Dripping in the wall

I would greatly appreciate any insight anyone has on this topic.... I recently became aware of a dripping sound inside of a wall on the first floor of my home whenever the toilet on the second floor is flushed. There is a large rush of water which is accompanied by a drip which starts out at about a drop per second but slows down to nothing (Maybe 10-15 drops total). This is only when the toilet flushes and not when the shower or sink are used in the same bathroom. I have checked for water damage in the ceiling of the basement in the area where the drip would be landing, but have seen nothing. This toilet is not used frequently. Where do I start? Any techniques/tools to isolate the problem? Thank you.

Reply to
Mike
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If you are not seeing signs of water, the dripping may be occuring inside the drain pipe.

The whirpool action of the flush is intended to keep the water clinging to the walls of the drainpipe but some accumulation of sludge could result in a pool of water remaining after the flush that drips inside the pipe.

John

Reply to
John

The wax ring under the toilet is probably leaking, and it may not be enought yet to soak through to the room below. Needs to be fixed, a new wax ring is about six bucks and the job is relatively easy.

Catch it now before you get some serious water damage.

- Dewolla Stepon

Reply to
Dewolla

Relatively easy and easily one of the worst jobs a homeowner is faced with. Especially when it has been leaking and the studs are rusted and break off. God, I hate that one but I've done about 6 of them. I live in a 25 year old house with 3.5 baths and I replaced all the toilets when I moved in.

Hurl!

Reply to
Bruce

Like this:

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Have a look at the second graphic.

John

"John"

Reply to
John

I have exactly the same thing you have with one of my upper floor crappers, and John is on the right track (no pun intended). Drove me buggy for the longest time. First, it's not your wax ring. If it was, you'd have actual water leaking onto the floor. It's just residual water drip that stops after a few minutes, and it is indeed coming from the main pipe that handles your flushables.

No problem -- just a minor sound annoyance, really.

AJS

Reply to
AJScott

You're an expert then ;-) Let me ask your advice.

I have this leaking toilet upstairs. We bought the house and we knew it was leaking. The previous owner refused to fix and offered a credit. And for a good reason (because it happened to be not so easy as it looked). I thought I'd fix it myself. My first toilet job. Wish I just paid somebody. But now I'm already into it, don't want to back out.

Here's the story: I took out the toilet. Appears there's a leak and the floor (plywood) was damaged. I was thinking of taking out a section of the floor, but then decided to leave it alone for now (it didn't rot quite through yet). Instead, I just bought a special support kit just for this occasion (if you know -- two metal pieces supposed to go under the flange to make it more stable on the floor -- they're screwed to the floor and the flange is screwed to them).

Then I noticed that the flange (PVC) has a crack :-(. It is from one of the screw holes down to the place where it meets the pipe. Not wide but, obviously, I'm not sure if it is leaking through it. Just put a gasket over it (nice one with the rubber inside wax). Pouring 5-6 buckets of water down the toilet doesn't seem to produce any leaks. But then again, it won't be leaking on the vinyl floor but rather under plywood (I may try to find that from underneath, but if it is just dripping, I won't see it).

Should I fix that crack somehow or leave it as it is for the time being until I gather courage to take that toilet out again? And is there a way to patch a crack in PVC (say, glue in a piece of tube)? Or may be better replace the whole flange (then it is probably inevitable to replace part of the floor)? Or any other ideas?

BTW, the original leak which damaged that floor appears to be not from the toilet-flange connection, but from the tank. With the toilet seat on it was not easy to see that it drips from the tank connection, through the seat bolt hole, down the side of the toilet and through the toilet bolt hole.

Reply to
Alexander Litvin

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