Throughout the course of your rental life, you may find yourself seated with a variety of toilet troubles. Troubled toilets are ones with issues like clogs, leaks, loose seats, the runs, and the inability to flush. Sometimes, your apartment community’s maintenance team is readily available to fix your issues. Other times, they’re backed up with requests and/or understaffed.
Maybe you just want to solve the issue yourself. Or you’ve just always wondered how to fix a running toilet. Whatever your reasoning, there are numerous toilet problems with simple solutions that don’t require extensive plumbing experience to implement.
Here are some easy-to-fix toilet issues:
Toilet Won't Flush
If nothing happens when you try to flush your toilet, there are several potential culprits. The first could be that your lift chain (the only chain) is too slack or altogether disconnected.
If this is the case, lift the lid covering the toilet tank, and connect and/or tighten the chain. Don’t be afraid to stick your hand into the toilet tank – the water is sanitary.
If nothing appears to be wrong with the chain, check the flapper. This is the part connected to the lower portion of the chain, which covers the flush valve opening. If the flapper is warped or damaged and doesn’t completely cover the flush valve opening, it needs to be replaced since it isn’t allowing the water level in your toilet tank to refill. Thankfully, flappers are affordable and easy to install.
After you’ve checked all of the above and your toilet still isn’t flushing, it’s possible that the water valve has been turned off or that your toilet is clogged.
Toilet Is Clogged
Maybe you used too much 3-ply toilet paper or flushed something that shouldn’t be flushed (no judgement, it happens). If your toilet is clogged, the first thing you’ll need to do is shut off the water supply to the toilet.
How to turn off water to toilet:
- Locate the valve (looks like a hose) attached to the base of the toilet and the adjacent wall.
- Turn the knob under the valve clockwise to turn off the water supply. If the knob is particularly difficult to turn because it is rusted or covered in hard water, use WD-40 to loosen it.
- It’s important to note that older toilets don’t have valves. If that’s the case for you, find the float (it looks like a floating rubber ball) in the toilet tank and hold it upright with a wire hanger, or something similar, to keep it from refilling the water in the toilet tank.
Once you’ve shut off the water supply to your toilet, use a plunger to extract the clog. Hold the mouth of the plunger over the drain opening. Pump up and down for about 30 seconds to clear the clog. You’ll know you’ve succeeded in unclogging your toilet once you can flush again. Don’t forget to turn your water supply back on! Turn the valve counterclockwise if you have one or remove the wire hanger you used to hold the float up if applicable.
Toilet Is Running
If you suspect your toilet is running, there is a simple way to find out. Just add a drop of food coloring or some coffee grounds to the toilet tank. Wait about half an hour before you check the toilet bowl. If the water isn’t clear, then you have a runner.
To repair this issue, you’ll need to shut off the water to the toilet (see above “how to turn off water to toilet”) and flush. Then, change out the current flapper for a new one since it’s likely malfunctioning. A worn-out flapper allows water to continually trickle from the toilet tank into the bowl, driving up your water bill in the process!
If your flapper is working just fine, thanks, then check the water level in your toilet tank. If the water level is too high, allowing water to flow over the top of the overflow tube and down into the tank, you may need to replace the fill valve, which is the tall upright tube in the toilet tank responsible for refilling the toilet tank and bowl to the appropriate water levels after you flush. Luckily, replacing the fill valve is an affordable and simple process.
Toilet Is Leaking
If your toilet is leaking at the base, the first thing you need to do is to stop using it. The water that’s leaking from the base of your toilet is unsanitary wastewater from your toilet bowl. You will require plenty of disinfectant.
The fix could be as simple as tightening the tee bolts at the base of your toilet. To do this, remove the plastic covering the bolts at the base of your toilet and use a box-end or open-end wrench to tighten the bolts. If your bolts are frozen or too loose to tighten, they’ll need to be replaced.
Should your toilet continue leaking, it probably needs a new wax ring seal. To change the wax ring seal, you’ll need to remove your toilet. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself (right there with ya), put in a maintenance request ASAP.
Toilet Seat Is Loose
This is one of the easiest toilet troubles to fix! A loose toilet seat can be repaired simply by tightening the nuts underneath the bolts that connect the seat to the toilet. Some toilets don’t even require tools to do this. For instance, I was able to tighten my toilet seat with my fingers since the nuts and bolts were made of small plastic parts.
If your toilet seat is not held together by small plastic parts, you may need a screwdriver to hold the bolts in place and a wrench to tighten the nuts on the underside of the toilet, located adjacent to the bottom of the toilet tank.
Toilet troubles can range from minor annoyances to distressing emergencies. While some issues are easy to fix on your own, don’t lose sight of the fact that renting comes with the perk of not having to worry about maintenance issues. Your landlord or property management team should have you covered.
