Easy Home Repairs Stopping a Running Toilet

If you have a running toilet which constantly spills a small stream of water into the bowl (without ever overflowing), it can be annoying and it can cost you money in wasted water. In most cases, you can fix your running toilet quite easily, and most of the parts you may need to replace are going to be readily available in most home improvement stores. Sometimes, you won’t even need to replace any parts on your running toilet.

The first thing you will want to do when you hear your toilet running is to remove the lid on the tank and inspect the flush mechanism inside. The round rubber flap on the chain should rest securely atop the hole in the bottom of the tank. When you flush the toilet, the flap opens and the water in the tank runs down into the bowl of the toilet. If there is a problem with the seal, you will have a running toilet which may then overflow if there is a blockage in the pipes.

First, jiggle the handle to see if the flap will then seal. This is a simple fix to the running toilet, but if you find that the next time that you flush the toilet, it continues to run, you may have to replace the flap. If the flap isn’t the problem with your running toilet, it could be another part of the flushing mechanism. Check each of the parts, including the valve and the tubing to see if there are any leaks. If there are, these are the likely cause of the running toilet. It is easy and very cheap to replace them, and you will not need to call the plumber to fix your running toilet.

To empty the water in the toilet before you replace the parts, turn off the water first. There should be a small silver flexible pipe alongside or behind the toilet with a tap on top. Turn off the tap, then flush the toilet. It will flush all remaining water out of the tank into the bowl, but if you have turned off the tap correctly, the tank will not refill. Simply flush a second time to empty the bowl, and you will now have a dry toilet to work on. Complete your repair, then turn the water back on and flush to refill.