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Discuss Puzzling leak from toilet! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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Hello, just wondered if anyone has any ideas....got a persistent drip of water coming down a light fitting on the ceiling below the upstairs toilet which was put in a couple of weeks ago. There is no water on the bathroom floor, no obvious leak from waste pipe connection. We removed the toilet last night and the leak stopped completely so assumed it was coming from the cistern down the screws and we hadn't noticed it dripping. Put the toilet back in and the dripping has restarted....the toilet has not been flushed and the water level in cistern has not gone down. The valve on the water-in pipe is off. The pressure on the boiler is stable so doesn't seem to be a separate leak in the heating system. (and as I said, stopped when we removed toilet) It is a bit perplexing! Just thought I'd ask on here if anyone has any ideas before we start pulling up the floor/cutting ceiling!! Thanks!
 
Thanks, we took the toilet outside and filled it with water and no sign of a crack....the water is now dripping from a crack along the ceiling so seems to be getting worse....
 
If the water level in the pan/cistern really is not going down with the toilet inlet isolated, it can really only be from a joint in the cold pipe that feeds the toilet. The fact that it stops the leak with the toilet out and restarts when installed is a bit puzzling but there may be some strain on the pipework when the toilet is in place causing a water escape and it stops leaking when strain is removed after disconnecting the toilet.

Is it soldered copper pipework or do you have plastic pushfit joints hidden anywhere in the wall or under the floor? I'd not expect a soldered joint to behave this way under stress but a pushfit fitting might do that.

By turning the mains off or isolating the cold feed from the tank in the loft if you have one may prove whether the cold feed to the toilet is leaking before the valve or not.
 
Leaks often work their way laterally from the source to the drip. Further, wider investigation required.
 
When the isolation valve is on check the slotted screw impression these let by or jet water everywhere when they show signs of age

If there's a flexi / silver braided hose check for tears along it, you can do this by putting a 15mm male cap and turning the isolation valve on to test properly,

If you don't have a flexi you will have a fibre washer, check for splits,

Check the fill valve on the Cistern, if this has a plastic thread it's probably cross threaded if it's brass it should be okay
 
Thank you. The water level's definitely not going down so must be the water supply but couldn't think why it stopped when toilet was removed! It is copper pipe going in with a valve that doesn't seem to be leaking so must be something under the floor....I don't have a tank, so can turn water off and see what happens...
 
Yes, turn the supply off, monitor for a bit and please come back to tell us what you find. You'll be able to narrow it down.
 
Hello again, we have cut some flooring up and found the leak! It's on a compression fitting just under floorboards....not sure why it stopped when we removed toilet yesterday....now to try and fix it..

As mentioned above, I expect that when the toilet was connected it put some strain on the pipework and opened a leak on a "just about sealed" compression fitting. With the toilet disconnected the pipework was able to relax a bit, just enough to stop the leak. It's amazing the weird stuff fittings and water can do at times.

I've seen fittings that were fluxed but missed at the point of soldering not leak for years, held together by the dried on flux. I've touch the pipe and it's fallen apart and started leaking.

I hope you've managed to sort your leak out and all is back to normal by now or at least on its way.
 
I've seen fittings that were fluxed but missed at the point of soldering not leak for years, held together by the dried on flux. I've touch the pipe and it's fallen apart and started leaking.

I’ve had that on a gas fitting once :eek::eek::eek:, it wasn’t mine before anyone says :p
 
I've seen fittings that were fluxed but missed at the point of soldering not leak for years, held together by the dried on flux. I've touch the pipe and it's fallen apart and started leaking.

Why does that happen, I'v found three in the last two years in house's I'v bought for renovation, quite perplexing, Oh yes this is in France, so think its not just British plumbers? or is it? ;)
 
Why does that happen, I'v found three in the last two years in house's I'v bought for renovation, quite perplexing, Oh yes this is in France, so think its not just British plumbers? or is it? ;)

Typical reason is a lot of plumbers must be fluxing and pushing on the pipes more than one solder fitting before heating and soldering them all.
Therefore very easy to forget about an unsoldered connector a few few away from a soldered tee, etc.
I generally solder each fitting before pushing another together
 
I never flux a joint until I am ready to solder, so don't think I have ever missed one, famous last words come to mind.
 
I did it on a gas pipe once. Luckily it was outside but as best said. I pieced the whole run together. Soldered a few fittings, got talking, soldered a few more. Tightness test held up that evening but following day. Sunshine direct on pipe, expansion happened and joint started leaking. Only done it once and that once was enough to learn to flux and solder as I go.
 

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