Plumbing help

[fraggle84]

In our upstairs bathroom after you flush the toilet and it refills, it continues to slowly trickle water into the toilet bowl but only stops if you turn on the bathroom sink tap.

Any ideas what causes this and how to fix it?

take the lid off and photograph the parts inside, please

Does that help?

OK, it will be the filling valve on the left. You don't have limescale but the cistern is a bit grimy so it might be grit or rust particle in the moving parts, or it might just be wear and age.

Simplest thing is to fit a new replacement, they are not expensive. The Fluidmaster with brass shank is very good and widely available.

www.screwfix.com/p/fluidmaster-bottom-entry-brass-shank-fill-valve/47792

If you are paying a plumber to do it I'd swap the flush valve as well for a new Fluidmaster, just on the grounds that it is equally old and this may save the cost of a separate repair later.

It is possible to take the valves out and clean or rewasher them, but I don't know your make, and it will take more labour than swapping for new.

You can do it yourself if you are fond of basic plumbing and enjoy crawling under cisterns.

The new part will probably last 20 years or so.

Do you have an idea how much a plumber would charge?

I’m not able to do it myself, I suffer from ms and don’t have much strength and grip on my hands so I’d do more harm then good!

Thanks

depends where you are.

£50 minimum charge seems common.

Try to find one by personal recommendation, not from a website.

Never ring an 0800 number because it will be a high-charging agency, not a plumber.

Explain that it is not an emergency call-out but a small repair.

Some semi-retired plumbers do this sort of job locally. Offer to buy the part(s) as it will save him the extra time of cycling to the merchant.

Do you have British Gas homecare ? This also covers plumbing if you’ve taken out the whole package.