Get matched with top toilet pros in Marengo, IL

Toilets typically connect to your main vent stack, a vertical pipe that runs through all finished levels of your home and exits through the roof. It’s located behind the walls, but if you have an unfinished basement or a utility closet, you may find a portion of it running the vertical length of the space. Some basement toilets use an air admittance valve instead, which is a small vent located in the wall directly behind the toilet that extends upward a few feet from the drain.

Yes, frozen pipes can cause a toilet to stop working correctly. If the pipes are frozen, water cannot flow, which can lead to two main problems. First, the supply line to the toilet tank may be frozen, which prevents the tank from refilling with water after you flush. Second, the drain pipe itself can freeze, blocking water from flushing away. As a temporary solution for a non-refilling tank, you can manually add water, but this is not a long-term fix. To clear a frozen drain pipe, you can try pouring warm water into the toilet bowl or tank and then flushing, as the warm water may help thaw the ice blockage. Ultimately, the best course of action is to unfreeze the affected pipes to restore your toilet to full functionality.

The Thanksgiving holiday period is one of the busiest times of the year for plumbers. Both Thanksgiving Day and the day after, often called Black Friday or "Brown Friday" by plumbing professionals, see a significant increase in service requests. This is because a house full of guests, large holiday meals, and unfamiliarity with the home's plumbing can lead to clogged drains, garbage disposal issues, and sewer line backups. Outside of the holidays, the busiest weekdays for plumbers are typically Monday and Tuesday, as many people discover plumbing problems over the weekend but wait to call for service. Despite the holiday, you can rest assured that many plumbers work on Thanksgiving and Black Friday to handle the surge in emergency calls.

Emergency plumbers charge a significantly higher rate than for standard service, typically 1.5 to 3 times the normal hourly cost. You can expect to pay between $100 and $500 per hour, with an average of around $200 per hour. In addition to the higher hourly rate, many plumbers charge a flat emergency service or trip fee, which can be between $150 and $300. The final cost depends on the timing of the call; prices are highest for major holidays, followed by weekends and after-hours service on weekdays. For a complex job on a major holiday, a master plumber's rate could reach as high as $600 per hour.