Toilet drains when shower is running.

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Brian.Hoard

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I started experiencing this strange problem recently. Here are the facts, hopefully someone can tell me what I should check to resolve this...

- I remodeled the 1st floor bathroom about 6 months ago and all was working fine.
I installed a Toto single piece toilet. There is also a sink in this room.

- About 2 weeks ago, this toilet would make gurgling sounds as the bowl water was going down for no reason and as it took in air, would make noises. When I first saw this happen, I flushed the toilet. It acted like it was plugged, as the water filled up a lot, and took a long time to go down. A second flush acted better.

- A few days later, as I took a shower upstairs, I came down and my wife was freaking out as the downstairs toilet was pouring water all over the floor. She didn't know if this toilet was running or or not. But it did a good job of putting several gallons of water on the floor.

- I figured the toilet innards must have stuck, and maybe as the toilet drained by itself, as it has been doing, by pure coincidence, the toilet got stuck and decided to overflow. Not sure if this is the case, just a guess.

- I tried to run the shower for 20 minutes to duplicate the problem, but it didn't happen.

- A couple of days later, while my wife was taking a shower, I went into the downstairs bathroom and flushed the toilet. After the tank filled back off and shut off, sure enough, the bowl water slowly started going down. I could watch it being sucked down. Not enough to cause it to gurgle, but definitely went down. I verified that the tank was not running, so it wasn't filling up on its own causing the self-flushing.

- So now I'm not sure what the cause is. Everything had been working for many months, so I don't think it's a problem with my installation.

- I am also on a well and septic system, so not sure if that matters. The septic field was pumped about 2 years ago, and it's just my wife and me at the house. So I don't think we've filled that up where it would need pumped again.

- Do you think this is a problem with the house draining? Or a vent problem?
What can I do to check, troubleshoot, or resolve this?

Thanks for any help.

- Brian Hoard
Haymarket, VA
 

Brian.Hoard

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Before we called the plumber, I tried to verify the blockage by running the shower full blast for 30 minutes. The downstairs toilet didn't do any filling, or anything. Just a very small 1/8" movement in the bowl water. Not sure if this is normal or not. But after 30 minutes, everything seemed fine. But we called in Roto-Rooter anyways to go ahead and have the drains snaked.
My wife is downstairs with the guy now, who is telling us it is $1000 to do a jet flush to clean things out. $600 for snaking. And this is after having me pull the toilet out to do it. (Because our main drain cleanout access is blocked by the heating furnace).
This seems really really high priced to me. What money should I expect to pay for this drain cleaning maintenance?
 

Jadnashua

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The people with the biggest adds and national franchises tend to be the most expensive people you can possibly get to do that sort of job. Any good, local plumber would likely be less expensive, and may do a better job. The guy doing the work may not even have a license and was trained last week with some of the franchisees. Some are very good, some are horrible, if you believe any of the reports. A licensed plumber with helper goes for about $120/hour where I live....local rates will differ, and the time often starts when they leave the office until when they get back.
 

Brian.Hoard

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Thanks Jim,
We took this estimate and will keep looking to find a local independent plumber. I think you're right. I've had my share of unlicensed experts in this house over the years.

- Brian
 
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