Toilet not draining at all, any ideas please?

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8 Dec 2011
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Worcestershire
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I'd really appreciate any ideas as I could really do without having to call out a plumber and want to make sure I've tried all I can first.
My toilet (downstairs) has been draining very poorly for a couple of weeks now, it eventually removes the waste after several flushes, then sucks the level down really low in the pan. I've rodded the external drain several metres down (which resolved a similar problem last year). However, the level under the inspection cover isn't high and rodding made no difference at all. The toilet (and bathroom sink) don't drain into this inspection chamber, I've never been able to find where the flow from these go, even though they are only a few feet away from this chamber. I've split the soil pipe from the toilet and it's perfectly clear. The soil pipe goes into the ground in the bathroom into (ceramic?) piping and the level is high there, about 4 inches below the bathroom floor level. The weird thing is, the problem hasn't got any worse despite using the toilet, and the level here always remains at 4 inches below ground level, regardless of whether its left for hours. Today I rammed plastic conduit (drain rods too rigid) into this pipe in the bathroom a couple of metres down and the level suddenly dropped with a whoosing noise. Thinking I'd sorted it I put all the pipework back together, then flushed the toilet three times with clean water, pulled the plastic pipe out of the floor to check and the water level was back up to the exact same depth as before. Water and waste is obviously draining away somewhere, but something is preventing the level dropping fully. The bathroom is a downstairs extension (60's/70's I would guess) to a Victorian terrace. Anything anyone can suggest I would be very grateful.
 
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Here are some pics to help illustrate it. The first picture below shows the toilet with the waste pipe removed, the pipe where it drains through is at the left of the image. The second photo shows the level in this pipe about 4 inches below ground level.


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Theres some sort of obstruction in there, the pipe shouldn't have any water in it. Possible its broken underground or has dropped but without putting a camera down there it's impossible to tell.

You said 'the level in the inspection chamber isnt high'? It should be empty, the half channel in the bottom visible and running clear.
 
This looks like a blockage waiting to happen:
View media item 40479
A 90 degree flexible connector would have been better.
Is that where the grey soil pipe on the left originally went?
 
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Thanks for the replies. What I don't understand is why the water in this pipe always returns to this same level, regardless of how much or little the toilet is used. Surely if it were blocked, it would eventually drain away if left, or back up badly if used a lot but it doesn't??

The level in the inspection isn't totally empty, maybe 1-2 inches sat in the bottom of the channel which isn't right I know, although the level there is far lower than the level in the other pipe in the bathroom which made me think the problem was isolated to the toilet/sink. It may be worth mentioning that if I run the bathroom sink for more than a couple of minutes, the level in this bathroom pipe starts to rise until it spills over onto the floor.
The bath, kitchen appliances and gutters all drain into the inspection chamber outside and I've had no trouble with these.
 
If the chamber has standing water then there must surely be a blockage downstream.... (not a plumber, I should hasten to add!) Why not concentrate on curing that fact first, and all your woes might go away. Maybe.
 
As already said there's deffo a blockage, hire or borrow some rods and give it a go. P.S. lord tool hire used to hire them out for half a day.
 

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