Leak in toilet tank - easy to fix or need plumber?

ionapaul

At some point today, water started to leak from an upstairs toilet, coming down behind the tank and bowl, dripping into the floor and wall and eventually down the walls in a downstairs room.

I isolated the water supply to the toilet and drained the tank. I just can't see behind the toilet to see exactly where the water is coming from, but from looking at where the drips were hitting the floor and feeling my way around to the drips, I believe the most likely location is via the white valve/connection/plastic screw? highlighted in the photo. It has a dark orange plastic-like sealant or something around it (same as the sister component on the other side of the flush valve), however this sealant ring is 100% unattached to the component, unlike the sealant ring on the other side.

Am I likely to be right about the source of the leak, or is the flush valve more likely? If I am right, can I fix this myself (using some kind of sealant) rather than calling a plumber? What would I use?

NSAman

The components should be easy enough to get.

I know I am in the states but just replaced all the components in a toilet recently due to continuing flush.

one thing you could do, get some food colouring and see if it disappears close to where you think the leak is.

if you are handy at all, I don’t think a plumber needs to be called.

Those are bolts which hold the cystern onto the pan, they will be held on with butterfly nuts which should be hand tightened. The supplied washer should compress to hold the water in but these thing will perish with continual stresses of use.

A good Plummer would have applied sealer between the washer and the cystern which would hold it all together and make it very unlikely to fail.

What I would do is release the two butterfly nuts, retrieve the bolts, replace the washers and apply a good bead of TEC7 sealer/glue to the washer top and bottom. Reassemble and tighten down the butterflies as far as they will go (not overtighten as they can crack the ceramics). Leave to dry for 24 hrs and refill.

Job done. Built a toilet like this a few days ago, TEC7 on all potential leak points. It rarely tells you to do this in the assembly instructions but an experienced Plummer will always do it as it save on come backs which cost him money.

The issue you may encounter is the butterflies might be rusted on, if they are then you need to cut them off and get new ones.

rightjob!

Don’t put Tec7 on the donut ring or any part of it.It will be a nightmare to take apart in future