could lift up and check if clear of water.

Daniel.

Now that’s exactly the sort of inspiration I’m looking for – I am indeed on an end terrace (of 6 houses), so that could be the answer, couldn’t it.

Thanks for the manhole suggestion. There are one or two out in the street, but I wouldn’t have a clue which one to lift, or what to look for, I’m afraid.

And of course I’ve scratched the bottom of the bowl to bu66ery with the flexible steel rod

Should be some form on inspection chamber on your property, very rare to see a house built now without at least one. Dont be fooled into looking for the big square or round covers, there may only be a small cover some 6-9" square or diameter, under which may lurk a small inspection chamber.

Your description is the classic sign of a blockage, if there is standing water in the drain, then the water from your flush has to displace the air in the pipe trapped by the blockage and standing water behind it, hence the pan fill up and slowly drops to normal level again.

Really need to be tackled from outside, chemicals are usually diluted too much by the time they get where needed to do any good with blocked WC's, and poking a snake down the toilet will only be effective if it actually reaches the blockage, (which may even be 2 or 3 doors away!). It would be worth chatting to the neighbours, see if anyone else has noticed an issue, if the problem lies with a section of sewer shared by you and at least one other property, it then becomes the Water Company's remit.

Hugh Jaleak said:

Should be some form on inspection chamber on your property, very rare to see a house built now without at least one. Dont be fooled into looking for the big square or round covers, there may only be a small cover some 6-9" square or diameter, under which may lurk a small inspection chamber.

Your description is the classic sign of a blockage, if there is standing water in the drain, then the water from your flush has to displace the air in the pipe trapped by the blockage and standing water behind it, hence the pan fill up and slowly drops to normal level again.

Really need to be tackled from outside, chemicals are usually diluted too much by the time they get where needed to do any good with blocked WC's, and poking a snake down the toilet will only be effective if it actually reaches the blockage, (which may even be 2 or 3 doors away!). It would be worth chatting to the neighbours, see if anyone else has noticed an issue, if the problem lies with a section of sewer shared by you and at least one other property, it then becomes the Water Company's remit.

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Thanks, that all makes sense. As it’s happened a few times over the years, I’m going to assume that one of the neighbours has got Severn Trent to unblock it previously, and will do so again!

Sadly there’s a bit of a feud going on in the street over parking at the moment, so discussion isn’t really possible

That is a large part of the reason shared sewers were put into the Water Companies ownership, so many were ignorant of the legislation concerning shared drains, and many arguments ensued as to who was paying what!

Hugh Jaleak said:

That is a large part of the reason shared sewers were put into the Water Companies ownership, so many were ignorant of the legislation concerning shared drains, and many arguments ensued as to who was paying what!

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Wish they'd do it for parking spaces

Just thought I’d post an update, as you were so kind as to help me – the toilet was still backing up until an hour ago. Just now, while watching telly, I heard an incredible loud gurgling from downstairs – the bowl was completely empty (presumably from a vacuum created by the blockage flowing away downstream), and it all works fine again now.

I went out into the street to see if anybody had Dynorod in or anything, but it would seem not.

Just one of those things, I suppose – thanks for your help.

Sometimes the head of water and waste that builds up is enough to force the blockage out, allowing it to break up and disperse. Seems to be whats happened here, fingers crossed end of problems!