We install, service, and repair all types of toilets and urinals. A toilet that requires servicing can cause an increase in your water bill or cause damage to your bathroom. We can quickly diagnose and correct the problem and also ensure the proper functionality of all other mechanisms of the toilet.
Common Causes of Sewer & Drain Blockages
- Water running constantly into the tank
- Toilet flushes by itself due to leak
- Water seeping from base of the toilet
- Toilet rocks and moves
- Flush handle loose or broken
Running toilets, flappers, and fill valves
A toilet that runs, or that refills by itself every so often, is losing water from the tank into the bowl. Nine times out of ten the cause is the flapper, the rubber disc at the bottom of the tank that lifts when you flush. Our chlorinated water and the heat in a Florida bathroom harden it, and once it stops sealing, water seeps past it all day. The fill valve notices the tank level dropping and tops it up, which is the sound you hear.
The fill valve itself is the other common failure. When it does not shut off, water rises past the overflow tube and runs down it constantly. Both parts are small and the repair is quick, but a toilet that has needed both, plus a flush handle and a tank-to-bowl gasket, is telling you something about its age. Either way, the water bill is the tell: a silent flapper leak can move more water in a month than a family uses.
Wax rings, rocking toilets, and water at the base
Water on the floor around a toilet almost never comes from the bowl. It comes from the wax ring under the base, the seal between the toilet and the drain flange in the floor. When the ring fails, every flush pushes a little water out at the base, and over months that soaks the subfloor, lifts tile, and leaves a smell that does not go away. On a slab home there is no subfloor to rot, but the water still finds the grout lines and the wall.
A toilet that rocks is the usual reason the ring fails. The flange bolts have loosened, the flange itself has cracked, or the floor tile was set higher than the flange during a remodel and the ring cannot span the gap. Resetting the toilet means pulling it, replacing the ring, repairing or replacing the flange if needed, and setting it back on new bolts so it does not move. Shimming a rocking toilet and caulking around the base hides the problem for a while; it does not fix it.
Clogs, augers, and what not to flush
A plunger handles most clogs. When it does not, the next tool is a closet auger, a short cable with a guard that protects the porcelain and reaches the trap inside the toilet. Anything past that, or a clog that comes back within days, usually means the problem is not the toilet at all but the drain line below it. If more than one fixture backs up at once, or the toilet gurgles when the shower runs, stop plunging and call.
Wipes labeled flushable are the most common thing we pull out of toilets and the lines under them. They do not break down the way paper does, and in a house with an older drain or a septic system in Lehigh Acres they build up into a mat. Paper only is the rule that keeps the auger in the truck.
Reasons to Replace your Toilet
- More cost effective to replace vs repair
- Need for comfort height toilet
- Low water consumption toilets save money
- Change bowl shape to round or oval
- Cosmetic reasons
Choosing a replacement: height, flush rating, and fit
A comfort height toilet, sometimes sold as chair height, sits a couple of inches taller than a standard bowl and is easier to get on and off for anyone with knees or a back that complains. It is the single most requested change we make in bathrooms here, and it is often the reason a seasonal resident finally replaces a toilet that still works.
Flush performance matters more than the gallons-per-flush number on the box. Look for a MaP score, an independent rating of how much waste a toilet clears in one flush; anything in the higher range clears reliably on the low-flow volume. An elongated bowl is more comfortable and is the shape most new toilets come in; a round bowl saves a couple of inches in a small powder room. Measure the rough-in, the distance from the wall to the flange bolts, before you buy. Most homes are 12 inches, but older homes and some condos are 10, and the wrong toilet will not fit.
One thing to know about replacing a toilet in an older home: the supply stop, the small shutoff valve at the wall, is often original and brittle. Turning a valve that has not moved in twenty years can make it drip or snap. We check it before we start and replace it with a quarter-turn valve if it is suspect, so the new toilet has a shutoff that works the next time you need one.
Call Van Franey Plumbing service at (239) 851-0207 to repair or replace your toilet
Learn more before you call
- Why is my water bill so high? Check your toilets first
- Toilet keeps running? How to adjust or replace the fill valve
- How to plunge a toilet the right way (and what not to do)
- Toilet overflowing and will not stop
- Toilet buying guide: flush power, height, and rough-in
Common questions about toilet repair
Why does my toilet run every few minutes?
The flapper is not sealing, so tank water seeps into the bowl and the fill valve tops it up. A few drops of food coloring in the tank will show color in the bowl within ten minutes if that is the cause. A new flapper usually fixes it; a worn flush valve seat sometimes needs more.
Should I repair or replace my toilet?
Repair a toilet that needs one part. Replace one that has needed several, that rocks on a bad flange, that is cracked, or that you would rather have at comfort height anyway. We will tell you which we would do in your house.
What is the difference between a round and an elongated toilet?
An elongated bowl extends about two inches farther from the wall and is more comfortable to sit on. A round bowl fits a small bathroom where the door or vanity is close. Both come in comfort height.
Is water around the base of the toilet an emergency?
It is not an emergency the way a burst pipe is, but do not keep using the toilet. Every flush pushes more water under the floor. Shut the supply valve, use another bathroom, and have the wax ring and flange looked at.