DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I wonder if anyone can give me some advice. I live in flat and my pipe in the back garden is leaking. I'm not sure what is causing the leak, the toilet or the water tank. This is what happens:

1. The pipe in the back garden is leaking (a constant stream of water is flowing out).
2. I flush the toilet and after a few minutes, the leakage slows down and it eventually reduces to one drop per second, then one drop of water per 5 seconds.
3. Then after an hour, it starts leaking again with a constant flow of water.
4. If I turn off the water supply, the leak isn't too bad, its about one drop per 5 seconds. If I don't turn off the water supply, I have to flush the toilet once an hour to prevent it flooding the back garden. My neighbours on the ground floor flat aren't happy. I should call a plumber but they're expensive, so I thought I'll try my luck on here first.

Does it sound like its something wrong with my water tank/boiler or my toilet. The toilet cistern fills up with water, it doesn't go above the overflow pipe, so I don't think its the toilet overflow?

sneezie,
Check the ball valve in the cold water tank(s) you may have two.
end

Well the toilet overflow will be at toilet level, the tank overflow will be at tank level (loft ?) so which one is the water coming from ?

Is the toilet tank or mains fed ? turn off mains cold water - flush toilet, does toilet cistern still fill ? if yes then it's tank fed.

If it's mains fed and flushing the toilet stops the leak outside - then it's the toilet


htg

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate the help.

htg engineer wrote:
Is the toilet tank or mains fed ? turn off mains cold water - flush toilet, does toilet cistern still fill ? if yes then it's tank fed.

htg

I live in a block of flats, I'm on the top floor. I have a cupboard with a massive yellow cylinder and a black water tank. I turned off the mains cold water, flushed the toilet and the cistern still filled up, so I guess ,y water is fed through the tank.

stoneyboy wrote:sneezie,
Check the ball valve in the cold water tank(s) you may have two.
end

I had a look at my water tank, I can't see any buttons or valves that I can adjust.

In the meantime, I have to turn off the mains cold water underneath the sink to prevent the leak.

sneezie,
If you have turned off the mains cold water then no water should be entering your flat and the tank should not fill - you are probably turning off the wrong valve.
I think the tap under the sink will be the mains stopcock for your whole flat. The valve for the cold water tank is inside the tank so all you will see is a pipe going into the tank towards the top. This is the valve you need to check.
end

sneezie

From what's been said so far, it looks like your problem is with the ball valve in the black water tank above the yellow cylinder.

Oops, just noticed that this message already has 4 replies so someone may have beaten me to it.

Hello!
I think you got so many solution of this problem, but if you are not able to do it yourseft than you can contact to a reasonable plumber.