toilet leak from base of pan when flushing All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[GavinW]

hi there,

i have a Villeroy omnia toilet which is attached to a 'wall' / enclosure so that it is floating off the ground. It is a push button flush, and the cistern is attached to the inside of the closure.

I am having a problem with water leaking onto the floor from underneath the toilet where it attaches to the wall. This only occurs for about 10 secs after flushing, and is not waste, but clean water that the cistern refills the toilet with.

I have had 2 plumbers out on this now, and they have replaced the seal on the pipe from the cistern to the toilet and also replaced the pan connector with a flexi pan connector. Yet it is still leaking.

In addition to this, when the toliet flushes, there is quite a loud noise coming from the pipes in the wall, like a banging noise for a short while.

any help is greatly appreciated!

Gav

[stoneyboy]

GavinW,
You need to get the plumbers back - they have not solved the problem. I assume they did not do the work for free!
end

[rosebery]

SB is correct - get the blighters back in. But which one? The last one I guess.

I'm feeling that your banging is water hammer. The valves on these modern toilets close quite quickly compared with a old fashoned ballvalve and particularly if you have mains supply for the feed the fast closing of the valve sets up a pressure wave through the water which manifests itself as hammer. It might just be annoying for now but later on when its done some physical damage and a joint gives out then you have water to contend with. The pipes should have been be properly clipped to minimise the effect. You could try throttling back the flow rate by adjusting the service valve but if thats not effective you should consider a water hammer arrestor. This is a sealed length of tube with air in it which absorbs the pressure waves bouncing around. Plumbers used to make them themselves out of a short length of pipe with a soldered stop end on the end but these do leak after a while and the air absorbtion quality is lost. Modern factory produced items are not that expensive (iro £15.00) and should be fitted just upstream of your main stopcock.