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We recently had our bathroom redone and a new American Standard Colony Elongated toilet installed. The piping wasn’t moved at all, we just put a new toilet in place of where the old one was.

I noticed it’s only been a week or two and it’s already clogged twice. Is there anything the plumber should have checked for or could have done wrong during installation? We’ve lived in the house about 3 months and this wasn’t a problem in this bathroom before.

I did pick up a pack of softer toilet paper by mistake so I thought that might be the problem but our other bathroom toilet is handling it just fine. I don’t have 100% confidence in our plumber at this point, he already had to redo something in the shower because he used pex piping or something.

Also not sure if this is a coincidence but this is a toilet on the second floor. The bathroom on the third floor has a very slow-to-drain toilet. We don’t even really use it much since we moved in- this bathroom is next on our list to renovate. Could the problems be related? OTOH the 2nd floor toilet worked fine until we replaced it.

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    What brand / model of toilet was used. Many toilets now advertise there ability to flush. If the model was not rated it may be the problem.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Mar 15, 2019 at 12:58
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    I suspect the problems are related. Are vents in good order?
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Mar 15, 2019 at 13:22
  • American Standard Colony Elongated white toilet & seat
    – Cheryl S
    Commented Mar 15, 2019 at 14:08
  • How would I know if the vents are in good shape?
    – Cheryl S
    Commented Mar 15, 2019 at 14:09
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    I would try running water down each of the vent pipes, that will help clear them if they are plugged.
    – Gil
    Commented Mar 2, 2023 at 13:40

4 Answers 4

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If the wax ring shifted when the toilet was set it could be partially blocking the opening in the closet bend

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A lot depends on how severe a clog you have:

  • An extra flush gets it going

You may have a toilet that isn't well designed. A lot of earlier low-water-usage toilets had this problem. But there may be adjustments you can make to the flush mechanism inside the tank to increase the amount of water used for each flush.

  • Plunger needed, but nothing more

In this case, it is likely a clog "nearby" - e.g., perhaps something clogged the pipes during renovation and has narrowed the pipe a bit. And it could also be a vent problem (though I admit I really don't understand vents myself). But it would not be something "far away" as that would likely affect other fixtures too.

  • Snake required

If you need a snake to fix the clog then this is much more serious. Could be a vent problem (as I don't totally understand plumbing vents, I can't say more than that) or it could be a drain pipe problem farther down that is "catching" some waste from the toilet when it shouldn't.

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Your plumber could have messed up the wax ring. Some toilets don't flush very well compared to others.

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  • Thanks for the answer, but it isn't clear in your answer why a wax ring problem would cause problem flushing. Would you expand a bit? Thanks.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Commented Mar 15, 2019 at 13:57
  • i could be wrong about this ...... the siphoning action is probably being interfered with ...... i think that if the wax seal has a leak, then air gets sucked into the sewer pipe during a flush .... that prevents the contents of the toilet bowl from being sucked into the sewer pipe
    – jsotola
    Commented Mar 16, 2019 at 1:48
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Grout from tile got down the pipe

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    It would take a massive glob of grout to cause a clog in a 3" pipe.
    – isherwood
    Commented Sep 9 at 18:24

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