Look, there are certain things that are meant to go down toilets, and certain things that are just not. People have a habit of putting some things down the toilet that don’t necessarily belong.

Children definitely keep us busy, where stoppages are concerned. A few years ago, a customer called us up, because their toilet was stopped up. When I pushed the camera down there to see what was going on, the camera pushed through the obstruction. After all the water cleared out, I’ve got two things sitting side by side: Mickey Mouse and G.I.. Joe. They looked like they were having a standoff in the middle of the pipe. It was pretty entertaining, to say the least.

Baby wipes are a big culprit. I realize that on a lot of those packages it says flushable, but that’s not necessarily the case. You’ve got to keep in mind, old cast iron systems are not like smooth PVC systems. These pipes have been there for a long time. There’s a lot of rust, corrosion, calcium, magnesium, and iron built up inside of those pipes. What it winds up doing is creating places for all that stuff to catch.

Toilet paper is meant to be flushed. It goes down and bypasses all that build-up. It breaks down and kind of dissolves away.

When you put wet wipes down the toilet or other non-flushable items, they do not dissolve. They get down the line, hit the build-up, and stop. Then you flush something else and it stops. Pretty soon, you’ve got a big traffic jam and you’re calling the On Time Experts.

I never blame anybody for trying to unclog their own toilet. You can get your plunger out to see if that will take care of it. I’ve even had customers auger their own toilet. But sometimes it’s a little bit further down the line.

If that plunger doesn’t work for you, or it’s something that continues to happen, it might not be a bad idea to give us a call here at the On Time Experts and let us come out there and take a look at it.

Let us send one of our plumbing experts out there, to see if we can offer you a permanent solution. The number is [compay_name].

-Adam

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Randy Kelley
Randy Kelley

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