How Do I Fix An Overflowing Toilet?
Time after time, you flush your toilet and have it work exactly as it should. Unfortunately, there will also be a time when you flush your toilet, hear a gurgle that doesn’t sound right, and notice the water level in your toilet bowl getting higher and higher. An overflowing toilet isn’t an uncommon issue. In fact, it’s one of the most common toilet problems our plumbing experts are called to fix.
If you find yourself with an overflowing toilet, don’t panic! Our team at Boss Plumbing is here to help by giving you some tips on what to do in this situation.
What To Do When Your Toilet is Overflowing
Don’t Keep Flushing
When we here at Boss Plumbing are called to help with an overflowing toilet, we often find many people have made the mistake of continually trying to flush their toilet, hoping this will dislodge the clog. Unfortunately, this usually only makes the situation worse, since even more water won’t be able to go past the clog and will instead overflow.
Locate the Flapper
Your next step should be to remove the lid from your toilet’s tank and locate the flapper. Looking like a big rubber circle, it will be at the bottom of the tank and hopefully attached to a metal lever or chain.
Close the Flapper
When your toilet is filling up, the flapper will be open. When you are experiencing an overflowing toilet and want it to stop, you need to close the flapper by pushing down on it. If all goes well, it will shut properly and seal against the tank’s bottom, preventing water from flowing into the toilet bowl.
Locate the Toilet’s Shut-Off Valve
On almost all toilets, there is a water shut-off valve located on the wall near the point where the toilet and wall connect. If you find this, immediately begin turning it clockwise until you can’t turn it any further. Once you’ve done this, you will at least know no additional water can enter your toilet.
Find the Float
Now that you can breathe a little easier knowing water won’t be continuing to pour into your toilet, you need to take another look inside the toilet’s tank and find the float. This will look like either a cup or ball. If your toilet has a float cup, the fill valve, which looks like a cylinder, will run vertically through it from the tank’s bottom. If your toilet has a float ball, it will resemble a rubber ball on the end of a lever.
Stabilize the Float
One thing we suggest you always remember in this situation is that once the float is stabilized, no more water can fill up the toilet tank. If you can stabilize the float by either tying it or rigging it so that it stays in place, you can begin to get the situation under control.
Grab Your Plunger
Finally, you are now ready to grab your toilet plunger and see what happens. If you expect water to splash out of the bowl, remove some of it before you start. To begin, create an airtight seal when you place the plunger in the bowl, then push the plunger up and down for about 20 seconds. If it worked, you’ll remove the plunger and notice the water exiting the toilet bowl as intended.
Snake the Drain
If the plunger did not work, you can also choose to use a plumbing snake in an attempt to clear the drain. If you do, you’ll need to be careful, since some snakes can scratch porcelain toilet bowls. Should you use a toilet snake, use a reasonable amount of pressure when pushing it down the drain. Otherwise, you may do even more damage to your toilet and find yourself calling on our team to get things running smoothly once again.
Why Would a Toilet Overflow?
You’ve Got an Old Toilet
If your toilet is older and seems prone to overflowing, getting a new toilet installed can often solve the problem. Should you have an older low-flow toilet or one with a tank float, this can result in partial or weak flushing.
Flushing Non-Flushable Items
Yes, we may need to remind you that there are certain items that just were not made to be flushed down the toilet. Typical items include paper, feminine hygiene products such as pads and tampons, baby diapers, cotton balls, paper towels, and even things as tiny as dental floss.
Pet Waste
Even though many of today’s cat litters are clumping and claim they can be safely flushed down your toilet, it’s not always as simple as it sounds. In many cases, these clumps do not break up and disintegrate easily, but instead become more like concrete blocks inside your sewer line. If you have a dog as part of your family, we also advise against flushing dog waste bags down your toilet, since these too can create clogs.
Too Much Toilet Paper
Too much TP in your toilet can create a clog in a hurry. When taking care of your business in the bathroom, it’s best if you spare a square now and then so that you don’t wind up needing your toilet plunger.
Kitchen Waste
When you are cooking and find yourself with a bunch of cooking grease, fat trimmings from meat, and fruit and vegetable peels, the thought may enter your mind that these could be disposed of quickly by flushing them down the toilet. If that idea ever pops into your head, don’t act on it. If you do, you’ll need to have our Boss Plumbing number on speed dial, since you’ll soon have a toilet overflowing.
Curious Kids
Finally, we cannot forget to mention the curiosity small children have when they first notice a toilet bowl. Mesmerized by watching the water spin around and around as it disappears from the bowl, many younger kids think anything and everything can be flushed away in an instant. Before you know it, you’ve got toys, tools, jewelry, and a host of other items clogging your toilet, resulting in an overflow of epic proportions.
What To Do if Nothing Works
If you have done everything you know to do for your overflowing toilet and nothing seems to be working, it’s time to forget the DIY efforts on your part and make a quick call to our experts here at Boss Plumbing.
Offering same-day service, work that is always guaranteed, and pricing that won’t bust your budget, one call to us means you will soon have a professional plumber figuring out what’s going on with your toilet and making the necessary repairs.
Since we deal with troublesome toilets every day, it makes sense to let us handle the problem once things start to get out of hand. Remember, having a Boss Plumbing professional plumber on the job will give you immediate peace of mind, not to mention a toilet that will soon be working properly.
Give Us a Call For Toilet Repairs
Whether you’ve got a toilet that is leaking or perhaps need to replace an aging toilet in your home, don’t hesitate to give us a call here at Boss Plumbing. Whether it’s stopping an overflowing toilet or handling other plumbing emergencies, we’re always up to the challenge.
