How long does plumbing take?

-How long does it take from when you flush the toilet, to when it leaves your plumbing system in your house?In the plumbing trades they have a phrase for exactly what you're talking about: "drain line carry," which really speaks to how far a charge of waste material moves through a typical main drain line with each flush.



Before the big push to switch all toilets from the old 3.5 to 5.0 gallon-per-flush models, you could easily expect 40 feet or more from a typical flush. When the first 1.6gpf models came out, some were barely able to get into the 20 foot range, and clogs were common.



Now, ten years in and we're seeing much better design. You can safely expect 40 feet of drain line carry from just about any toilet out there; the better ones can do much better, achieving performance similar to that of an old water wasting toilet.



How does this answer your question? Well, in most homes 40 feet of drain line carry gets the contents of the toilet completely out from under the footprint of your house. Which is to say, it takes a matter of seconds for your flush to leave the house. If it's a longer run to the main sewer line than that, the next flush moves it along.Woodtick may be right, but I think that for 98% of toilets, the waste is flushed clear of the house on the first flush. How fast is that? When my toilets are flushed, and I am in the basement where I can hear the water running out, leaving the house, the water sounds stop about eight seconds after the flush.
Depends on where the toilet is located in relation to your sewer lateral. It could take several flushes to remove the waste from your house. It will be working its way out throughout the "process".