My bowl runneth over.
Yesterday ended with what was, quite literally, a crap-filled night.
Our toilet's been clogging up pretty regularly for a while, now -- to the point where we were looking at new toilets at Home Depot over the weekend. Until yesterday, it had mostly been an annoyance: break out the plunger, and clean it out; though the flushes would always continue to sound a bit 'shallow', making it seem fairly reasonable that there was something wrong with the toilet.
Last night looked it would be an early night; everyone headed upstairs to Mommy and Daddy's bed at 10:30... and then the toilet was plugged. No problem. Plunger-time. Hm, the water doesn't seem to be going down any. In fact, the toilet's still running and the water level's slowly rising. Plunge, plunge. Okay, now it's definitely blocked; the plunger's not pushing anything through. Water's still rising. HELP! (This last part I yelled to Sarah as a leapt off the floor onto Elizabeth's potty stool, one hand holding the plunger, the other in the tank grasping futilely at the floating bell to stop the flow of water -- shortly thereafter I would remember to turn the water off at the wall.)
Short story: toilet completely clogged, (crap) water all over the bathroom floor. Took the plunger to it once again, which only managed to (somehow!) force the nasty water back up into the tank.
We ended up taking the toilet completely apart, draining it, and flushing it out in the bathtub with hot water and (at one point) 1/3 of a bottle of Liquid Plumbr. There was a lot of crap stuck in that thing, let me tell you.
Once we got it cleaned out and reassembled, it came time for the test flush. The water went down (yay!) and then...kept...going... The tank kept slowly filling and draining into the bowl as the bowl slowly emptied down the drain. By chance, I caught a glimpse of some material stuck in the little hole in the bottom of the bowl -- not the big hole that drains into the floor, but the one where the water from the tank comes rushing out. I couldn't get it out, but Sarah was able (after a few attempts) to reach in and pull out the obstruction. It turned out to be one of Elizabeth's "big girl wipes": supposedly-toilet-safe wet wipes for potty-training kids. No idea how long it had been there (the going theory is that it somehow got 'plunged' into there) but on the next flush, the water went down and then stopped as it should, and had the 'full' flush sound that had been missing for so long.
Actually, it's still a little funny; now it flushes twice: the tank drains and the bowl empties, and then while the tank refills, the bowl fills slightly and drains again. Odd, but it seems to work.
The whole adventure took 2.5 hours, and we didn't get to bed until after 1:00 AM. On the plus side, I know a lot about toilets now...
Our toilet's been clogging up pretty regularly for a while, now -- to the point where we were looking at new toilets at Home Depot over the weekend. Until yesterday, it had mostly been an annoyance: break out the plunger, and clean it out; though the flushes would always continue to sound a bit 'shallow', making it seem fairly reasonable that there was something wrong with the toilet.
Last night looked it would be an early night; everyone headed upstairs to Mommy and Daddy's bed at 10:30... and then the toilet was plugged. No problem. Plunger-time. Hm, the water doesn't seem to be going down any. In fact, the toilet's still running and the water level's slowly rising. Plunge, plunge. Okay, now it's definitely blocked; the plunger's not pushing anything through. Water's still rising. HELP! (This last part I yelled to Sarah as a leapt off the floor onto Elizabeth's potty stool, one hand holding the plunger, the other in the tank grasping futilely at the floating bell to stop the flow of water -- shortly thereafter I would remember to turn the water off at the wall.)
Short story: toilet completely clogged, (crap) water all over the bathroom floor. Took the plunger to it once again, which only managed to (somehow!) force the nasty water back up into the tank.
We ended up taking the toilet completely apart, draining it, and flushing it out in the bathtub with hot water and (at one point) 1/3 of a bottle of Liquid Plumbr. There was a lot of crap stuck in that thing, let me tell you.
Once we got it cleaned out and reassembled, it came time for the test flush. The water went down (yay!) and then...kept...going... The tank kept slowly filling and draining into the bowl as the bowl slowly emptied down the drain. By chance, I caught a glimpse of some material stuck in the little hole in the bottom of the bowl -- not the big hole that drains into the floor, but the one where the water from the tank comes rushing out. I couldn't get it out, but Sarah was able (after a few attempts) to reach in and pull out the obstruction. It turned out to be one of Elizabeth's "big girl wipes": supposedly-toilet-safe wet wipes for potty-training kids. No idea how long it had been there (the going theory is that it somehow got 'plunged' into there) but on the next flush, the water went down and then stopped as it should, and had the 'full' flush sound that had been missing for so long.
Actually, it's still a little funny; now it flushes twice: the tank drains and the bowl empties, and then while the tank refills, the bowl fills slightly and drains again. Odd, but it seems to work.
The whole adventure took 2.5 hours, and we didn't get to bed until after 1:00 AM. On the plus side, I know a lot about toilets now...
posted by Salt-Man Z @ 5:33 PM
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