Plumbing issue - or not?

[kib]

I bucket-flush the toilet in my bathroom using leftover bath/shower water, and it's always worked fine. The toilet "swallows" and then I add in a little extra water after. Yesterday, it swallowed about half and then burped. The water level then went up a bit, and down, and up, and down, less and less til the water was still again, like it was breathing. What is living in my plumbing! !pow!

Do you think this means the pipe is broken somewhere? It still didn't seem normal today, but no big burp of air like yesterday.

[CathyA]

Hmmmm......are you on your own septic tank? Any troubles with any other toilet/sink/washer? I don't know the answer, but here are a few things to consider..........Your vent pipe to your bathroom might be obstructed; or your drain is partially obstructed somewhere. What happens if you plunge it? If you have your own septic tank, when was the last time you had it cleaned out?

[kib]

Answered my own question, two minutes after I posted this DH came out to report that the shower overflowed and flooded the whole bathroom. Ergh. Plumber's here now.

[rodeosweetheart]

Update us on what exactly happened, as I wonder about our plumbing sometimes.

[kib]

The plumber arrived and found our clean-out. He said it's important to have one, and if you don't, at least here, the city will install one - he didn't mention if that costs money, I'm thinking if it is at the junction of your sewer pipe and the main, perhaps not. He had me run water in the sinks while he threaded a big hydraulic snake into the clean out for about 20 minutes, 150 feet in. After a while everything started draining properly. He said that there was probably a wipe or feminine product stuck in the line somewhere that's been causing every other little thing to get stuck as well, until we finally had enough in there that it couldn't drain if we were sending any notable amount of water through (the overflow happened while I was running the dishwasher.) (It was, I will confess, probably a small rag I inadvertently flushed down the toilet with a bucket of rinse water a few months ago.) He then shop-vac'ed my bathroom, snaked the bathroom sink that's been draining very slowly, and replaced the aerator. Finally, he sat down and charged me $150. I'm not upset, he was thorough and I'm feeling very confident with the service and the results.

Take away, he was really adamant about this: NEVER flush personal / baby / feminine wipes into the toilet, they don't dissolve like toilet paper and there have been several law suits over using the term "flushable" on the packages. They aren't.

[CathyA]

Glad he fixed it for you kib. $150 isn't bad. My last plumber bill was around $450.......but he earned it. It was about 90 degrees out with horrible humidity and he had to dig up between our septic tank and our dosing tank and clean the clog out.....then install a cleanout between them. He deserved every cent he got. I'm just glad he didn't die! Isn't good working plumbing the bomb? :)