Toilet Leaking from Base When Flushed

[kalisti]

Hi,

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem in one of my bathrooms, where water is leaking from around the base of the toilet, and the shower is backing up and overflowing after running for about ten minutes. At first I only noticed the toilet problem, and thought it might be the wax seal. I replaced the seal, and now it doesn't leak as bad (or at all if no one has taken a shower), but if I flush it within 20 minutes of a shower or so, it will still let some water out around the base.

We have a second bathroom in the house, and it is fine. And I'm not smelling any septic gas smell, so I don't think it's our tank (which was emptied not long ago anyway).

I'm wondering if it's possible there is a clog in the pipe that is far enough down that the toilet/shower meet, but before it meets the main line that services our other bathroom? What would the best way to fix that be? I tried snaking the toilet early on, but just with a little 5' snake. Do I need to get a 25' drum auger and try to clear it that way?

Any tips would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

[Gary Swart]

You pretty well have the solution figured out. There is a clog in the drain and that little toy snake is totally incapable of clearing it. However, what is needed is a plumber with a real auger to clear it. These are seldom, if ever, available to a DIY. They are extremely dangerous in the hands of a novice. Dangerous to the possibility of loss of fingers, hands, or even arms, and you can easily cause serious damage to the drain. While you didn't say so, I am guessing that before the leaking occurred, you attempted plunging the toilet and this blew the wax ring. Just a backed up drain will not damage the ring. Time to call for professional help. Most users of this forum recommend not calling companies that have "Rooter" as part of their name. Some may be OK, but many not. But whatever you do, forget trying a DIY snake.

[CanogaParkPlumber]

Well, on that note. I just had to unscrew my toilet in order to snake out whatever was clogging, as the snake via the bowl didn't get the job done, and now there is water leaking from I don't know where. The funny thing is that I can find what the problem is at is not coming from the base, nor the water line. Any ideas?

[cacher_chick]

A 2-piece toilet can leak from the bowl to tank gasket, the bolt holes holding the pieces together, or the fill valve port.

If it is coming from underneath, the wax seal between the toilet and flange is bad.

If you banged the toilet when you were moving it, it could have a crack in it, but more often than not when porcelain breaks it is very easy to see what happened.

Putting some food coloring in the tank water can make the leak easier to pinpoint.

[hj]

NONE of those "pssibilities" apply when the shower also causes the leak.