In addition we suggested you make appropriate preparations. Such preparations would include ensuring that the floor is appropriately covered with some form of plastic sheeting, and that on top of the sheeting we place some newspaper. The reason for the newspaper is that the process of unclogging or unblocking your toilet can be quite a physically strenuous event. It may be that there is some considerable force having to be applied when attempting to clear any blockage in the toilet. So, the newspaper is there to ensure any splashes are properly soaked up, should they fall outside the toilet bowl.
The other matters mentioned in the preparation post was to wear gloves. Ordinary kitchen gloves are probably the most appropriate as they are waterproof, cheap and disposable. In the event that you do end up having to put your hands into the clogged up toilet bowl, I'm only guessing but you may not want to use the gloves again, especially not doing the washing up later that day.
Finally, it is worth wearing some form of protective eye covering. I can think of few worse things than getting raw sewage in your eyes, and I don't know, I'm only guessing but I reckon you will feel similar.
OK. The plunger. You can buy a typical plunger for unclogging your toilet from almost any hardware store or DIY chain. There are usually two types, one similar to that in the picture, which is a traditional toilet plunger, very simple in design, but equally very effective in getting the job done. Such plungers, specifically designed for unclogging toilets are in fact perfectly up to the job of howto unclog a toilet. However, these days, the various plumbing supplies manufacturers have come up with intriging new designs in toilet unblocking plungers. They have designed plungers that act like a syringe, drawing some of the blocked toilet fluid into a tube, with a syringe type mechanism and then you forcibly eject the fluid, into the blockage with the hope that the force of the fluid being expelled from the syringe part of the plunger is sufficient to dislodge the item that is clogging your toilet.
The choice of type of plunger is yours. The first type is almost certainly cheaper but probably slightly messier due to the physical effort required to push the blocked fluids into the soil pipe of the clogged toilet. The second, or syringe type plunger will be more expensive, but due to the relatively efficient manner in which the water is almost injected into the toilet pipe there is likely to be less mess involved. Cleaning the syringe type plunger after the event is however likely to be less satisfying than cleaning the normal rubber traditional shaped plunger.
The choice is yours as to which plunger you select. On balance I prefer the syringe type.
Right, so we've selected which plunger to use to unclog a toilet, what next.
Fistly, if you know that there is something hard, like a small toy that is blocking up the toilet then the plunger route is not the one to follow. You may just drive the blockage deeper and make it more difficult to access later.
Next, insert the plunger into the water until it is a covered as possible. It may be necessary, if there is insufficient water that you add water at this stage in order to ensure the plunger acts properly. This is to avoid splashes. Once submerged, firmly push the plunger down into the toilet and draw sharply up. This action has the effect of pushing then pulling the blockage in and out of the pipe with the objective of dislodging the blockage until it clears out and can be flushed away properly.
Don't be disheartened if you have to go through this process a number of times before you are successful. Remember your objective is to clear the toilet and if at first you don't succeed remember the old saying try, try again. You may have to refill the bowl with water in order to ensure the plunger is properly submerged throughout the process. Don't worry about this, it can happen.
Anyway, at some point, hopefully quite quickly, you should have succeeded in unclogging your toilet and you can then flush the toilet normally. It is best to flush several times before clearing up as this just ensures that you have indeed been successful.
Well done! You are beginning to understand how to unclog a toilet.
You can now wash out the plunger, clear up the floor covering and remove you gloves and hope that you don't have to undertake this unpleasant job again soon.
