I have 3 floors in my house and last year the toilet on the 2nd floor starting backing up. I have snaked it many times and even used chemicals on it. We finally just stopped doing number 2 there as it will flush without backing up when that is avoided. Months later the 3rd floor toilets started backing up as well when flushed. Now we are down to the 1st floor toilet where things are still normal.
I will call a plumber as the last resort but I wanted to know if anyone has experienced this or have an idea on how to go about fixing this. We have a sneaky feeling that our 3 year old flushed something down the 2nd floor toilet when this started.
Get a toilet auger. It will remove things that a snake can’t. Trust me–a good investment.
because more than one floor is affected then you have a far away problem.
either the drain pipe lower than the 2nd has a plug, though most of the stack is vertical.
likely is a vent problem preventing air from escaping and retarding the rapid egress of the water. the 1st floor isn’t as affected because air in the vent stack is compressible.
My thoughts too. Check the vent.
I thought as well after we had a vent issue a couple of weeks ago with the kitchen sink when the vent froze. With the thaw that went back to normal but it got me thinking about the toilets.
There was a leak in the roof around the vents that I had repaired last summer. The vents were just tube sticking out the roof before but they now have some cover with space between the top of the tube and the covers. Could this restrict air movement in the vents resulting in the current problems. We never had issues with the kitchen sink vents before even when it was 3 times colder.
Those covers can ice over or collect debris sometimes. I don’t think they’re a very good idea in places that get cold.
All responses are assuming a toilets are on the same stack.
I don’t have a current copy of building code, but I’m guessing that there should be a 4" stack if there are 3 W/C’s on it.
IOW: There should be a 4" dia. cast iron pipe sticking out of the roof.
Were all 3 stories built at once? If a story was added, it may be that they didn’t upgrade the stck to handle the additional load.
My fav story re. old houses and toilets: ran into a fellow who had a guest suite in his old Victorian.
It had an antique toilet in the guest bath. He wanted to replace it it, but: it was set in concrete.
What is your sewer situation? When we have had this problem, the toilet furthest from the sewer backed up first.
See if you have a sewer trap between your house and the street. If you do, you might be able to remove the cover and see how fast the water flows when you flush. If it is very sluggish, you might have a problem.
From way too much experience with this I sometimes rent a power snake from the tool rental company. Beware - those things can take a finger off if you’re not careful. We have a trap at the back of the house and one in front. One time it got too bad for the electric snake, and we had to call in the pros.
If you think something is blocking a toilet, you can fairly easily take it off to investigate. (How I found my wife’s missing keys.) But that shouldn’t affect more than one toilet. Still, that lets you snake down past the toilet very easily. Just buy a new wax ring (one of the cheapest things in the hardware store) for when your put it back.
The easiest thing is to look at water flow in the trap. The second easiest is to take the toilet off to investigate. After that it gets more complicated. And more expensive if you have to hire someone.
SO ? do you mean the concrete formed an integral part of the floor or wall ? so like if you removed the toilet then something ( eg a window ) will fall down ?
Or do you mean like this ? ( Where the old fashioned bowl didn’t have integral pedastel below it, the floor was raised up, with concrete or something, to suit. )
Thanks all of you for your responses. Usedtobe, it is a townhouse without any later additions. I think all the toilets are on the same stack as the toilets are in the same area of the house on different levels. Should I assume that the vents having covers would not be an issue with this situation?
What is your vent made of? I have a vent made of cast iron and it would rust and the rust would scale off blocking the opening.
PastTense, it’s made of plastic, I think PVC from what I see sticking out of the roof.
Set IN concrete - yes, concrete OVER the mount. Chip out the old toilet and then, What? remove 2" of concrete from the floor?
We were discussing the joys of older building. He won that round.