How to Fix a Gurgling Toilet—And When to Call for Help

Photo via Adrienne Carrie Hubbard | Crafty Little Gnome

What Causes a Toilet to Gurgle

A gurgling sound from a toilet indicates there’s a clog of some kind, somewhere in the drain system, which also includes a vent to the roof. It could be an easy-to-clear-up clog in the pipes close to the toilet or somewhere further along the main sewer line that connects your home to either a public sewer system or a septic tank. In a worst-case scenario, your gurgling toilet could indicate a broken (or collapsed) sewer line—which needs to be fixed ASAP by a professional plumber.

How to Fix a Gurgling Toilet

Here are the most common issues and ways to troubleshoot why your toilet is gurgling, in order from easiest to more hands-on. Unless you're able to tell why your toilet is gurgling, we recommend following these steps in order. 

Step 1: Plunge the Toilet

There’s a chance the blockage that’s causing the toilet to gurgle can be dislodged with a toilet plunger. The key tip here is to close and seal off all other drains in the bathroom (shower and tub, sink) with duct tape so that the pressure created by the suction of the plunger has maximum effect on the targeted area. 

It’s important to use the right type of plunger for your toilet. Opt for a toilet plunger with a flap, which will create a deep cup to cover the drain hole in the toilet bowl. To use, stick the plunger into the toilet with the flap directly in the drain. Pump the plunger at least 10 to 15 times before trying a test flush to see if there’s still a gurgling sound from the toilet. If there’s still a sound, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Clear Any Sink or Shower Clogs

Are you experiencing water backing up or slow drainage anywhere else in the bathroom, like in the sink or tub? If so, that clogged drain could be the cause of your toilet’s gurgling noise. On the backside, all of the pipes in a bathroom are connected and converge to lead to your home’s main sewage line. If you’re noticing water backed up in these drains, unclog them before moving onto the next step.

Step 3: Unclog Toilet with an Auger

Also commonly called a plumber’s snake or a sewer snake, a toilet auger is a go-to tool for clearing any blockage in a home’s drain pipes. Toilet augers come in both manual and motorized versions, but the design and function is essentially the same: A head of sharp, rotating blades tops a sturdy metal cable, which is threaded into the toilet drainpipe by the user. The head of the auger turns and slices as it presses further into the drain system, dislodging and breaking up the blockage as it goes.

Toilet augers have varying lengths of cable—anywhere from 3 to 25 feet for at-home models—which determines how deep into the pipe system you can go to break up clogs. To use an auger, carefully insert the blade side of the tool into the toilet hole. Keep working the end through the pipes and into any potential clog. If you are at the end of the handle and there’s no more of the coiled end to push through, crank the handle one way back and forth to break up anything that could be in the pipe. Slowly pull back the handle and take the auger out of the toilet. 

If you flush and the gurgling still remains, you could rent a professional, motorized version that reaches up to 100 feet. However, to do this, you’ll have to remove the toilet from its base to insert the auger into the pipes directly.

If augering the toilet didn’t work, move to the next step.

Step 4: Check Your Vent Stack

If there’s still a gurgling sound from the toilet, one cause could be a blockage in the plumbing vent stack, which is designed to keep air flowing through your home’s labyrinth of drainpipes. The vent stack is a pipe that typically exits through the roof and can be subject to clogs from leaves, pine needles, or other outdoor debris.

If you feel comfortable on your home’s roof, check the vent stack by removing the outer casing and shining a strong flashlight down into the pipe. If there’s outdoor debris in the pipe, it’s likely within a few feet of the opening and can be removed with a straightened-out wire coat hanger. If you can’t reach the blockage, you can flush the pipe out with a hose to send the debris down into the sewer system.

If you’re not comfortable climbing and working on the roof, go ahead and call in the pros!

Step 5: Check With Your Neighbors

If you’ve tried the above troubleshooting steps but your toilet is still gurgling, it’s probably time to call a plumber. But before you do that, it’s worth checking with your neighbors to see if they’re experiencing similar gurgling sounds. If they, too, have noticed gurgling in a toilet, the issue might not be with your pipes, but with the pipes of the main sewer grid itself—which warrants a call or email to your local municipal services.

Photo via Manderley Gate

When to Call a Professional

There are just some jobs that are too much for a homeowner to tackle on their own. Concerns about safety or a job that’s simply too difficult to troubleshoot are all reasons to call a plumber, including:

• You’re not comfortable climbing on the roof to troubleshoot blockage in the vent stack. 
• You don’t want to go through the trouble of renting and operating the type of heavy equipment (namely a 100-foot auger) required to snake the main sewer pipe in your yard.
• You’ve exhausted all of the above DIY options and the toilet is still gurgling. 

Have you fixed a gurgling toilet? We’d love to hear your advice below!