How to unblock a toilet?

[BlogOnTheTyne]

It's been blocked now for over a week and I've only had a short time each day to try to unblock it but have already tried the following:

mop covered in plastic carrier bags plunged in and out - didn't work; alternating washing up liquid and warm/hot water gushed down from bucket at a height (supposed to lubricate the blockage and send it down) - didn't work; small sink plunger (not got a toilet plunger and nearest hardware store in 45 mins+ away and no time today or rest of week to go there) - didn't work and toilet water splashed all up my arm (yuk!); bleach on and off all week - didn't work; wire coat hanger, partially staightened and hooked down to remove any block - but nothing apparent was reachable - didn't work.

Short of getting a company out to unblock it - is there anything else I could try, other than making a journey to hardware store for toilet plunger? Won't have time to stay in from work to wait for a plumber till about 2 weeks away, unless one can come out, cheaply, on a Sunday - the only day I don't work. Help!!!!!!!!!!

DS (who blocked it over a week ago) assures me he didn't use more than normal loo roll nor deposit anything out of the ordinary when he 'went'!

No sign of overflowing drains outside to indicate the blockage is in thw waste pipe outside. So am assuming it's higher up in toilet waste pipe.

[Squeegle]

Have you tried boiling a kettle and pouring the water in? My son always used to block the toilet by using too much loo paper and this did the trick

[Doinmummy]

Have you got a hose pipe? Maybe try and shove it down the loo and turn it on.

[superram]

Scoop what water you can out of the bowl. Use a lemonade bottle with the bottom cut off as a plunger (lid on). I wouldn't use a hosepipe as you have a flood.

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Thanks. I thought boiling water would crack the toilet as it'd be too hot. Is that not the case?

Could try a hose pipe but I think it'd just make the toilet overflow onto the floor as the water isn't going down v quickly. When I wait for the level to go down, it takes ages and ages and then if I flush or pour water in, the level rises right to the very top and takes ages to drain away. Wouldn't that mean that an endless stream of water from a hose would just overflow from the toilet bowl?

When the level finally goes down, after flushing - possibly an hr or so to do so - then there's nothing really there to scoop out. So it's not that the water level remains high and doesn't go down at all. What would I do after all the water's virtually gone, Superram?

[Hassled]

Do you have a neighbour or someone you could borrow a set of rods from? A surprising number of people (us included) have some. Then you lift your drain cover and approach the blockage from the other side - it sounds to me like it's quite far back, and the toilet end clearly isn't working.

Failing that, you probably need a DynoRod-type company rather than a plumber.

[superram]

Just push the bottle in and out-like a plunger. Good luck. You take as much water out (lower than normal level) to push air in which should force the blockage down.

[wowfudge]

You try washing soda with the hot water if you do give that a go.

[Squeegle]

I don't know about cracking the toilet with the boiling water- it didn't for us, that's what I always did, it seemed to break the blockage down quite well!

[WorraLiberty]

Once the water level has gone right down, I'm really surprised a sink plunger doesn't work.

I've unblocked paper blockages a few times with a sink plunger...you have to get it at an angle (completely covering the water outlet hole) and just vigorously pump it, before pulling the plunger away fast.

You could also try half a bottle of Spirits of Salts but remember to use gloves and ventilate the room.

[CarCiKoTab]

My DP is a Plumber, he says you need to keep trying to pump the mop until the blockage clears apparently the toilet needs to be full of water when doing this, by either using a bucket of water or half flushing the toilet so it fills up.

You need to keep pumping it until it goes, my dp said he's stood there for about 15 minutes before pumping a toilet. Failing that pull a marigold on and try feeling round the bend for a blockage.

[BlogOnTheTyne]

Many thanks. I managed to unblock it, finally, yesterday. What worked in the end was slightly re-filling the bowl, rather than getting the water level right down - and then pumping away for a lot longer, with the mop covered in plastic bag, until it unblocked.

Lots of cleaning up to do afterwards - but got the result I needed - so thanks everyone for your input.