04/17/2010
Occasionally the home owner must deal with a clogged toilet. If you are the home handy person type, and calling the plumber is not your first choice, you may find no friend quite like the drain snake or plumber’s auger. With luck on your side, combined with some careful work, you can avoid making the call to the plumbing professional. You will need the right tool, of course. The proper type snake to deal with a toilet clog is the toilet auger, which has a protective covering on it to prevent marring the finish of the porcelain toilet.
Plumbers that commonly deal with these situations report that clogs are often caused by toys or other objects that shouldn’t have been flushed. Once flushed, they lodged themselves and accumulated other matter that you would expect to be flushed down the toilet. To avoid getting in the situation of needing to use the plumber’s auger, be careful. Teach your children that it is not good to flush random objects, and be careful yourself about what goes into the toilet.
But if your efforts fail and the clog remains, be consoled that a plumbing professional near you is ready to take on the task. Your local plumber is likely to have emergency hours available, and will know how to get your plumbing problem under control.