House clogs easily and seems overall "stuffed up". ?

[rcbrown23]

Hey guys, first post here and of course it's a question...

I'm temporarily staying in a house in a really nice neighborhood, but this particular house is an older one. I know the owner bought it in 1986 and probably hasn't had any work to speak of done on the entire thing.

The problem is the toilets clog REALLY easily. Both bathrooms. 2-3 small pieces of toilet paper, and NOTHING else in the toilet will clog it. On the first flush, some will go down, some will stall. Second flush, some will maybe get through, some won't. Third flush seems to clear it out and the water completely drains the bowl when flushing. This means you have to constantly flush the toilet when pooping, be super careful, and still flush 4 times just to get it all to go down.

It's never been fully clogged where it overflows, so it seems some water/waste is getting through at all times, the whole house just seems to be "stuffed up". The owner had a plumber over a couple of weeks ago that charged him $700 to do pretty much nothing at all. I think he may have snaked the toilets or something, but I don't know what he did for sure. Either way, it was a rippoff.

I'd like to check some things out/get an idea before I call another plumber. I just called my Dad and he said I should get on the roof and check the "stink pipe", saying it sounds like it could be clogged.

Any ideas what's going on here? where should I start to diagnose the problem? what should I ask the plumber, and what should I make sure he does? run a camera through the lines??

Thanks for any and all advice

 

[rcbrown23]

Also, in the chance that I can't get a plumber out here for a few days, is there anything I can do myself to help the situation? any products out there that'll help? heavy duty drano or something...

 

[IFIXH20]

Take the lid off the toilet tank , take and post a photo of tank inners & water level in bowl. If you have a 5gallon bucket around, fill it with water then pour it down the toilet fast to see if toilet can handle it. ( take photos first)

 

[Chris]

I would definitely climb on the roof and check out the vents. sounds like they are clogged.

 

[IFIXH20]

If the vents have a blockage, the plumbing would gargle through out the home. You would have problems with the complete bathroom group -- sinks , tubs , showers.

 

[rcbrown23]

Heres a photo of the inside of the lid. The water level looks good, and there's no leak or drainage that i can see. I just poured about 4 gallons of water from a 5 gallon bucket down both toilets and they both handled it just fine. From this, im assuming maybe the little holes under the lip may be clogged up and not letting the water in fast enough? I should also mention both toilets are made by "celite" and stamped with a "made in brazil, 1986", so theyre really freaking old. Im going to jump on the roof now and see what i can find out, then come back in and try and clear out the jet holes in one of the toilets. Let me know what you think‏

 

[IFIXH20]

If it can handle a 5gallon bucket of water , then i would check the jet holes. Do the toilets rock at all ? when you flush , do the flapper stay up long enough for the tank to empty.

 

[rcbrown23]

Nope, don't seem to rock. Yes, the flapper stays open long enough... actually, I usually just hold it open until I know the tank's emptied. Habit I guess. I'll see if I can get in there and clean the holes. Any easy way to do this? drill bit or something similar size, then maybe rinse with vinegar or something?

cheers

 

[phishfood]

Unwind a wire coat hanger, and use the end of that. Oftentimes, though, the mineral buildup will be back far enough that you cannot reach it.

 

[DFBonnett]

OP,
FWIW, the upstairs toilet flushed poorly until I finally flushed it out by turning off the supply and filling the tank with hot water then flushing multiple times. It seems that the blue tabs the Mrs put in the tank to make the water "pretty" clogged up the little holes around the rim. That was the cure and the blue tabs are now banned here. Worth a shot.

 

[IFIXH20]

I would not recommend putting hot water in a toilet , you take a chance of it cracking. If clearing the jet holes doesn't work , contact the Landlord to see if the plumber augered the toilets or did he cable the main line drain.

 

[stevemachine]

Yeah hot water is risky. And it sounds like jets to me. If its a plugged toilet you would be able to tell because the bowl would probably fill up or overflow. If the toilet drain is blocked after a few flushes it'll gurgle more than likely. If cleaning the jets don't work I'd get the landlord to replace the toilet, like phishfood said most times cleaning the jets won't work cause you can't reach the buildup inside the bowl.

 

[rcbrown23]

Great advice here, and I appreciate it. I'm going to check it out now and try to clean the holes a bit. Will report back one way or the other

 

[DFBonnett]

We're not talking about boiling water, just hot from the tub faucet.

 

[rcbrown23]

Just an update here: it definitely is just clogged up jets. I took a coat hanger and quickly tried to clean out the holes... some black stuff came out, and it flushed a little better, but nothing dramatic. Then last night I took the same hanger and stuck it in the bigger whole down by the bottom, and all sorts of black stuff came out. Now it flushing a LOT better, but still needs to be cleaned. I'm thinking about trying the Muriatic Acid method I keep reading about. Possibly whenever I have a day off. Will report back in case anyone's interested. http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Slow-Toilet

 

[IFIXH20]

I use Calci-Solve by Nu-Calgon, great product but has a very strong odor. Read instruction before using.