Living in an 1894 house in Sudbrook Park in Pikesville, MD, created some interesting problems. Nothing was standard, for sure!
I had a second floor toilet that continually gave me a hard time. It would get stuck, sort of, and I’d have to plunge and /or snake it out quite often. This house was on a septic system which only added to my problems.
I used to purchase some kind of bacteriological dirt every now and then and pour it down the toilet to encourage good septic working. The biggest problem seemed to be that the dishwasher ran through the system throwing out bad chemicals, which neutralized the action, and the dirt helped this problem. It’s kind of like eating a spoonful of garden dirt every now and then to encourage your appendix to work so it wouldn’t go bad!
The stuck toilet got worse and worse and it looked like there was only one answer, remove it and see what was happening.
This was the first toilet I can ever remember removing so I was very careful, and purchased a new seal and read books on toilets, as there were no computers invented as of yet, at least not for home use, in the 70’s.
After a careful removal of the toilet, probably an original toilet added to the house when plumbing was invented, the culprit was caught! There was a very large and water soaked tampon attached to the toilet bottom, stopping up all that tried to enter the flush tube (I think I invented that term just now!).
This was a very large and commodious toilet that I enjoyed.
I would never replace it, but was able to produce a sign asking women not to dispose of tampons in the toilet, and my problem was solved!
I had a second floor toilet that continually gave me a hard time. It would get stuck, sort of, and I’d have to plunge and /or snake it out quite often. This house was on a septic system which only added to my problems.
I used to purchase some kind of bacteriological dirt every now and then and pour it down the toilet to encourage good septic working. The biggest problem seemed to be that the dishwasher ran through the system throwing out bad chemicals, which neutralized the action, and the dirt helped this problem. It’s kind of like eating a spoonful of garden dirt every now and then to encourage your appendix to work so it wouldn’t go bad!
The stuck toilet got worse and worse and it looked like there was only one answer, remove it and see what was happening.
This was the first toilet I can ever remember removing so I was very careful, and purchased a new seal and read books on toilets, as there were no computers invented as of yet, at least not for home use, in the 70’s.
After a careful removal of the toilet, probably an original toilet added to the house when plumbing was invented, the culprit was caught! There was a very large and water soaked tampon attached to the toilet bottom, stopping up all that tried to enter the flush tube (I think I invented that term just now!).
This was a very large and commodious toilet that I enjoyed.
I would never replace it, but was able to produce a sign asking women not to dispose of tampons in the toilet, and my problem was solved!
The house has been around since 18th century, so it’s not surprising if it harbors household glitches ingrained within its system. And the women throwing away their stuff down the toilet will only make things worse. It’s a good thing the sign you put up solved that problem. Now let’s hope this is the last toilet replacement you have to do for that house!
ReplyDeleteJames Warren @ Capital Care Plumbing
I hope that’s the last case of improper disposal you had to deal with. The house is quite old, and it probably harbors some structural problems due to old age. The last thing you need is to wear it out more by clogging its piping system that might affect its overall function. I think you should consider having that particular department checked and improved, if you haven’t yet. Have a good day!
ReplyDeleteLovella Cushman @ Perfection Plumbing