Could freezing or thawing pipes result in a toilet overflow?

[MTaylor]

Could freezing or thawing pipes result in a toilet overflow?

 

[Terry]

For a toilet to overflow, someone needs to run water through it while it's plugged.

Far before the waste line would freeze solid, the water supply would freeze.
Assuming that the waste line is not hanging out in the cold all by itself. This isn't one of those homes in Whistler built over a rock is it?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[MTaylor]

Hi Terry, thanks for your post.

No it's not one of those homes in Whistler unfortunately. haha

My toilet overflowed while i was out and I cant figure out why. The weather was hovering around zero so I thought maybe frozen pipes could have been the cause as I read an article describing that. Please see here: http://www.ehow.com/info_12147159_freezing-temps-overflowing-toilet.html

I'm not a plumber or anything close so please bare with me as I try to understand your reply.

 

[Terry]

That page mentions the drain pipes freezing and causing a blockage. That means that pipes in the crawlspace would need to freeze, which is fairly hard to do near the ground like that, or the ground freezes, also hard to do.

But the toilet won't overflow on it's own, unless it is either leaking constantly, or someone has used it.

 

[The honest question]

I have just created an account to ask if anyone knows what happened next ...

Was it a kid skipping school!!
Was it a neighbour sneaking in?!
Was someone secretly livin in her loft ?!?

It was just getting genuinely interesting and then it stopped. 6 years and no response to "someone has to have used it"