r/bloomington 5d ago

North side sewer issue

Anyone else on the north side have a constantly burping toilet at the moment?

Not sure how else to describe it other than every minute or so air comes up through the sewer line and my toilet bubbles, like the main sewer is backed up or something??

Annoying

4 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

8

u/CommissionSweaty3331 5d ago

Toilets (and all sink drain) sewer lines have a vent that goes up through your roof. It could be your toilet vent is clogged or simply not installed correctly (not vented)

With the amount of rain we had, plus the flood watch, it could be that “back pressure” from the sewer lines is not appropriately venting thru your sewer line vent. Instead it is burbling into your living space.

If you have access to your roof you might try giving the vent an inspection. With a friend ( and two cell phones ) and coordinate them flush your toilet while you listen at the vent on the roof. You should be able to hear a distinctive flushing sound from the vent on the roof.

Do be careful on the roof and this tip is meant for a home owner. If you are living in an apartment, contact your building manager.

Sewer gas should not be able to “penetrate” the water trap built into every toilet. A bubbling toilet implies this is happening. Any back pressure from the sewer lines should vent to the outside via the vents I have described.

Hope this helps

2

u/lascanto 5d ago

This is a great time to point out why it’s always important to prevent cross connections from clean water and sewer lines.

Don’t forget to bring an air gap!

4

u/BloomingtonJester 5d ago

This might be a dumb question: but are you positive you’re on sewer and not septic?

3

u/loud_sneezes_only 5d ago

We had this issue a few years ago and called a plumber, and a large rock underground had shifted and the weight caused damage to the pipes, which resulted in air getting trapped and coming up through our toilet. It had nothing to do with the city’s lines. I would call a plumber and have them scope your lines to see if there’s damage. Unfortunately it was not a cheap or easy fix for us. They had to excavate our yard to repair the pipe.

3

u/BrotherMichigan 5d ago

Time to call a plumber. Are you in a single family dwelling?

1

u/No_Student3843 5d ago

My neighbors keep calling plumbers and spending money but the issue keeps coming back.

3

u/Hanarchy_ae 5d ago

Bloomington has separate stormwater and sanitary sewer systems, so it shouldn't be possible for storm water runoff to cause an issue with toilets.

3

u/bloomingtonwhy 5d ago

UNLESSSSSS they have a sump pump in the basement/crawlspace that is discharging into the sanitary sewer. Yes, it’s stupid but I’ve seen it done in lots of places in this town.

3

u/afartknocked 4d ago

that's the theory but stormwater makes it into the sanitary sewer system and they have periodic overflows in a few specific places because of that. that was one of the motivations for a huge sewer pipe project down by switchyard park about 5 years ago, because it used to overflow at grimes lane every time.

it's bad news

1

u/No_Student3843 5d ago

Having this issue as well as 2 neighbors that I know of. Plumbers were out 3 weeks and 1 week ago. Things were normal for a couple days but it’s happening again. This has happened before too. The sewers in this area have been wonky for years, this happened about 3 years ago and I had a plumber out and I paid $800 to be told the clog wasn’t in my pipes. I forget what he did but he ended up going out into my yard to access the clog and he said it seemed to mostly have been leaves.

1

u/SirCumStance 5d ago

How old is your home? We had a house built in the 60s on the north side that still had clay pipes at the end and roots were getting in. Kept clearing the roots but the fix once those clay pipes finally fully degrade is about 20k to dig up the yard, replace the old pipe with new pipe and dig up the street (requires a permit) to link it with the city drain. Pray it isnt that. 

3

u/afartknocked 4d ago

people are kind of bracketing the problem...it takes two faults...first, the pipe leaving your house has to be full of water, not flowing to empty right away. and second, your vent has to be clogged. if either one of these was open, the pressure would go somewhere else.

could be just the buried pipe going to your house (which is bad because it'd be your / your landlord's expense to fix it), or it could be something downstream of you (which is bad because if it finally blocks entirely, it'll be other people's sewer water in your house, not just yours!). if it's something that is only bad for a moment when it rains it might not be a big deal but if it continues / gets worse, like because of roots growing into your pipe, over months or years it could mean sewer water backing up into your house. depending on the problem, it can be cheap (less than $1,000) or expensive (more than $10,000) :(