Accidentally Flushed Toilet Paper Roll. Possible Consequences And Solutions -

A clogged toilet at your home is something you will never want to experience. Well, this is not the worst thing that can happen to you, but if you don’t know how to deal with it, you will probably start panicking. The first thing you should do is to stop panicking and try to find out the proper way out of the situation.

We offer a simple step-by-step solution:

Turn off the water supply to the toilet if it’s possible at your home.
Find the method of unclogging the toilet.
Use everything you can find to help you do it faster.
Never tell anyone what you’ve been just doing (joke, of course).

Today, we’ll tell you what to do if the toilet paper roll was accidentally flushed. More often than not, this roll will clog the drain and will spoil your mood. Unfortunately, waiting won’t help. A small piece of toilet paper will dissolve in water over a couple of minutes, but a big roll will not.

So, let’s do it!

Taking the roll out: use your hand

It may not sound good to you, but the fastest and the easiest way to take that roll out of the toilet is actually to take it by your hand. Unfortunately, you won’t see the roll in most cases, so you will need to palp some spots down that drain.

Please, follow this quick instruction:

Find latex gloves to protect your hand from harmful bacteria and dirt you may find down there in a drain.
Prepare a packet for the roll to quickly put it in in order to avoid the dirt spreading all over the bathroom.
Put on the gloves and gently put your hand into the toilet drain. Move it forward until your hand feels the lost roll.
Gently take the roll out of the toilet by gripping it hard and pulling.
Better don’t watch at it much because it can make you feel sick, the roll isn’t going to be as clean as when you last saw it.
Quickly put the roll into the garbage packet and tie it hard so that the bad smell didn’t make you feel sick.
Throw the packet and also your gloves into the garbage bin.
Wash your hands thoroughly and apply any kinds of sanitizers to kill all germs and bacteria.

You may see that it’s not that bad. Well, yes, it’s important to stick to the instruction. You may also want to use paper towels to prepare the area. Use them to cover the floor around your toilet so that the drops couldn’t make your floor dirty.

Use a metal hook to get the roll

The second method isn’t that disgusting but it may take you much more time. First, you will need some hook from a metal wire. For example, it can be a wire hanger. Just bend it a little so that the hook could go into the drain hole.

Here’s what you need to do:

Repeat all the preparations from the first method: paper towels around the toilet, latex gloves, stopping the water supply, preparing a garbage packet.
Prepare your metal hook for the work, bend it so that the hook could easily go inside the drain hole and take that roll.
Gently put the hook into the hole. Be careful not to push the roll even further.
Hook the roll and start gently pulling it. Be very careful – if you make it too fast, you may be covered with wastewater and some dirt from the drain.
Use your vacant hand in a glove to take the roll and put it quickly in a packet.
Clean your bathroom to avoid any bad smell and dirt spreading all around the room.

This may sound easier for you, but to hook the roll that you don’t see could be difficult. You may need to try and make a hole in the roll with the metal wire. This will make roll-fishing much easier for you.

Use a toilet plunger to send it further

Please bear in mind that this method will only work if the roll is not so big. If the roll is small, you can try to send it further. But at first, make sure that your drain system allows the roll of the needed size to go through all the pipes. If you see that it’s OK, you may start your preparations:

Again, you will need some paper towels around your toilet, latex gloves, and also a toilet plunger of a big size.
Put a plunger over the drain hole and start moving it up and down. Move slowly at first to see what happens. If everything is OK, you may start moving faster.
Take the plunger away from time to time to see whether the vacuum brought the roll back to the spot where you can see it. If not, continue working with your plunger.
Once you think the roll was sent to the drain system, try to flush a little water. Better don’t use the toilet flush cistern – use a bucket to pour half a gallon of water and see if it goes easily down the drain.
If the water goes slowly, repeat your movements with the plunger.
Once you are sure the roll is out, you may flush the toilet and see if it’s OK. If water still goes slowly, continue working until you solve the problem.

Be careful! If the roll is big enough and it gets stuck somewhere in the system, it will be extremely hard to do something with it. So only use this step if you can’t get the roll with your hand or with any other instrument.

The last solution – plumbing cable

The plumbing cable (also called a plumber’s snake) is an instrument that plumbers use to unclog the drains. This is a metal wire that is flexible enough to get into any kind of pipe, even if they bend multiple times. A kind of this cable you can buy in a special store selling building materials and instruments.

So, for using the cable, you will need to think about some rules first. Here are the most important of them:

Of course, you will still need some protective gloves. Also, use something like paper towels around your toilet to avoid dirt and water getting onto the floor.
Take your plumbing cable and start gently pushing it into the drain. Be very careful so that you don’t damage the pipes and connections.
When you feel that your cable touches the toilet paper roll, start gently pushing it. If the roll is big, the cable will gradually destroy it and make it melt in the water. If it’s small, the cable will push it towards the bigger drain pipe.
After you managed to push the roll to the big pipe, it should be gone forever. Flush the toilet and make sure everything works just fine.

This is a professional method of cleaning and you should know more about using the cable before you stick it into the drain hole in your toilet. But for pushing a little toilet paper roll down a drain, you have enough knowledge now. Make sure you don’t lose your cable in the drain because in this case, you will need to call a plumber.

If nothing works

It’s a pity if none of our methods could help you get the roll out of the drain or push it further successfully. And in this case, the only proper thing you can make is to call the plumber. You should choose a plumber service that can send an experienced and responsible plumber to you for solving the problem. Usually, the toilet paper roll trouble will take a plumber 5 to 15 minutes to solve. They will use a cable or a hook to take the roll out.

You shouldn’t wait for too long if nothing helps you get the roll out. Because if you call them too late, they may offer you to send a plumber tomorrow or, let’s say, on Monday. And until that time, you will have to stop using the toilet and probably even shower because the drain system is connected into one. So after a quick attempt to save your toilet drain, just call a plumbing service and let them decide it for you.

Final words

We know that flushing a toilet paper roll is not the most pleasant thing you can do in your life. But believe it or not, many people do it from time to time and get problems with their toilet drains. Plumbers regularly get calls that beg them to save people and let them use their toilets again.

If you are in this situation and you don’t want to spend some money on a plumber’s service, just follow our advice. We’ve told you about three main ways to get the toilet paper roll out of the drain pipes. And we are pretty sure that this will help you cope with the problem. If not, don’t lose your time and call a plumber.