Both toilets fill up then drain slow, sinks ok, no odor, no backups. Help me!

[msjs91011]

Hi y'all.

So I bought this house last year. I used information on this forum to repressurize my pressure tank as well as learn how to change out the pressure switch. Thanks for being a great resource.

I've got a strange issue now, and I am not sure where to start. My house is 2 stories and has a basement. When I flush the upstairs toilet or the main floor toilet, the bowl will fill all the way to the top, then it will drain really slow. It takes 30 seconds to a minute for all the water to go down, and when it does it goes all the way down to the top of the s-bend. One night, I flushed the main floor toilet and it acted just like this, but when it got to the top of the s-bend it gurgled quite a bit. The next morning though, they all flushed fine like there was no issue.

There's also a basement drain whose water level is much higher than normal but won't overflow. It has a little bit of foam on top of the water too, slight brown in color. There's also a toilet in the basement but it's 'shut down' because it has a bad flapper and nobody ever uses it so what's the point in having water turned on to it?

There's no odor anywhere in the house.

I posted on another forum about this and the one person that made the only reply simply said "sounds like a vent issue" and nothing more, and I can't get any more input.

I'm not sure what to do here. This house was built in 1850, the vertical part of the only vent stack in the house is iron, and goes from the basement all the way thru the second floor roof. The vertical part of the stack is metal (iron I think) and it has a cap. In the basement, there's a rubber coupling with 2 hose clamps that convert the metal over to PVC, then it has a 90 degree turn to go horizontal, which connects to a curved 90 degree adapter downwards (toward floor) to a 4 inch PVC main line, then that has a couple 90s and reconnects to a 4 inch metal line that goes into the basement floor and out to the septic tank.

I've not noticed any issue with sink drains, nor the washing machine, however I believe the washing machine has its own special drain directly to the sewer line, somewhere in the ground AFTER the vent pipe.

Help?

Pics upon request. Just ask and be specific.

 

[Terry]

This house was built in 1850, the vertical part of the only vent stack in the house is iron, and goes from the basement all the way thru the second floor roof.

1850? Not 1950?
A slow toilet could be a blocked trapway. Clearing that with a closet auger helps with that.
If things are backing up, it is sometimes a mainline blockage. I don't think it's venting though. With a very old home, where plumbing may have been added over very many years, it could be that you have multiple outlets, and some are working and some maybe not so much.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[msjs91011]

1850? Not 1950?
A slow toilet could be a blocked trapway. Clearing that with a closet auger helps with that.
If things are backing up, it is sometimes a mainline blockage. I don't think it's venting though. With a very old home, where plumbing may have been added over very many years, it could be that you have multiple outlets, and some are working and some maybe not so much.

Yes, 1850.

Nothing's backing up, its just REALLY slow to drain, *sometimes*. It started again yesterday, and continued into this morning. It's intermittent.

The only thing I can correlate to when this actually happens is after an extremely heavy rain. We got a storm last weekend, and the toilets acted up, but were fine the next morning. Then last night we got slammed again, this time it was worse, and the toilets acted up again and continued into this morning.

We went a whole year (ever since we had the house) without issue. The fact that the issue hasn't stuck around more than 24hrs yet makes me wonder if it really is a blockage? I'm not questioning you by any means - I am just giving the most info I can.

The upstairs bathroom was added sometime 'recently' (I honestly think in the 80s or 90s). The main floor toilet has the same issue though. If it was a blockage and both toilets were flushed at the same time I would think it'd be safe to assume that the stuff from upstairs would come up the drains on the lower floors. Heck, even the shower drains just fine. It's strangely just the toilets.

 

[Smooky]

It sound like you have a partial clog in the toilet trapway. Plunging may solve the problem when it happens. Sometimes something like an ink pen can get stuck in there. You plunge and the paper and solids might go on down but the pen or what ever will stay. With just water no problem but if somebody uses a lot of paper etc it clogs again. ....... The heavy rain may not be related to the slow drain unless you are on a septic system. You may have more than one issue.

 

[msjs91011]

It sound like you have a partial clog in the toilet trapway. Plunging may solve the problem when it happens. Sometimes something like an ink pen can get stuck in there. You plunge and the paper and solids might go on down but the pen or what ever will stay. With just water no problem but if somebody uses a lot of paper etc it clogs again. ....... The heavy rain may not be related to the slow drain unless you are on a septic system. You may have more than one issue.

I'm on a septic system. The leach field and tank are one year old. The main line wasn't messed with.

This is happening to all toilets in the house. Not just one. And it happens regardless of if it's 100% liquid or if it contains solids.

I feel like I'm not making sense.

 

[Terry]

A 40's home I worked on. It had two seperate lines going out. In this case, the upstairs toilet line was plugged, and the downstairs was fine.
Have you tried to auger any of your toilet bowls yet?
Do the sink, tubs, showers work?
What is working well? What isn't working well?

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-use-a-closet-auger-on-a-plugged-toilet.18133/

 

[msjs91011]

Have you tried to auger any of your toilet bowls yet?
Do the sink, tubs, showers work?
What is working well? What isn't working well?

No, I do not have the required tool.

Yes, the sinks ALL work fine. Washing machine drains fine. Shower works fine.

All is working well EXCEPT the toilets which, when flushed, will fill to the top of the bowl before draining, and when they drain it sucks all the water out of the bowl down to the S bend.

I am going to draw a diagram showing my best knowledge of how this house is plumbed. I'll post it soon.

 

[Reach4]

I suggest you replace one of your toilets with a modern good-flushing toilet. I suspect you will like that so much that you do the others.

 

[msjs91011]

Here's an accurate idea of where everything is, and how it all makes its way to the main line going outside. If this is too messy to comprehend, I will do a cleaner one tomorrow when I've got more time. I expect the colors to make sense though.

 

[msjs91011]

I suggest you replace one of your toilets with a modern good-flushing toilet. I suspect you will like that so much that you do the others.

The downstairs toilet is a very strong flushing modern Kohler toilet and I LOVE it. The upstairs one is going to be replaced at a later date when I rip the existing toilet and vanity out and do some work up there. This issue is NOT due to crappy crappers.

 

[Terry]

We pull all sorts of things from toilets. Mostly pens, small cars, Q-Tips, small bottles, forks,

 

[msjs91011]

Toilets have worked fine all day today. This morning I flushed and the solids went past the visible area, the bowl filled some, then it all flew down thru the pipes really fast and sucked almost all the water out of the bowl then continued to make a sucking sound for like 3 to 5 seconds afterwards. Other than that, flushing all the rest of today has been perfectly fine.

I highly doubt my brand new leach bed and 1500 gallon septic tank is overloaded after 1 year of usage by 2 people, one of whom is a trucker and not home but 2 days a week. So unless my wife is running water 24 7 while I'm gone, the tanks are fine. The ground everywhere around the septic tank and leach bed remain dry.