Is it a blocked toilet?

[zaffa]

Help! Our new house has a slow draining loo upstairs. We've lifted the drain cover and checked to make sure it's not blocked and we've used drain rods to clear the line. Everything is flowing normally. But when we flush the upstairs loo the bowl fills up more than it should and then runs down and sometimes it fills up and then drains. It always drains but there is a split second delay in it happening and I'm concerned this is just the lead up to an overspill one day. If it's not blocked could it be an incorrectly shaped toilet u bend or something? And if it is what can I do? I'm a little flummoxed.... any suggestions?

Get a plumber in is my advice, the pipes could be lying at the wrong angle.

Well I think the toilet has been in place for many years now - at least over 10. Wouldn't that have become an issue before now if the pipes were laid wrong? We did get a plumber to look at it who said it was probably a blockage and recommended we check the main drains. Which we did and no issues (and reluctant to call him back given he clearly wasn't very helpful!)

Find another plumber. He is supposed to do the checking and sort the problem, not to tell you were to have a look.

Have you tried pouring a full bucket of water steadily down it?

I haven't - should I expect it to just pour down steadily? If it does does that indicate no blockage but a problem with the pipes somehow?

If there's anything between the drain and the toilet it should help to shift it - for example if a big wodge of toilet paper has been flushed.

We moved into a masionette ( many years ago) and had a problem with the toilet blocking up repeatedly. Had many plumbers out who'd unblock and a few weeks later it would happen again. Turned out someone had flushed a sock down it and it was filling up ! and re blocking.

We had a similar problem last week but have British Gas household cover so called them and they sent out dyno-rod who fixed it for free. It was a loo roll blockage. Was fixed in 10 minutes. (For ‘free’ as we pay however much a month for cover) Ours was because the pipe is slightly wrongly tilted meaning it’s sligjtly more prone to getting blocked and DH had replaced part of the mechanism inside the loo as it wasn’t flushing properly about a month ago. This had reduced the water pressure as it flushed meaning that it wasn’t fully clearing. The dyno rod man sorted it all v quickly for us.

I, too, would have thought if your drains are clear the partial blockage is higher up. Has a toy/rim block (terrible things) or even just a very large poo gone down there? I would try a plunger in the pan. I had a similar problem recently (large poo and too much paper I think) and I poured down hot water from a bucket from a height to get a bit of force behind the flow, must have broken it up eventually because it cleared. It took several buckets though.