HELP... water leak at base of toilet when showering

Jul 22, 2003 Last reply: 4 years ago 9 Replies
S

Hi.. thanks for any help. I have a full bathroom in the garage, and a full bathroom upstairs. Whenever someone takes a shower at either the upstairs or downstairs shower, water leaks from the base of the downstairs toilet. thanks again!! Some things I found out or tried:


  1. it is definately coming from the base of the toilet, i have watched it slowly seep out. and the back and side of the bowl and tank are dry.


  1. when using the upstairs shower, water will leak from the base of the toilet AND the downstairs tub has water backed up into it.

  2. the leak only appears when someone is taking a long shower. the leak will appear approximately 7 minutes into a shower, then water will start to steadily seep out from the base of the toilet. i come back 1 hour later and flush the toilet while running the water in the downstairs shower, but the leak doesn't appear. i come back another hour later and flush the toilet 4 consecutive times, still no leak. so the only time there is a leak is during long showers.


  1. pouring draino into the downstairs shower does nothing!



steve


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T

You most likely have a blockage in the waste pipe/ sewer line. If you're on a septic system, you should have it inspected by a professional (not a good DIY project for obvious reasons). If you're on town sewer, are there any trees growing over the sewer line out to the street? The roots of trees have an amazing ability to find the smallest imaginable fault and rapidly growing inside of a sewer line. Roto-Rooter or equivalent is likely needed.

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P

You need to replace the wax ring that the toilet sits on.

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S

You have *TWO* separate problems:

1) The wax seal on the toilet is leaking. 2) The sewer/septic system is clogged. If septic, the field may be saturated.

Jim

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S

i live in a city with a sewer system and there are no trees growing over the sewer line out to the street. what will be the process to fix this problem? can it be snaked out of the pipes, or will there be a need to dig underground to get at the pipes? thanks ... steve

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S

if the wax seal is broken shouldn't it leak with every flush? however, the leak only occurs with long showers. i live in a city with a sewer system. if it is a sewer system clog problem, what kind of fix will this entail? can the clog be snaked out easily? thanks!

steve

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T

It is impossible for anyone to accurately answer your question of what the process will be unless that person can see, and hopefully repair the problem themselves. A toilet seeping as you describe ONLY when a large demand is being placed on the waste pipe can ONLY mean restricted capacity of that waste pipe by something. Could be easy...could be a real bitch. Do you own the property?

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T

replying to Steve, Tangir wrote: Hi Steve I know this is a very old post but I?m experiencing the same thing!! Did you find the culprit/ solution?

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