I was startled to find mushrooms growing on our dining room ceiling.
I have tracked the problem down to the toilet immediately above. I think the washer around the water inlet pipe has perished - that's the pipe from the cistern into the back of the toilet. The pipe is wet where it enters the back of the toilet, and the underside of the cistern is dry.
First, am I likely to be able to get a replacement fairly easily? The toilet is Armitage Shanks, and I would guess it is about 20 years old.
Second, I am not at all clear how to get to the back of the toilet to fix this.
This is one of those wall hung toilets, where the cistern is hidden behind a low tile wall, and the toilet hangs clear of the ground. In fact there are two very large steel brackets the other side of the wall, and it looks as though the toilet is bolted through to those.
It looks as though the pipework was all put in place, then the wall was built, and then finally the toilet was bolted on. Is that likely to be the order? If so, can I just unbolt the toilet so as to get to the back of it and install the new washer?
I have never done a lot with the waste side of toilets before, apart from unblocking the odd drain or two. Assuming I unbolt it, can I just pull the toilet forward, and will the waste pipe sort of fall out of the back of it? You can't really reach the waste pipe, because the cistern went in last. When I want to put it back together again, what are the chances of the waste pipe pushing itself back into place?
Can this all be done without taking the wall down and rebuilding it? (This would be a bit of a disaster, as it looks as though other bits of the bathroom were installed after that wall, and the whole lot is tiled with tiles that can no longer be matched.)
Is this a job for an expert plumber, as opposed to an amateur?