Toilet Nightmare!!!!!..Need Help

[jrl73]

I have a basement bathroom with toilet and shower. It wasn't anything fancy and looks like something that may have been built with out permits. Recently we fixed it up nice enough so that my 2 young daughters wouldn't be afraid to go in there.

When we first moved here the toilet would flush but didn't have the flushing power like the upstairs bathroom. Over the years the toilet pretty much stopped flushing. Nothing would go down, even if you held the handle down it would almost overflow but still didn't have that power to suck the water out of the bowl.

I began looking on plumbing forums. First I read replace the flapper, I did this and no different. Then I replaced the guts, still the same flushing. Then I removed the toilet. I ran a snake 20' into the 4" pipe and didn't find any clogs. While the toilet was off I poured 2-3 gallons into pipe and the water flowed with no restrictions.

Well today after having a nicely redone bathroom for 2 months with no toilet I went out and purchased a new toilet 1.28 gpf. I also replaced the flange because the old one had play in it. After installing the new toilet, I flushed the toilet and the water still will not go down the toilet!!! When I flushed it the first couple times the shower next to it had a lot of gurgling coming from the drain.

Im desperate now, anyone have any clue what could be wrong?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[havasu]

To me, this sounds like a venting issue. Does this toilet have a vent? Where is your sewer connection?

 

[jrl73]

Thanks for the response....No this toilet does not have its own vent. Its hard to tell where exactly it ties into sewer because of it being in the ground. But I assume it ties into the sewer line which is about 20' from the toilet, under the ground. If it is a venting problem is there anything I can do? Can a vent clog, or would that mess up the upstairs toilet also if it was? Like I said it looks like no permits were pulled when they did this, but at one point the toilet was functional.

Thank again

 

[jrl73]

One other thing I should add, no matter how you adjust anything the flapper closes as soon as you let the handle go. It did this with the old toilet even after I changed the guts and now with the new toilet.

Thanks

 

[havasu]

A picture of your tank will help diagnose this.

 

[phishfood]

Look under the sink, is there a funny looking contraption on the drain pipe? Looks something like this? http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4900481506412544&w=220&h=172&c=7&rs=1&pid=1.7

That is an air admittance valve, which is common on retrofit plumbing projects. These being a mechanical device, they can and do malfunction.

That being said, I am thinking that you have a partial clog in the drainage line. Very rarely is a drainage problem caused by a bad vent, that usually causes a sewer gas smell as traps get siphoned.

 

[jrl73]

No it has just the basic trap

Thanks