Blocked toilet- limescale? Picture warning!

[Earslaps]

I noticed the toilet was draining very slowly, so I spent the day chucking hot water and washing up liquid down there, with no luck.

Went to get a plunger and tried plunging it as well as the hot water, got a few small bits of brown gunk released into the toilet but still clogged.

Got the long metal drain snake out, got it right down the pipes and gave it a good wiggle and pump up and down, and all this gunk came into the toilet bowl. Yet the toilet is still draining quite slowly.

Could that gunk be limescale? Could it have built up in the pipes so much that it's draining slowly? My other thought was grout flushed down the loo, but there's only tiling on the floor and no work has been done since we moved in five years ago, and the floor was most likely put in 16 years ago.

To be honest the loo has always drained pretty badly (now I know why the flush never seemed to clear out wee properly, I assumed it was just an underpowered modern water saving flush being the culprit!

Any ideas for how to clear the loo/pipes without having to get a plumber to disconnect it all?

For full disclosure- it's an ensuite bathroom added where there was no existing pipe work. The soil pipe is not vented (could this actually be part of the problem with slow drainage?) and the waste water pipe from the shower and sink join the soil pipe outside. Today the shower wasn't draining properly (hence my investigating the toilet), but it is draining ok now.

Thanks in advance!

Tbh, in your shoes I'd leave it like that, use another bathroom and get a dude in. I can't see any other way around it.

Ooh well it doesn't look like poo so that's a good start! Empty as much water as you can out of the toilet. Add some caustic soda to sone cold water (following safety instructions) then tip a bucket load down the loo. And possibly down the shower drain too.

Surely if it's limescale then caustic soda wouldn't do anything at all? Wouldn't an acidic cleaner work better?

If I need to get someone in I will, but I like to try and DIY where possible!

Caustic soda does work on lime scale. In that's loose lime scale, I'd remove it if you can along with the water.

A tub of caustic soda will be a couple of quid from B and Q.

I’ve had great results with the tablets you get to leave in overnight. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/262749519

It looks like whoever put the loo in just flushed lots of rubble/ building waste down it. Pieces look to be big for scale which would flake?

Fair play to you for attacking the loo with such gusto - I would have left well alone!

Broken drain I’d say you need a camera down- Is this ground floor level-what’s outside on top/ possibly through the drain?

I’ve recently purchased Domestos Limescale toilet cleaner. Oh my days it’s brilliant. We live in a hard water area and I’ve used it on the en-suite shower base and it just melted the limescale away after a few hours. The sinks also were particularly bad. I haven’t used it on the toilets yet as they’re not so bad, but the shower, sinks and bath all need this stuff.

I'd vote for broken/collapsed drain.

The other thing that comes to mind is if anyone in your house has eaten a small sack of gravel recently?

The pieces are pretty small, none any larger than a 5p piece, and mostly just dusty bits.

The toilet is first floor level, and when I used the drain snake it moved though pretty freely, only resistance at the point it had to travel round bends. It came out completely clean, no poo or tissue etc on it. It's certainly not long enough to go far enough down to get to below ground level. The soil pipe is completely intact as it leaves the wall next to the toilet.

The shower that attaches to the soil pipe is now running completely fine- that was draining slowly (which was what lead to me starting operation unblock), so I think all the hot water, soap and plunging cleared some blockage. Yet still the toilet drains slowly.

I'm now inclined to think the dirt was just limescale/mineral build up and the lack of vent pipe on the soil pipe means the water takes longer to leave the loo as there's a bit of a vacuum.

I might ask a plumber about it.

If it’s actually limes ale and not concrete or whatever then hot water and citric acid in bucket and flush into loo and leave for a while will work. May need to do more than once.

Oh first floor, won't be collapsed drain then!

I don't believe it's limescale. I've seen hard-water tanks with 40 years of scale in them and it's not like that.

is this on the ground floor? Show us a photo of the soil pipe if it is visible.

Where is the nearest manhole cover?

I advise against Caustic Soda. It is a hazardous chemical and if you ask a plumber to clear it he won't want it splashing onto his skin or eyes.

It might be builders rubble. What size are the particles? Are they hard like stones?

Scrape a bit into a jamjar and pour vinegar over it. Does it fizz?

Scrape a bit more into another jamjar and pour Flash or other strong detergent over it. Does it soften? Or just get cleaner?

correction

I see you are at 1st floor level so it is improbable that soil or broken pipe could travel uphill to the WC trap.

Scoop out the contents of the trap please. It's unlikely the soil pipe itself is full of rubble.

@Fennelandlovage I bought three boxes of citric acid this morning! Fabulous stuff and I often chuck some down the loo for cleaning. I chucked a couple of buckets of very hot water down the loo and then chucked in a whole box. I'll top up with jog from time to time to keep it going.

It's currently fizzing away lots of the crud that was in the bottom of the loo, so I think there was limescale mixed in with goodness knows what.

When you throw the water in it kind of erupts a bit! Then just trickles away slowly. If there is a blockage it would be between the loo and where the shower waste pipe joins the soil pipe.
Given that it shouldn't be too expensive to fix if it is blocked.

I've checked and there's no vent to the soil pipe and no air Admittance Valve anywhere. So I wonder if it's just creating a bit of a vacuum and the water can't go down the pipe as quickly as it should.