Plumbing advice

[TNhobbyfarmer]

My grandson flushed a toilet at my house and dropped his sunglasses in simultaneously. They are smallish sunglasses, he's only 6. Well they're gone, and subsequent flushes indicate they're hung in the line, water backup. What would be my best course of action? Will a plumber try to retrieve them or push them on through? I'd like to resolve this problem myself, but will call a plumber if need be.

 

[AWSubie]

If u remove the toilet I bet you’ll find them hung up in “p” trap of the toilet. But I think the only way you will be able to retrieve them is from the other side. Make sure u have a new wax ring on hand so that u can immediately reinstall the toilet.

 

[farmeratheart]

I think I would fashion a hook on one end of a straightened coat hanger and carefully go “fishin”. Good luck

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

If u remove the toilet I bet you’ll find them hung up in “p” trap of the toilet. But I think the only way you will be able to retrieve them is from the other side. Make sure u have a new wax ring on hand so that u can immediately reinstall the toilet.

What do you mean by "other side"?

 

[bcp]

I would spend some time with one of these notched plastic strips first.

drain cleaner plastic at DuckDuckGo

Bruce

 

[AWSubie]

What do you mean by "other side"?

After the toilet is removed and it is put on its side u will be able to see the “exit” of the toilet. This “exit” is what I refer to as the other side.

 

[RNeumann]

If u remove the toilet I bet you’ll find them hung up in “p” trap of the toilet. But I think the only way you will be able to retrieve them is from the other side. Make sure u have a new wax ring on hand so that u can immediately reinstall the toilet.

This is what we’d do. Pull the toilet and push them back into the bowl. I’ve seen this a time or two....

 

[CADplans]

I retrieved the entire set of toy sized pool balls from our floor drain,,
I used a spiral snake that connects to an electric drill.

I would power screw the snake into the pipe, the bulged end was just correctly sized to get past the ball,, then I could slowly pull it back.
A couple times I got more than one ball.

The balls were placed down the drain by the previous owners son,, is my guess.

GEE,, the floor drain worked much better after the set of balls were removed!! :thumbsup:

:laughing:

 

[RNeumann]

Unfortunately anything “snake” like that is put down the toilet through the bowl will mark up the toilet bowl and will likely damage it. Unless it’s a closet auger.

 

[Streetcar]

I am in the camp of pull the toilet and flush from back side. I have retrieved flashlight and tp holder this way

 

[jaxs]

Sounds like a few people have btdt and after a few years fishing things out of toilets I agree with pulling toilet,,,,,if this fails. Dip,soak or wet vac water from bowel then use a small mirror and flashlight to look up into trap. If the glasses can be seen,use a bent coat hanger to hook glasses an pull them out. It's strange working with a mirror but your dentist does it every day,so can you,I've done it more times than I like to remember.

 

[kenmac]

Wife's friend flushed her keys down my toilet. Being in the plumbing business for many years, I pulled the toilet.
Sure enough, the keys hung up in the S trap. My wife was able to get her small hands in there and retrieve them

 

[Molalla1]

Wife's friend flushed her keys down my toilet. Being in the plumbing business for many years, I pulled the toilet.
Sure enough, the keys hung up in the S trap. My wife was able to get her small hands in there and retrieve them

kenmac . . . exactly . . . if it is something like what we are referring to . . . it's going to be in the S trap.

 

[EddieWalker]

If u remove the toilet I bet you’ll find them hung up in “p” trap of the toilet. But I think the only way you will be able to retrieve them is from the other side. Make sure u have a new wax ring on hand so that u can immediately reinstall the toilet.

This is what I would do. In fact, I've done it a bunch of times for clients. I like to have a furniture dolly in front of the toilet. After removing the nuts and the water line, I lift it straight up and then onto the dolly. Then I can easily push the toilet wherever I want. On some jobs I take it off in the morning and put it on in the evening, for weeks at a time. Those blue rubber reusable donuts are great!!!!

Odds are very good that it's stuck in the trap of the toilet. If it's down the waste pipe, it's probably caught in a bend, but the only way to know where will be with a snake. Look in the toilet trap first. You might even find some other toys in there too, like hotwheels, or little plastic army men, or something like that.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

Those blue rubber reusable donuts are great!!!!

Alls well that ends well. I removed the toilet and was able to retrieve the sunglasses.

On a side note, during a previous maintenance project on the same toilet, I replaced the conventional wax ring with one of the wax ring assemblies referenced by Eddie. Those things are great. It was in good shape, and I didn't replace it. No leaks when I put the toilet back on. They are a little more expensive, but worth it. Much more durable and much easier to work with.

 

[turnkey4099]

If u remove the toilet I bet you値l find them hung up in 菟 trap of the toilet. But I think the only way you will be able to retrieve them is from the other side. Make sure u have a new wax ring on hand so that u can immediately reinstall the toilet.

I'd go with the waxless seal. Wax seals are old technology. Install a waxless and that will be the last one you need to buy (for that toilet). Pull toilet and reinstall, no need to put on a new seal each time. .

 

[TnAndy]

You might even find some other toys in there too, like hotwheels, or little plastic army men, or something like that.

Yep....nephew flushed one of his down mom's toilet. I didn't know what the problem was, just kept having trouble flushing. I bought a whole new toilet, replaced it, took the old one out in the yard and took a hammer to it. Out of the rubble came little GI Joe..... "JEREMYYYYYY !!!!"

Where the heck where you guys 30 years ago when I needed you ?

 

[EddieWalker]

I had a church call me about all their urinals not working. If my memory is right, it was something like 12 urinals in two different buildings. I took the first one apart and found that it was full of those little white sticks that lolly pops and suckers come on. Sure enough, they where all plugged up with the same things. The Paster said that they where giving them away to the kids the day before for some sort of an event.

 

[RoyKing]

This reminds of one of fathers learning lessons. We had summer cottages right on beach on lake Erie in the late 50's. The kids regularly flushed anything. Luckily the clay pipes were not buried very deep. So we ran the snake down the vent till we hit the blockage, marked the length and then paced out where to dig. Soon we had a few feet exposed, dad explained how full clay pipe sounded different than an empty when tapped with hammer handle, we dug few more feet and you could hear the difference in tone above and below the clog. Suddenly I found myself in the ditch by myself. Dad tossed me a 3# hammer and said break the pipe. So I gave it whack and nothing happen. Son you've got hit hard. So I raise that hammer high over my head and with both hands bring it down. Well you know what happen I had 25 feet of backup sewer line that came flying out. Lucky the lake was only 100 feet away. All the old men watching had good laugh. Dad larter says your supposed to break the pipe below the clog!