It is not a pretty sight when you visit the bathroom and discover that your toilet is clogged and maybe even overflowing. Toilet clogs are some of the most common plumbing problems that affect the average homeowner. Sometimes you will require the services of a professional DC plumber to unclog your toilet but at other times you can unclog it yourself. It’s just like when you have to hire a professional DC gas plumber to detect and fix a gas leak while sometimes you can just smell the gas and discover the leak and then proceed to fix the leak on your own because it’s a loosely connected gas appliance. Anyway, toilet clogs are a mess. You should clear a clogged toilet as soon as possible to enable bathroom usage and also to avoid waste backups in your bathroom. The following article features everything you need to know about toilet clogs including their causes and how you can fix them on your own.
Causes
Toilet clogs are caused by many different things. Some of these causes are as a result of careless human behavior. Others are simply unavoidable issues that result in the blockage of your drain lines and sewer pipes. Let us look at the most common causes of toilet clogs.
- Insoluble waste: Some of us have a habit of dumping everything in the toilet and flushing it away. The toilet is not meant for the disposal of insoluble waste. And although tissue paper is not quite soluble, it’s eaten away by the water due to its super soft fabric. Other seemingly soft products do not dissolve in water and can hence clog your toilet. You should avoid flushing cotton balls and swabs, feminine products, diapers, papers, dental floss etc, in your toilet.
- Blocked drain trap: Sometimes it has nothing to do with the things that you flush down your toilet. A toilet clog can occur in the toilet drain trap. This is the u-shaped bend in the pipe that leads the water down the toilet. A drain trap is installed in all drain pipes to prevent bad odor from drifting upwards and back into the house. A drain trap can be jammed by something as soft as tissue paper.
- Flapper problems: You toilet can get clogged if it is not flushing properly. This can be caused by a malfunctioning flapper. The flapper opens the toilet tank to allow water in the toilet. You can adjust the flapper to increase the pressure or power of the flush.
- Other causes: Toilet clogs can also occur due to clogged toilet vents and also if you are using a low pressure low-flow toilet.
DIY Solutions
You can fix a clogged toilet using various household items. Let us look at the most basic ways of unclogging a toilet without the help of a professional plumber.
- Plunger: You can use a plunger to clear the toilet. Just insert the plunger in the toilet and pull or suck in the clog.
- Soap lubricants: You can also use ordinary liquid soap to lubricate the toilet pipes. You will need to pour a fair amount of liquid soap into the toilet and then to flush it in with hot water.
- Baking soda and vinegar: The baking soda and vinegar solution is very effective in flushing clogged toilets. Pour one cup of vinegar and two cups of backing soda in the toilet and then flush the solution with hot water.
- Snaking: A plumbing snake will also come in handy when you have a clogged toilet. This is a long, flexible metallic wire that is used to clear the clog inside the toilet pipes.