Sunday, January 23, 2011

Spraying-Gurgling-Bubbling Toilet

Since some of my blog friends are homesteaders and live in winter wonderlands like us, I would like to share some of our experiences with home problems in case this becomes an issue for anyone else, you would know what to do...

In the past 24 hours our toilet started frightening my children when it flushed.  It would bubble up and spray all over the place when it was supposed to go down the hole from what seemed to be built up gases.

Incidentally we'd also been having sewer smells in our garage like a dried out trap from the old washing machine drain for the past week, in spite of my husband trying to put more water into it.

Today my husband figured it must have to do with a clogged vent on our almost brand new septic system.  He bounced his thoughts off his very helpful father in Illinois, who agreed, and then he climbed up a ladder to the vent shaft on the top of our roof.  There he found the 3 inch pipe to be completely frozen over and iced up quite a ways down.  He used a broom handle then a flat bar to clean it out, and presto it was fixed. 

It was eerie using the facility below him as he scraped out the pipe.  He hadn't told me not to flush while he was working so I did.  Fortunately the toilet flushed normally, and all that happened to him was a gust of sewer smells for a second...!  Oops!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, interesting. Glad you're hubby got it working and that it wasn't a big fix.

JoAnn

Anonymous said...

How funny! I agree it would be eerie using the facility with someone working on it below..hehe!

Glad it is fixed :)

Katia said...

Glad it's fixed. I lived in a house that had one of these tanks. The landlord was always reminding me not do all of my laundry in one day and have too much company.
I think of you guys often and all of the adjustments you have had to make.
(((hugs))

Carol G said...

Tamara, he was on the roof, but it had the same effect! Katia, our septic is new and doesn't create any problems for us with all the laundry and showers and dishwasher use we do with a family of six, fortunately!

Illinois Lori said...

Oh wow, that is quite an experience! I would be afraid of a toilet that sprayed at me, too, LOL! So glad you got it figured out, and for a dad who knew what how to help long-distance!