Basement toilets

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Loke

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At my (charitable organization) workplace the bathrooms are in the basement. The toilets are old water guzzlers and we've recently been having a number of issues with them. Flappers and towers have been replaced, but there are still some issues. Was told this morning that there is some leaking and flushing isn't working well. I had checked the toilets on Friday, before leaving work, and flushing seemed to be working. The only thing I noted was that they seemed to take a long time to flush and that the water didn't go out of the bowl as completely as I expected. But I am comparing to my new Gwyneth Totos at home - no reasonable comparison, of course!

It has been suggested, by the handyman who is working on the toilets, that we should consider having the waste lines cleared (by an industrial plumbing outfit, not regular "roto-rooter") as he says that basement toilets are even more sensitive to reduced capacity in waste lines because they don't have gravity helping things along. Does this sound right?

One of the volunteers of the organization is just saying that we should replace the toilets - but I think that if the line is at least part of the problem then it should be handled first. We don't have large trees ON our property, but there are such in the lane/alley and in neighbouring yards so who knows how far roots might extend.

If it is deemed that line clearing is the first line of attack and that doesn't resolve things, the next question is - what toilets would be best for basement use? Cost may be an issue, but we have to have reliable toilets, too. We are in the middle of the prairies, in Canada - nowhere near Terry and his good selection/prices, unfortunately.

Any advice would be welcome.

Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. and I am dealing with toilet issues at my workplace - something not quite right here...
 

Jimbo

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A toilet in the basement is different than any other as it is above the main sewer lateral and the drains are installed with proper slope out. It does sound like the line could stand to be cleaned out before you put in a new toilet. Then any good "large trapway" version should work well. Toto Drake. AmStd Cadet 3. Kohler Cimarron. etc.
 

Loke

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Thanks, Jimbo. I'll be on the phone to the cleanout folks first thing in the morning, for sure. And we'll see where we go from there.
 

hj

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toilets

He was correct in saying not to use any company with "rooter" in its name, but as far as a basement toilet being different than one upstairs, that is incorrect. ALL the flushing action is INSIDE the toilet itself, so it doesn't make any difference whether the pipe goes down, or sideways (which by the way 99.9999% of the pipes do), or it the toilet is in the third subbasement or on the 100th floor, it will flush the same. IF the toilet ever flushed properly it should be able to be EASILY repaired so it does again. You might want to pull one of the toilets to see if roots are growing OUT OF the floor and plugging the toilets. (That is a very common cause of poor flushing toilets out here.)
 

Loke

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The waste line cleanout fellow came by yesterday but did not do the cleanout, saying that since the floor drain was showing no evidence of gurgling nor overflows that it was highly unlikely that waste line clogging was an issue. The guy (a journeyman plumber) looked at the toilets and made some adjustments to one. He advised that the water level had been set too low in tank (a handyman had replaced the tower with one that just twists to allow tank level to be adjusted) and that the old water guzzler needed its full water complement to do its job properly. The other toilet still needs some parts replaced. So - guess we just keep an eye on things once the necessary repairs are finished. May go ahead with toilet replacement, but then the floor should be replaced - one thing leads to another.

Thanks for your response!
 
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