The bathroom is supposed to be a place of peace and solitude, but when you have a toilet leaking water, scrolling on your phone is a lot less fun.

Leaking toilets are a problem for many reasons. When they malfunction, they don’t send you-know-what down to you-know-where. They can leave you with a mess. If the water leak goes unnoticed for even an hour, it can cause hundreds of dollars in damage.

Want to protect your wallet (and your sanity)? Here are a few solutions to some common scenarios.

Broken Seal at the Base of the Toilet

If you notice your toilet leaking water around its base, it is likely that you have a bad seal. The wax seal that connects your toilet to your home’s plumbing is a critical piece of equipment, and when it gets damaged, it allows water to leak from the bowl onto the floor. If you notice water pooling around the base of your toilet, you will need to remove the toilet and replace this seal.

Broken Flapper

While this problem does not usually result in your toilet leaking water onto the floor, it can be annoying. If your toilet doesn’t stop running after you flush it, a broken flapper is the most likely cause.

Luckily, it is also one of the easiest problems to fix on your own. All you need to do is remove the top of your toilet tank, remove the faulty part, and replace it with one that you purchased from your local hardware store.

Not sure how to fix your flapper? Our plumbers are standing by.

Bad Water Supply Connection

The water that fills your toilet has to come from somewhere. The supply line feeds new water into your toilet’s tank after you flush it. Before you remove your toilet to replace the wax seal, you could save yourself some trouble by checking the water supply line. Sometimes all it takes to fix a toilet leaking water onto the floor is to tighten the supply connection. Simply find the supply line leading into the back of your toilet and try to turn the connection.

Malfunctioning Fill Valve

If your toilet sounds like it is constantly running, has a weak flush, or doesn’t flush at all, the problem with your toilet could be a broken fill valve. One way to test whether your fill valve is causing your leaky toilet is to add a little food coloring to the tank. If food coloring leaks into the toilet bowl, you will need to replace the fill valve.

Turn off your toilet’s water supply, remove the tank lid, flush the toilet, unscrew the water hose, remove the current fill valve, install the new ones, and voila — problem solved! Because toilets are not all the same size, you may need to adjust your new fill valve’s height.

Is Your Toilet Leaking Water? Can’t Solve the Problem Yourself?

Got a leaking toilet? Get in touch with Custom Plumbing of Arizona today!

Posted on Categories Toilet repair, UncategorizedTags