Does your toilet leak every time you
flush? Does it leak even if you don't flush? Don't despair, and
hold off on that call to the plumber. Take a few moments, an hour
at most, and try to fix your toilet yourself. It's not that difficult,
and once you know the basics of troubleshooting any toilet
troubles, you'll likely save yourself hundreds of dollars on repair
service calls.Many people tend to ignore leaking
toilets for as long as possible, and just throw a towel down on
the floor to soak up miniscule amounts of water, or even steady
drips, but doing so is never a good idea. Water damages floors,
whether they're made of wood, or covered with linoleum of ceramic
floor tiles. If your troublesome toilet is upstairs, it can also
wreak havoc on the ceiling below it, so take care of leaks promptly.
Before you call the plumber, try these
steps to fix a leaky toilet yourself:
1)With a wrench, tighten all connections,
including the bolts on the base of the toilet and most especially
the nuts at both ends of the water hose line, from the wall to the
underside of the toilet base.
2)If your toilet sounds like it's
continuously running, you may have a leak at the fill valve connection.
To check this, turn off the water supply and then drain the toilet
tank. Disconnect the water supply hose at the coupling nut assembly
on the underside of the toilet tank.
3)If the washer and gasket look to
be in good condition, clean, and then re-connect. If the washer
looks worn, replace with a new one. Then re-connect.
4)Tighten, but be careful not to over
tighten, as this may strip threads or crack the plastic nut
5)Pour a small amount of water into
the toilet tank and watch for leaking. If it stays dry, good
job! If it is still leaking, tighten the nut some more and recheck
In most cases, the water supply line
is the culprit when it comes to leaky toilets, most especially the
point where the line connects to the underside of the toilet tank.
By checking that first, you may eliminate in moments what you thought
might be an expensive and troublesome fix.
If you find leaking around the base
of the toilet, you may be looking at a faulty 'O' ring, or wax seal
on your toilet. While that fix is a little more time intensive,
it is not a difficult fix, and can be completed in about an hour.
