Plumber recommendations for leaky toilet?

[Hero_X]

Hey everyone

I just did the leak test on my toilet with some food coloring and bam it's definitely leaking.

I went to home Depot and they recommended switching out the flapper. Did it and it still leaks.

I'm no plumbing expert and I don't want to screw anything up so am looking to go the plumber route.

Anyone know a decent plumber or company that's reasonable in price?

Plz share, thank you!

[jwslam]

It may be cheaper to just change out the toilet, especially if you have one that does 13L. Going to <6L toilet, you can pick one up for ~$110, plus you get a $50 rebate from the city.

[Waldi]

Well, call plumber and it will cost you at least $150 just to show up, I would try to buy entire flushing mechanism and use youtube videos to figure how to do so, on the other hand you don't care about money .., there are some plumbing companies that may fit this bill. Good luck

[carson blocks]

I don't know a plumber who does tiny jobs like that, but honestly even if you suck at home repair stuff (like me), you can do it yourself. It will cost you ~$10 to DIY, take you just a few minutes, and you may not even need tools. Take the lid off, watch the mechanism work a couple times and you'll grasp how it works immediately. There are instructions and youtube vids if you get stuck. This is barely above changing a light bulb on the DIY scale.

[Mitsu3000gt]

You can buy good toilets for $200 that even come with a seat and all installation hardware. They are also super easy to install - I wouldn't bother with a plumber.

Also don't use chlorine tablets or anything like that in the tank - I've made that mistake before and it destroys the seals and other components.

[lilmira]

Probably just hard water deposits around the seal. Clean it up, it will be good for a while.

Pretty easy job to do even to change the whole mechanism but if you feel like supporting the local economy, that's good too.

[The_Penguin]

Originally posted by lilmira
Probably just hard water deposits around the seal. Clean it up, it will be good for a while.

Pretty easy job to do even to change the whole mechanism but if you feel like supporting the local economy, that's good too.

Yup, this will do it. A bit of CLR and some elbow grease.

[ercchry]

Take a shot of the inside of the tank and post it, could be a good idea to swap out the rest of the bits back there depending on age, could be a problem with your chain length, new dual flush toilet would be the ultimate in water savings depending on what you have now... And it really is super easy to swap out. If you simply can't handle it, and can't find a pro for a reasonable price I have lots of experience and a hell of a lot of free time to help out

[Mitsu3000gt]

One more thing, if you do use chemicals or chlorine in the tank, it slowly erodes the rubber seal and leaves little nubs on it that prevent it from being water tight. You can rub these off with your hands, and then the seal will be good again. This happened to me twice until I realized what the problem was, and my toilets were always slowly leaking into the bowl, and then the tank would refill. You can't even see them, you can only feel them, so it's easy to miss.

[zieg]

Huh, I just had to do this yesterday. Red scotch brite pad cleaned it right up.. Now you say you replaced the flapper, did you clean the surface it mates to? That's where the bulk of the deposits were on mine.

[revelations]

Stick your hand on the flapper while its underwater and see if you can seal it with some force.

If yes, the you need to clean the sealing surfaces or make adjustments to the flap.

If not then the problem is the seal itself (not the flapper) or something more sinister or leaking out the over flow.

[C_Dave45]

Originally posted by revelations

If not then the problem is the seal itself (not the flapper) or something more sinister or leaking out the over flow.
One of my toilets wouldn't stop filling until it was juuuuuust over the top of the overflow valve. So it would literally DRIP over that, and never completely shut off the water. The only way you could tell was in the middle of the night sitting on the crapper when it was deathly quiet. You'd just hear a faint "drip.......drip".

I reached in, bend the metal rod a little more and the float would shut off about 1/2 an inch lower on the overflow.

Fixed!.

[Hero_X]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your responses.

I managed to fix the leak, just replaced the fill valve as it was not adjusting properly. Water was continuously overflowing in. I had the old bulb float, so replaced it and now everything is good.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

[speedog]

Hell, I'm trying to understand why people would put chlorine tablets in their toilet's tank - shit, my parents didn't even do this when we were on well water when I was a young lad. Then again, it was uphill both ways to school in those days.

[Nufy]

Originally posted by speedog
Hell, I'm trying to understand why people would put chlorine tablets in their toilet's tank - shit, my parents didn't even do this when we were on well water when I was a young lad. Then again, it was uphill both ways to school in those days.

Cleans the tank on every flush.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by Nufy


Cleans the tank on every flush.

It also damages the porcelain coating on your toilet making it more porous and susceptible to staining.

Don't use them and just clean your toilet properly with a brush and liquid cleaner.

[killramos]

Originally posted by revelations

If not then the problem is the seal itself (not the flapper) or something more sinister or leaking out the over flow. I just figured out a tricky little issue with one of my toilets. Looks like mechanism wasn't installed properly or something.

Anyhow forgive me if I explain something painfully obvious to some. I have been trying to figure this one out forever.

Anyhow there is a little plastic tube that runs from my filler mechanism into the overflow that flushes out the overflow while the toilet is filling up. Well the tube wasn't clipped onto its little receptive that holds it to a certain height, and was dipping below the water level in the tank. So water was continuously siphoning through this little tub through the mechanism into the overflow. Causing a constant leak and the toilet to hiss every 20 minutes or so when enough water had siphoned out to cause the floater to move.

So simple.

The hint was that the leaking would stop if I prevented the toilet reservoir from filling up over half way. And it would stop when I pulled that tube out and cut out the siphon.

Anyhow it was a tricky little problem that the Internet didn't make obvious for me so I was quite proud of myself for figuring out. :D

150 dollar plumber consult avoided. (It had gotten to the point that that was the next step)