Any Plumbers around ?

[frumpety]

Only asking in case it is something I can easily resolve myself. I think I have a leak somewhere, I can hear water running constantly, my water bill has gone up by 50 %, but there is no evidence of a leak, so the walls/floors/ceilings are undamaged.
The noise is coming from the bathroom, near where the toilet is , can't hear anything in the airing cupboard where the hot water tank is and nothing in the loft where the cold water tank is, you can hear in it the downstairs toilet which is directly below the bathroom.
There has been no change in the water pressure and the boiler is working fine and was serviced within the last year , its less than 5 years old.
Any ideas ?

Is water still flowing into the toilet after the flush has finished?

Switch the water off that’s supplying the toilet. Then gave another listen. Sound like the loo is continuously flushing

Perhaps PigletJohn will see your thread OP.

Check the cistern of the toilet where you hear the noise. It's probably stuck on the fill and is emptying down its overflow. Probably something you can sort out yourself with a replacement thingamabob from a DIY shop, but you'll need to check what exactly inside the cistern.

Alternatively @PigletJohn, who is the Mumsnet Maven for all things DIY

The toilet is flushing normally. Not sure how to isolate the supply to the toilet ?

It could be anywhere from the public main in the street across your garden and/or drive and into the house.
First, go and turn off your internal stop tap. Go out to the meter. If the meter is still moving then the leak is between the meter and the internal stop tap if it has stopped turning then it's indoors.
If it's indoors check around the back of your dishwasher, washing machine and cistern overflows as well as tap washers. If you have a garden tap then check if that's leaking.
If the leak is on the supply pipe leading up to the house you may notice puddles when the ground should be dry, boggy bits of lawn or particularly verdant plants.

@TroysMammy no it flushes like normal and the water stops flowing into it as you would expect once the flush has completed.

Where would the meter be @MrsMoastyToasty ? I don't think I have ever seen one ?

The noise is definately behind the toilet upstairs , its like water running constantly through pipes.

Right it is definately pipework feeding the toilet, just removed the cistern lid and there doesn't seem to be as much water in it as you would expect , seems lower by a couple of inches, there is a little blue tap thing above the end of the ballcock and water is coming out of that continously , not gushing just running slowly ?

We had this with our old toilet, which had a lever-operated flush and a ballcock valve controlling the fill. When the ballcock failed, the toilet flushed as normal, but the cistern did not stop refilling. It was a very quiet fill, so we could barely hear the water constantly flowing and didn't really twig that there was a problem. I noticed it when I went around the back of the house while gardening, and saw water running out of the overflow pipe and a luxurious growth of moss on the damp wall beneath it.

Newer toilets have a different arrangement controlling the fill, and the overflow runs into the toilet bowl, not outdoors, so I'm not sure how you would notice a failed fill. But it seems quite likely from what you describe.

@frumpety

Right it is definately pipework feeding the toilet, just removed the cistern lid and there doesn't seem to be as much water in it as you would expect , seems lower by a couple of inches, there is a little blue tap thing above the end of the ballcock and water is coming out of that continously , not gushing just running slowly ?

Jiggle the ballcock. Can you make it stop?

Actually scrub that , the cistern has filled to a normal level now and water is going down the overflow pipe in the cistern and there is still water running out of the little tap.

Can you check your water meter, is the dial constantly going round? That would indicate a leak somewhere.

Have had a look outside and there are two white overflow pipes below the guttering , nothing coming out of either of those ?

@SnackBitch2020 not sure where the meter is located, would it be underground in the road somewhere ?

Mine is in my utility cupboard and looks like this:

My water meter is under a thick plastic cover on the pavement outside my house. It should have the word water on it.

Have logged it with the HA, someone will be in touch with us in the next few weeks apparently.

Your water meter will be near the property boundary. Either in the pavement, road, garden or driveway.

There are a load of metal blocks on the road that say water on them, they are all grouped together so not sure how to work out which one would be ours , would the meter be under one of those do you think ?

I wonder how much a plumber would charge to fix it if it just needs a new cistern innards ?

In your cistern, is there lots of scale on the ballcock/pillar with the float on (depends on toilet type what you will have but there will be something that should float up and stop the water coming in once it’s at the right level)? I live in a high scale area and have to regularly clean mine off or it stops popping up and I get the same problem.

@frumpety

Actually scrub that , the cistern has filled to a normal level now and water is going down the overflow pipe in the cistern and there is still water running out of the little tap.

There's the smoking gun.

Your ballcock valve has gone, as they do. The rising water is supposed to close the tap. Lift the float manually and see if that closes the valve. If it does, there might be some adjustment you can make to make the float push harder at the tap. Learn from my fail: take a photo of the position of any sliders/adjusting nuts before you play with them so you can set them back to the same as the started, just in case.

There should be an 'isolation valve' in the water pipe to the loo nearby, a brass chunk with a flathead screwdriver slot that you rotate 90 degrees to close. That's helpful if you can find it.

New innards only cost about £20-40, fitting would normally be a £60-80 callout or so given no other issues. If you're renting the landlord should sort it, or pay you back if you do. It's building maintenance.

There is a little valve behind the toilet. If you knock the water off in between flushed that will save water, also call your water company and ask for a leakage allowance against your water bill.

Re the water meter. It's likely to be one of them. Ask your neighbours if they know whose is whose. Alternatively ring your water company and they should have details of the location (even if the info they have says 3rd from right. helpful? Not!).

Unfortunately the people who lived here previously have boxed in most of the pipework behind the toilet !