Toilet Problems ?

The first thing your going to need to do is turn off the water to the toilet. There should be a shut off valve at the left side of toilet and against the wall below the toilet tank. Turn the valve clockwise until it stops. That should stop the water from filling the toilet and over flowing. If the valve at the toilet will not shut off, you will need to shut the water off to the entire house.

To locate the main shut off to your house. Walk out to the water meter and walk or look straight toward the house. There should be a hose bib (a place to hook up a hose) with a gate valve below it. Turn that valve clockwise until it stops. Then open the hose bib to let the pressure off.

You will need a plunger. Now we get to the messy and not so pleasant part. I assume the toilet bowl is full. Put your plunger into the toilet bowl. Don't start plunging the toilet until you have removed the air from the plunger. To do this, push the plunger to the side of the drain in the toilet. You will see the air bubbles as you do this.

Next while you are pushing down on the plunger, slide it over the toilet drain and slowly release the pressure on the plunger. This will cause the plunger to draw water back into itself. This will give you water to push rather than air. Now you can start plunging. When you push the plunger, push hard and when drawing back on it, do not raise it out of the water or you will fill the plunger with air again. If while you are plunging your toilet you see water coming up in your tub or shower. Your main sewer line is stopped up and you need your main sewer line snaked.

If you plunge the toilet and it seems to be clear only to back up again when you flush it. There are a couple of other remedies you may want to try.

You are going to need a toilet auger. You may purchase one from your hardware store's plumbing department.

Now that you have a toilet auger a pair of heavy gloves and eye protection . While holding on to the log tube of the auger, pull the handle until it stops (about 3 ft.). On the opposite end of the auger you will see a spring like end. Insert this end into the toilet bowl drain as far as it will go (about 6 in.). With your left hand holding the tube of the auger, start turning the handle clockwise. Apply downward pressure on the handle while turning it. This will cause the auger to go down the drain. Keep applying pressure and turning the handle until the handle is all the way down to it's original position. Now pull it back out.

There may be something on the end of the auger making it hard to pull out. If you find it will not pull out. Start turning the handle while pulling. Usually it pulls out. If you can not get to pull out you are going to need to remove toilet. We will get into that later.

Assuming you were able to remove the auger and you are reasonably sure there is nothing plugging the toilet. Sometimes the auger will push the obstruction on down the line and you will not bring any thing back .

If it sill does not flush it may be one other thing. You will need a wire coat hanger for this one. Open the wire hanger and put a small bend in the end. Remove the water from the bowl. In most toilet models there are two holes in the bottom of the bowl. There is a large hole to the rear of the toilet (the drain) and a small hole toward the front of the bowl. The small hole could be plugged with water deposits. Put the bent end of the coat hanger into the small hole and twist it back and forth. You should see deposits coming out of the hole. Try flushing the toilet. The toilet should flush.