
Overflowing Toilet
Turn the shutoff valve behind the bowl clockwise until it stops to cut the water, then leave it and call rather than flushing again to see what happens.
When this becomes an emergency
- The bowl rising toward the rim after a flush instead of clearing.
- A rocking bowl with damp flooring at its base.
- Water coming up in the shower whenever this toilet is flushed.
What a pro does
A plumber separates the two versions of this problem before he does anything else. If nothing else in the house is affected, the blockage is in the toilet's own trapway and gets cleared with a closet auger, or the bowl comes off so the obstruction can be pushed out from underneath. If other fixtures react when this toilet flushes, the toilet is just the messenger and the real blockage sits in the main line out toward the street. With the bowl lifted he gets to see things a homeowner never does. The condition of the flange, whether it sits at the right height above the finished floor, and how sound the decking is around it. That last point matters in central Arkansas slab houses, where a bathroom set directly on concrete gives a slow seal leak nowhere to go but sideways under the flooring. The reset is a new wax or rubber seal, the bowl brought down square, and the closet bolts drawn up evenly and gently, since china cracks from an over-tightened bolt more often than from anything else. Several test flushes confirm the seal before he leaves.
Frequently asked questions
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