The toilet in your home serves as a container for collecting human waste and disposing of it in a sanitary manner, says First Providence Management. Most times this is exactly what it does. But sometimes life happens and a valuable item like jewelry accidentally falls into the toilet.
What should you do if you accidentally drop your wedding ring or other precious items into a toilet? A lot depends on what you do right after the item falls into the toilet. Even if it is a bit unpleasant, it is fairly easy to retrieve the item if you have not flushed the toilet.
Here are the steps to follow if you accidentally drop small valuables into your toilet.
Don’t flush the toilet
If you have not flushed the toilet, even if you don’t see it, your jewelry will be hiding somewhere inside the toilet. If there is human waste inside the toilet, you may be tempted to flush it to make it easier to spot the missing item. Resist that temptation!
Once you don’t flush the toilet, retrieving your jewelry is easy. Get a pair of rubber gloves and some wire. Stick the wire into the bowl to see if you can hook the item. But be careful to avoid accidentally pushing the jewelry into the drainage system.
It will be easier to find your jewelry if you scoop the water out of the toilet bowl. You will need a small bowl and an empty plastic container (5-gallon plastic bucket or smaller) for this. You may also need to go into the toilet with your gloved hands.
If human waste is inside the toilet, it will be harder to find the item. Your best option is to call a professional plumber. Do not forget to inform everyone in your household and turn off the toilet water supply to keep it from being accidentally flushed.
Don’t flush again
But what if you flushed the toilet? Perhaps you caught sight of the dropped item in mid-swirl, just as you pushed the flush button. If you did flush the toilet, there is still a pretty good chance that your precious piece of jewelry is not completely lost.
It could be inside the nooks and crannies of the toilet’s drainpipes. The ring might be inside a curved pipe, waste opening or around the wax ring. But if you flush the toilet again, the item will be washed into the sewer system and lost forever.
DO NOT flush your toilet a second time.
Remove the toilet
The next step is to remove the toilet. You can do this if you are fairly confident in your plumbing skills. But if the toilet contains human waste, you shouldn’t try to remove it yourself. You may want to get a professional plumber to do it.
Here are the steps to remove a toilet:
- Turn off your toilet’s water supply to prevent flooding. Spread a tarp or towel on the floor, just in case any water spills.
- Most toilets have a water tank or cistern with a removable lid. Lift the lid and set it aside in a secure place (to avoid breakage).
- Using a small plastic container, scoop out the water inside the toilet bowl.
- Loosen the toilet screws; you will need a wrench for this, and maybe a putty knife to open the bolt covers.
- Lift the toilet to separate it from its base and set it gently on the bathroom floor.
- Flip the toilet on its side and look inside the waste opening with a flashlight. Also, look inside the wax ring connected to the floor.
Call a professional plumber
Should you give up hope if you still have not found your jewelry? There is a chance that your jewelry is still inside your drainage system and has not been washed into the municipal sewer lines. If this is the case, a professional plumber may still be able to find it.
Before you call the plumber, ensure you do not flush the toilet. Also, do not reassemble your toilet; the plumber will want to look closely at the connecting pipes before deciding on the next steps. If you are lucky, this may be all that the plumber has to do.
If the jewelry is still not found, your plumber will perform a sewer camera inspection. This uses a specialized camera sent into the sewer line and guided through the pipes in the system. The camera lets the plumber see the inside of the pipes in detail.
With a sewer camera inspection, an experienced plumber can inspect the corners of your drainage system to find the jewelry. As long as the item is still within your sewer systems, it can still be seen. Once it is spotted, the plumber can decide how to retrieve it.