How to Unclog a Toilet When Nothing Works!
As a homeowner, there are probably a few tasks that you get used to handling on your own without much trouble. For instance, you’ve probably changed a few lightbulbs, hung up some pictures on the walls, and maybe painted a room or two. These are all pretty easy, and you might even enjoy playing the role of DIY expert as you go around your house and fix things up.
But there is nothing to enjoy about a clogged toilet. This is one of those tasks that even the most avid DIYer would rather avoid. And, it’s particularly unpleasant when the standard methods of unclogging your toilet don’t seem to be working. We’d like to help you with this article by offering some tips you can explore for how to unclog a toilet when nothing works. If you are still having problems, call Walker Air • Plumbing • Electric today for residential or commercial plumbing.
The Basic Technique
First, we’d like to make sure that you are giving the plunger approach the best possible chance of working by outlining the proper technique for using this tool to unclog a toilet successfully. Follow the steps below once you are in front of the toilet with a plunger in hand –
- Push the flange end of the plunger down into the bowl of the toilet and attempt to form a seal at the drain in the bottom of the bowl. It might take a few moments of wiggling the plunger around to create a nice seal.
- With a seal established, start to push the plunger up and down to move the water and material back and forth in the drain. You may need to use a bit of force to generate the moment needed to break the clog loose.
- After a few pushes and pulls, remove the plunger and see if the job is done. If not, repeat the process a few more times to see if you can solve this without going to other methods.
When plunging, put on some gloves and have an old towel or two nearby to clean up any water that splashes out of the bowl. Using a plunger tends to be the most-effective way to clear a clog, but the job is far from glamorous.
How to Unclog a Toilet When Nothing Works!
If the toilet remains clogged after you have given it your best effort with the plunger, there are some alternative measures you can try to employ. You might need to go through two or three of these techniques before you finally find success and get everything flowing freely.
- Hot water pour. For this method, fill up a small bucket with some hot water. You don’t want to boil water for the job, as that could be dangerous for you and the toilet, but get hot water out of your tap and take the bucket to the toilet. Then, from a foot or two above the level of the toilet – to add some force to the equation – pour some of the hot water into the bowl. Between the energy of the hot water and the initial force of the pour, you might cause the clog to break loose and drain away.
- Plumber’s snake. If you have a plumber’s snake in your collection of tools, you can try to use it to physically dislodge the clogged matter in the drain. The technique is simple enough – you just place the snake in the bowl, move it into the drain, and turn the handle to create some motion near the clog. It’s best to use a toilet snake for this job, if possible, as the metal of a standard drain snake might do some damage to the bowl of the toilet.
- Dish soap. You can also try to add some dish soap to the bowl of the toilet with the goal of lubricating the drain area and encouraging the clog to slide out. This is going to be most effective if the bowl has already been drained of most or all of the water that was sitting inside it. Without water to dilute the soap, it can slide down toward the clog and hopefully loosen things up.
We hope the advice above makes it possible to flush your toilet correctly once again. With any luck, this will be a one-time problem and you won’t have to deal with it recurring anytime soon. If you need assistance with any plumbing work in your Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex home, please reach out to Walker Air • Plumbing • Electric right away and we’ll jump into action. Thanks for stopping by!
