A gurgling noise coming from any plumbing fixture is usually never a good sign, but it’s especially troublesome when it’s coming from your toilet. When you flush normally, there’s no sound but the water going down the drain. This gurgling, which is often accompanied by water bubbling in the toilet bowl, most usually means that there’s some kind of blockage somewhere along in the pipes. And while the toilet may be flushing right now, it doesn’t take long for a small blockage to become a full-blown clog. And even if it’s not a blockage, gurgling is still indicative of long-term damage. When your toilet is gurgling, you have a very particular window of time to act before it becomes a major plumbing catastrophe.

Toilet is Gurgling Due to Drain Blockage

This is the most common cause for a gurgling toilet; something getting stopped up in the pipes. This could be any number of things, including paper towels, personal hygiene products, toilet paper wads, excessive physical waste, and the like. The long and short of it is that your pipes weren’t designed to handle much more than toilet paper and waste materials; anything else you flush is going to get stuck in there and cause blockages. A drain cleaning from a licensed plumber will be able to remove the clog and the gurgling noise and a conscientious mind will prevent it from happening again.

Main Line Blockages and Clogs

Your main line is the pipe all your drains connect to when they head out into the municipal sewer system/your septic tank. Needless to say, a blockage there is a major issue not just for your toilet, but your whole home. Main line blockages can absolutely cause gurgling in your toilet, but it’s far more likely you’ll notice some of their more unpleasant symptoms first, including foul smells from your drains, sewage backup, and yard flooding. Main line blockages and clogs are a little more complicated to deal with than standard clogs, as the mainline is much more difficult to access, so your primary method of dealing with it should be calling up a professional.

There’s a Vent Stack Blockage

Your vent stack is a vertical pipe that goes up through your roof. It’s what regulates the air pressure in the rest of your plumbing. While not as common as the other culprits behind a gurgling toilet, a vent stack blockage could be behind your woes. Things like leaves, debris, birds nests, and rodents are known to cause blockages up there. This causes negative pressure, sluggish drains, foul odors, and the dreaded gurgling toilet. Short of heading up to your roof to confirm the problem, there’s not much the average homeowner can do about a vent stack issue, as a minor miscalculation could prove disastrous for the air pressure throughout the home’s plumbing

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By Milltown Plumbing