How do I fix my toilet?!?

Question

Okay, so my town had a massive power outage last night for about 3 1/2 hours (the town's about 1 square mile haha), and when it finally came back on, my toilet had stopped working. I could use it while the power was out, but then it wouldn't flush. The handle has no force to it, doesn't flush the toilet or anything. All it does when you press down on it is the usual motion, but you could lean a piece of paper on it without it going down (an exaggeration, but good imagery I think). I have no money, so how do I fix it? haha I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, if it makes any difference.

Answer 1

Sounds like due to the power outage, your sewage pump has no power also to pump the water from your toilet. Other possibility is that your water supplier do not have the power either to provide you with enough water pressure. Does your faucet work fine? Does your neighbor's toilet is OK? If it is, you may have a broken link from your toilet flusher to the flapper at the bottom of your toilet tank. Make sure you have proper level of water in your tank. If not, fill it manually and pull on the rubber flapper at the bottom of the tank. If your drain is clear, it should flush but if the water does not flush, your drain is backed up and call your utility company. Also tell your landlord, he is responsible for all working utilities in his apartment.

Answer 2

open the tank part and see if the arm is attached to the handle or to the floaty thing....sorry don't know how to describe it properly..sorry guess i wasn't really much help lol!

Answer 3

It doesn't have anything to do with the power going out last night.

Take the top off of the tank on the back of the toilet.  Look inside to see if there is a loose chain attached to the rubber stopper.  If you lift up on the chain, the water will run out of the toilet and it will flush.

That chain is usually attached to a bar that is attached to the flush handle.  You just need to re-attach the chain to the handle to get the toilet to flush again.

One other thing, you might have to adjust the legnth of the chain when you attach it to the handle.  Sometimes, if it's too short or too long, the toilet tank won't fill up with water or won't flush.  Don't worry about that until after you've reconnected the chain and flushed the toilet.  Good luck!

Oh, and if you live in an apartment, call the landlord or the maintenance man and have them fix it.  It's their responsibility if you're renting the place!

Answer 4

Take the tank lid off & make sure the flapper in the bottom of the tank is still attached to the handle.  BTW, niether living on the second floor not the power outage has anything to do with how your toilet is working.

Here is a place on the Lowes site that may help you see what is wrong & how to fix it:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=ho...