How to Unblock a Toilet (And When to Call a Plumber)

If you need to know how to unblock a toilet, start with a flange plunger sealed over the outlet and give it 15 to 20 firm strokes with the rubber cup under water. If that fails, a toilet auger will reach blockages in the S-bend. Without a plunger, dishwashing liquid and hot tap water can shift soft blockages.

Blocked toilets are one of the most common jobs the licensed plumbers at Assure Fix Plumbing see across Ipswich, Springfield and Brisbane’s western suburbs. Most start with paper or wet wipes jammed in the S-bend, the curved section built into the base of the pan.

You can often clear that yourself in ten minutes with the right tool. When it keeps coming back, or other drains start playing up, the problem is further down the pipe, and that’s where our blocked toilet plumbing service takes over.

Before you start, stop the water rising

If the water is already near the rim, the next flush will put it on the floor. Do these first:

• Don’t flush again. A single flush sends several litres into a pan that has nowhere to send it.
• Lift the cistern lid and press the rubber flapper at the bottom closed, or turn the isolation tap behind the toilet clockwise until it stops.
• Lay old towels around the base of the pan. Plunging splashes, every time.

How to unblock a toilet with a plunger

The flat cup plunger under the kitchen sink is built for flat drains, and it won’t seal properly in a toilet. You want a flange plunger, which has a soft rubber sleeve that folds out of the cup and sits inside the outlet.

1. Check there’s enough water in the bowl to cover the rubber cup. Top it up from a bucket if it’s low.
2. Push the flange into the outlet and press down slowly to squeeze the air out. A hard first push sprays the bowl back up at you.
3. Pump firmly up and down 15 to 20 times without breaking the seal. The pull stroke does as much work as the push.
4. Lift the plunger off. If the water drops with a loud gulp, you’ve shifted it.
5. Test with a bucket of water or a half flush, not a full flush.
   
   

If the water drains slowly after a few rounds, the blockage has moved but hasn’t cleared. Go again. Most paper blockages give up within three or four rounds.

How to unblock a badly blocked toilet with an auger

When the plunger does nothing, or you know something solid went down (a kid’s toy or a toothbrush, say), grab a toilet auger. It’s a short, hand-cranked steel cable inside a rigid tube, with a rubber boot on the bend so it won’t scratch the porcelain.

1. Sit the curved end in the bottom of the bowl, pointing into the outlet.
2. Crank the handle clockwise while feeding the cable in. You’ll feel it bite when it reaches the blockage.
3. Keep cranking to break the blockage up or hook it, then draw the cable back out slowly.
4. Pour in a bucket of water to check it runs clear.
   
   

A toilet auger reaches around a metre, which covers the S-bend and the first stretch of pipe. If a solid object is wedged in the trap and won’t come back with the cable, stop there. Forcing it can crack the pan, and the toilet may need to come off the floor.

That’s a job for a licensed plumber. Assure Fix Plumbing holds QBCC licence 1534253, and you can confirm it on Queensland’s public contractor licence search before anyone sets foot in your bathroom.

How to unclog a toilet without a plunger

For soft blockages made of paper and waste, this kitchen-cupboard method works more often than people expect:

• Squirt about half a cup of dishwashing liquid into the bowl. It coats the blockage so it slides.
• Wait 10 minutes, then pour in a bucket of hot tap water from about waist height. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water poured into a cold ceramic pan can crack it.
• Leave it for 20 to 30 minutes. If the level drops, test with another bucket of water.

Baking soda and vinegar fizzes nicely but won’t do much to a blocked toilet. Neither method will shift wet wipes, sanitary items or a solid object.

What not to do when unclogging a toilet

• Don’t pour in chemical drain cleaner. When the pan won’t drain, caustic cleaner just sits in the bowl, then splashes onto skin and eyes the moment someone plunges. It can also attack the pan seal and older pipework.
• Don’t use a wire coat hanger. It scratches the glaze inside the pan, leaving a rough patch that catches waste, and it tends to pack the blockage tighter.
• Don’t keep flushing to push it through. That’s how a blocked toilet turns into a wet bathroom floor.
• Don’t flush wipes, even the ones labelled flushable. They don’t break down the way toilet paper does.
  
  

Urban Utilities, which runs the sewer network across Brisbane and Ipswich, has pulled a rag ball weighing around a tonne out of its pipes. Its rule for households is simple: only flush pee, poo and toilet paper.

We’ve covered a few more habits that cost homeowners money in our rundown of the DIY plumbing mistakes we see most often.

Signs your blocked toilet is further down the line

A plunger or auger can only fix what’s in the pan and the trap. If the blockage is in the pipe under the house or out in the yard, you’ll see clues in other places:

• The shower or basin gurgles when you flush.
• Water rises in the shower waste after a flush.
• More than one toilet or drain is slow at the same time.
• The overflow relief gully outside, the small round grate near the bathroom or laundry, is lifting or spilling.
• The toilet clears, then blocks again within a few days.
• There’s a sewage smell hanging around the yard.
  
  

Plenty of older homes around Ipswich and Brisbane’s west still run clay sewer pipes laid in short sections, and tree roots find the joints between them. The roots grow into a net that catches every bit of paper coming through. No plunger fixes that.

Assure Fix Plumbing runs a CCTV camera down the line to see exactly what’s in there, then clears it with a 5000 PSI water jetter. You can see how that works on our page about blocked drain clearing across Ipswich and Brisbane.

When to call a blocked toilet plumber

Give us a call if you’ve had a fair go with the plunger and auger and nothing has changed, if something solid is stuck in the trap, or if sewage is coming up anywhere else in the house or yard. Same goes if it’s your only toilet.

Assure Fix Plumbing is a family-owned business with more than 30 years of plumbing experience and over 1,600 jobs done. We’re members of the Master Plumbers Association of Queensland, and Sebastian and the team give you upfront pricing before any work starts.

Same-day service is available across Ipswich, Springfield and Brisbane’s western suburbs. Call 1300 852 837 or book a blocked toilet quote online.