Unblocking a partially blocked wc

My son has just bought a flat and I'm in the process of redecorating before he moves in. I've noticed that when you flush the loo the water rises quite high in the bowl and goes down a lot slower than it should. I've not used it in earnest yet and I image that any solids wouldn't get flushed away as they should. I'm guessing there's some sort of blockage in the u bend of the wc. I've not tried anything yet but was thinking of having a poke with an old bit of hose or something. I'm open to suggestions though. Is there anything made for the job or perhaps some chemical treatment I can use?

Thanks

John

Reply to
Nodge
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In message , Nodge writes

Have u got a string head mop? Makes on excellent plunger. Just push down harder than you lift up, it gets messy otherwise. (Insert smiley here)

Reply to
Keith

It's more likely to be a downpipe or the drain itself blocked. The symptoms will be the same in any case regardless of where the blockage is.

Reply to
Dave Baker

In message , Keith wrote

And wrap a dustbin bag around the mop before use.

Reply to
Alan

How come people don't know how to deal with a partially blocked loo these days?

It depends where the blockage is but generally speaking it's normally in the trap of the loo, in which case a well aimed and dumped (rather than poured) bucket of water normally does the trick. After that the string head mop is a good one or anything large enough to get a reasonable piston effect going with the water.

If they fail it's time to start following the soil pipe as best you can opening (carefully) and inspection covers or manholes as you go. If the soil pipe is blocked it probably be down to sanitary wear or a nappy, neither of which should be down there in the first place.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Always worth the old trick of filling a bucket of water, standing on a chair and dumping it into the bowl very fast. Doesn't walways work but it's so easy to try that it's worth a go.

Reply to
Bob Eager

It may well be a siphonic toilet, these can give the appearance of being partially blocked. Try flushing some kinds of solids and paper and see if it taken away before plunging/rodding etc.

Reply to
Heliotrope Smith

And when some idiot in the family has flushed a blocked loo, in spite of being told not to, so that it is now full up to the brim and not draining at all, a wet and dry vacuum cleaner is the least unpleasant way to empty it. Similarly for stuff backing up in a gully or an inspection chamber.

Reply to
newshound
?

Dave's is the best advice - heed before kicking hell out of the WC itself. Is there a long level pipe run where turds can dry out and set like concrete?

Reply to
John

PS - the reason being that toilets are made, very sensibly, so that the channel gets bigger as you go further round the U bend specifically to prevent blockages. Anything that makes it past the top of the bend will disappear and anything that doesn't will fall back into the pan. Blockages in the actual U are very rare.

You say it's a flat. You don't say whether it's a ground floor flat or not or what sort of drains exist. First step is to find the manhole covers and see if the chambers are full or empty. If the drains are blocked then the blockage will lie between the lowest full chamber and the highest empty one. If all the drains are clear then it's in a downpipe. Every blockage I've encountered has been in the drains, usually a tree root or a collapse or some other snag which catches something solid and allows a build up above that. The local council or water company will be your cheapest option. NEVER ever use dynorod type outfits who will rip you off in spades.

If the drains are shared by more than one property (technically then called sewers) and the property was built before 1/10/1937 then they will be the responsibility of the local water company who will repair anything FOC as long as you are aware of that and actually call them.

Reply to
Dave Baker

Simplest first thing to do, buy a tub of caustic soda from B&Q & follow the instructions.

Shifts a lot of things, cheap, easy.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Hot kettle and caustic soda

I'll et the big girls blouses tell you how dangerous it is, suffice to say wear safety glasses if you want to peer at a load o boiling caustic turds closely.

Works though.,

After that tip some brick acid down and leave over night.

The caustic removes the turds, the acid the scale.

By the time its all a mile downstream its all neutralised itself too.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Actually they are bloody common in an old toilet in a hard water area.

Thats exactly where the scale seems to form.

The the tirds lodeg agains it..

I know, I causticed and chipped out two here years ago..should have used brick acid..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

there was talk about the water cos becomimng responsible for /all/ shared drains. Has anything been heard about it? Probably way down the pan at Westminster.

Reply to
<me9

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just for the record the property isn't all that old. I'm guessing 20 years. There are another 2 flats below this one and I'm assuming they all share the same soil pipe. As there isn't a complete blockage the soil pipe would normally be empty and so I would have thought a loo on the 2nd floor should flush normally unless there is a blockage in the loo itself.. Anyways, I'll give the various methods a go and see how I get on.

Thanks

John

Reply to
Nodge

An empty 2 or 3 litre plastic lemonade/coke bottle with the bottom cut off makes an excellent plunger which is disposable. You have to be very persistent and keep plunging for as long as it takes. I don't think that chemical unblockers are very effective in sewage drains as they are diluted by the large volume of water present. Good luck.

Reply to
DIY

Oh, stick your bloody arm down there. That's the quickest way. You can always wash it afterwards :-)

Reply to
Stuart Noble

I can confirm that. A bog was flushing poorly and the water level rising after 19 years in . So I donned nosepeg and shoved hand down and around the bend. 'Why do they called him Harpic? Cos he's clean round the bend'. Boom! boom! Mr Derek.

I felt what I thought was a faulty moulding. I took the pan out and found a build-up of scale that filled nearly half the area of the pipe. Chipped it away and now fine. I get the same problem with waste pipes that have a shallow fall. Hard water area of course.

Peter Scott

Reply to
Peter Scott

Yup, and all it takes is either a water softener, or a half gallon of rick acid left in for a day or two.

Then a monthly dose of a cupful or so.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

"Nodge" wrote in news:Ik10j.9065$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe6-win.ntli.net:

Not seen anyone else suggest it, but my tried and tested method proven on many blockages over the years uses standard kit: a single drain rod, fitted with a standard 4" plunger. The trick is to pull, and not plunge.

Half fill the WC pan with water using a bucket or jug. [Of course, in an emergency the pan may already be full!]. Insert the plunger until it just starts to go round the bend, then pull it up sharply (preferably without splashing the contents out of the pan!) so causing a 'sucking' effect. Repeat as necessary until the blockage clears - don't be tempted to plunge, which will ram the blockage further into the drain, but repeat the pulling action.

Other than when one of my kids had stuffen a broken coathanger down the loo which required the pan to be removed, this technique has not yet failed me. [Crosses fingers...]

Hope this helps

Reply to
Richard Perkin

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