We've had two incidents in my condo building with a clogged sewer line below the bathroom.
In both cases, the culprit was a low flow toilet that doesn't use enough water to flush the line all the way to the sewer. The clog was in the elbow of the pipe right below the toilet and it eventually filled up with what I will politely call "solids". Since the connection between the toilet and the elbow (a wax or rubber ring) is not pressure tight, the water (contaminated with raw sewage) eventually leaked out.
In one case, the leaking sewer was directly over a parking garage and the only damage was someone's car got wet. However in the other case, the leak was above the bathroom of the the condo below. The plumber had the very unpleasant task of unbolting and lifting the toilet which released about 1/2 gallon of raw sewage on the floor. The owner had to call in a remediation contractor to tear out his contaminated bathroom floor and also the sheet rock ceiling of the bathroom below. It took about about a week t clean up the mess and the first and second floor of my building wreaked with the smell of sewage.
Here's a summary of the "elephant in the living room" called Low Flow Toilets:
In both cases, the culprit was a low flow toilet that doesn't use enough water to flush the line all the way to the sewer. The clog was in the elbow of the pipe right below the toilet and it eventually filled up with what I will politely call "solids". Since the connection between the toilet and the elbow (a wax or rubber ring) is not pressure tight, the water (contaminated with raw sewage) eventually leaked out.
In one case, the leaking sewer was directly over a parking garage and the only damage was someone's car got wet. However in the other case, the leak was above the bathroom of the the condo below. The plumber had the very unpleasant task of unbolting and lifting the toilet which released about 1/2 gallon of raw sewage on the floor. The owner had to call in a remediation contractor to tear out his contaminated bathroom floor and also the sheet rock ceiling of the bathroom below. It took about about a week t clean up the mess and the first and second floor of my building wreaked with the smell of sewage.
Here's a summary of the "elephant in the living room" called Low Flow Toilets: