Overview:

The toilet is an essential fixture in your household that is used on a regular basis through a person’s life cycle. If a blockage occurs it can cause a great inconvenience and is not one of those things that we can avoid fixing. These days there are many different varieties of toilet systems, however most work off a gravity fed flushing mechanism and have similar bowl and trap designs.

• Indicators for toilet blockages are usually buildup of cistern water when you flush, slow draining water, gurgling noises or low water level in toilet bowl and sewer smell.
• Most of the time blockages occur when:

-Too much paper and sanitary napkins are used and get stuck around the S-bend of the toilet bowl.

-Foreign objects have been stuffed into the toilet by young kids.

-Tree roots grow in the line and create blockages. This usually happens in old clay (earthenware) piping, the tree roots grow in the old rubber ring or mortar joints. If you have PVC pipe and have tree roots growing inside, then there’s a high chance you may have a break in the pipe or an inspection cap under the ground has been left off or not screwed on properly.

-Another point worth mentioning is flushable wipes, nappies and other sanitary items. These are not flushable and shouldn’t be put into your sewer system. They do not perish easily with water flow and get caught around bends and on joins. Flushable wipes are becoming an ever increasing problem for all sewer systems.

The above picture shows a toilet suite and if you can imagine to the right of the toilet is the wall. In the ground outside directly in line with the toilet will usually be an inspection fitting with an access cap. This is the nearest point to which you can enter the drain with inspection or cleaning equipment for the job, providing it is accessible to be dug up and exposed. If not, access will be found further downstream of the toilet. This is however in the event that our equipment isn’t able to clear the blockage from access through the toilet bowl inside.

The closer access you are able to get to the point of the blockage the quicker and more efficiently the blockage can be cleared. Once in the drain a drain camera can be fed through the pipe and right up to where the toilet connects to the pipe coming out of the floor,(above picture) giving you a clear view on what is causing the problem and where it is.