Is your toilet running? Better go catch it! We can’t have porcelain plumbing fixtures running through the streets all willy-nilly!
Sorry about the very bad joke. Let’s get down to business. The most obvious danger of a toilet that’s constantly running is how quickly it could burn a hole in your pocket. Not literally, of course – but your water bill will skyrocket if your toilet is constantly running. More often than not, continuously running toilets are extremely easy and inexpensive to fix – you might just need to replace the flapper.
A constantly running toilet also presents an increased risk of flooding. This risk can come in a few forms. When you have a septic tank, excess water can go over the tank’s capacity, which can lead to sewer backups and basement flooding. When your toilet becomes clogged, a constantly running toilet can quickly lead to a bathroom flood as water, constantly filling the bowl, has nowhere to go.
Depending on why your toilet is constantly running, you can face a number of other problems, too. A leak toward the base of your toilet can lead to serious water damage in your bathroom as the water leaks through your floor, subflooring, and more. You can test for leaks like this by putting a few drops of food colouring into the tank. If after about 20 minutes it starts to seep into the bowl, you know you’ve got a leak.
At this point, we’ve firmly established that there are very real risks to running toilets, aside from the surrealist portrait we painted with our initial joke. The question is: what can you do about it?
There are a number of running toilet-related problems you may be able to fix yourself. This will, of course, depend on your level of mechanical proficiency – what’s easy for one person can be incredibly difficult for another. Always play it safe with plumbing – if you’re unsure about whether or not you can do something yourself and you’re worried you might damage your toilet, call a plumber. You don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you end up with even higher repair costs. On the flip side, toilet parts are by and large very replaceable, and these replacements tend to be low-cost and low effort.
When it comes to the more major repairs, like leaks at the bottom of the toilet, it’s time to call a Winnipeg plumber. You can get advice on whether or not it’s best to repair or replace the toilet, and some insight as to what exactly caused the leak in the first place – this might help you with preventive maintenance in the future. We can help you tackle leaking toilets – in the end, that could save you hundreds on water bills, and thousands on water damage repairs.
