All you did was flush the toilet. But things have gone terribly wrong, and the contents of the bowl are rising. Don’t panic. And do not flush the toilet again—unless you want wet Crocs and a major cleanup. Instead, look for a toilet brush and thrust it down into the bowl. Pump the brush up and down to force air and water down the trap. It’s messy, but can often break up a jam if you are lucky. If not, you need to find a toilet plunger of any description. To work properly, the plunger cup should be sealed over the drain hole at the bottom of the bowl and fully submerged in liquid. Pump vigorously up and down and incompressible water should act like a ram to break up the blockage.
Cottage Q&A: A flush toilet in an outhouse?
If plunging doesn’t work, you have a serious occlusion that will require either a toilet auger or a drain auger (a.k.a. a drain snake). Toilet augers reach about a metre down a drain pipe, while drain augers can go anywhere from five to 15 metres. Both tools use a claw-like head on a flexible, twisted-wire shaft; they slide into the drain and rotate to chew up clogs.
Questions to ask before you buy an alternative toilet
Fun Fact: According to drain services company Roto-Rooter, calls for blocked drains peak every year on the day after Thanksgiving. Blame guests who get busy flushing more waste, using more water, and rinsing more food down the drain. Good thing the outhouse never clogs.
This story originally appeared in the Sept/Oct ’25 issue of Cottage Life.
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