Bathroom Leak - what to do?

plumb1_2

£600 nice work if you can get it.
personally if you were local to me £75 inc new fill valve and brass backnut.

As others have said remove cistern lid, mop out water.  Buy yourself a box spanner, a new fill valve with a brass tail and brass backnut, and a 1/2 plastic washer.
And don’t use any silicone near rubber washers, it affects them, the rubber washer that comes with the filling valve is all you need 

stuart45

A lot of DIYers seem to stick sealant over the sealing washer and backnut washer. I haven't done that many, but have never had any problems when sticking in an inlet or flush valve relying on the washer only. 

Heedtheadvice

The advice to use a brass fitting above is really the best as it can be properly tightened.

Sealant should not rely be necessary ( belt and braces) but is useful if o e cannot tighten the nut sufficiently without stripping  ( the thread that is )

Eldi_Dos

Surprised that plastic plumbing items with plastic threads and nuts do not come with suitable tool; ie plastic open ended spanner.

Lots of dome ended telecom enclosure's with plastic threads and nuts came supplied with a plastic open ended spanner which would deform and slip off nut if overtightened, thus stopping the O ring being deformed.

ic

The way to get to that plastic nut would be to:

1. Turn off the water to the toilet (if no isolation valve, or the isolation valve is integral to the flexipipe, turn off the supply to the whole house).
2. Flush the toilet, empty what you can from the cistern.
3. Disconnect the flexipipe from the supply pipe by the floor/wall.
4. The cistern should be screwed to the wall - near the top inside - unscrew those.
5. The cistern should also be attached to the pan with two bolts - usually these will be thumb screws near to the water inlet and another on the other side.  (Note if you can see the head of these inside the cistern, you might need a large screwdriver to help hold that end still whilst you unscrew from below - also note that this means they run through the cistern and will create holes when loosened - have towels ready!)
6. Lift away the cistern - you'll now be able to access the inaccessible nuts for the flexipipe and the filler valve.

Reverse all the above to put it all back, after resolving the leak. 

Personally I'd be inclined to replace the whole filler valve seeing as you've done all the above to get this far - they're pretty cheap from Screwfix/Toolstation.  I recently had to go through all this and installed a Thomas Dudley filler with brass shank - worth the small amount extra for peace of mind.  When tightening everything back up - don't over-do it, its easy to crush washers and cause leaks - which might be the problem you're trying to resolve.

Maffy52

Heedtheadvice said:

Assuming I am right,  ... If all fine you can then go on  to sorting the damp woodwork/ flooring.

Thanks, super detailed. Have turned off the isolator valve so the leaked is stopped. I am confident with tightening or even replacing the nut/seal. The difficulty comes from how to get access to it only, so damn awkward position, but will figure it out!

Now my concern is the flooring. Trying to assess what the damage is and whether it has been going on for some time or not. Definitely the stain on the ceiling has just appeared in the past few days, but I am beginning to think there was a lesser leak that was going on before.

Maffy52

plumb1_2 said:

£600 nice work if you can get it.
personally if you were local to me £75 inc new fill valve and brass backnut.

As others have said remove cistern lid, mop out water.  Buy yourself a box spanner, a new fill valve with a brass tail and brass backnut, and a 1/2 plastic washer.
And don’t use any silicone near rubber washers, it affects them, the rubber washer that comes with the filling valve is all you need 

thanks, fixing the leak issue should be okay. and will do it this myself (probably!).
Good point about the silicone, actually, looks like I can see some silicone around the plastic fixing, maybe this is what has caused this problem.

Maffy52

ic said:

Personally I'd be inclined to replace the whole filler valve seeing as you've done all the above to get this far - they're pretty cheap from Screwfix/Toolstation.  I recently had to go through all this and installed a Thomas Dudley filler with brass shank - worth the small amount extra for peace of mind.  When tightening everything back up - don't over-do it, its easy to crush washers and cause leaks - which might be the problem you're trying to resolve.

thanks, super detailed! yes isolation valve is now off. Have another bathroom so I don't need rush with this.

I get what you mean about replacing the filler valve although it is pretty new (as house built 5 years ago!), but take your point to get a bit better to make sure doesn't happen again!.

Maffy52

bjorn_toby_wilde said:

It’s leaking past the fill valve washer by the look of it. That’s at the base of the fill valve inside the cistern. Have a look at the fill valve inside the cistern. It may be twisted or pushed to one side.  They’re fitted into a tight space so sometimes when the nut is tightened up they will move and wedge against the side of the cistern. That can cause a leak at the bottom. Turn off the water AND flush to empty the cistern as far as possible before you work on it. There will still be about a pint of water left inside so get something ready to catch it when you undo it.

Tightening the nut may not do anything for the leak and they’re plastic, so easy to overtighten and split.

You may have to replace the fill valve washer or maybe just clean it up and refit it. There’s a decent video here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HmF22-6c7bA

thanks, yes, I see just tightening things may not work. Thanks for the video, link, wish my toilet was as accessible as that!
Am thinking I may need try to lift the cistern up to get access. It seems to be held in place with two screws inside so I am assuming not to difficult ('assuming' being the operative word!). Is it as easy as I think (see photo!)?

Maffy52

Boohoo said:

Maffy in your 2nd photo the one of the leaky parts is that water droplets on the edge of the pan next to the tiles?

It may be the angle of the photo but looks like it to me.

As for the £600 plumber charge what is the hourly rate for a plumber these days, anybody know?

As Swipe is saying the cistern may have to come off to do a proper long term fix.

thanks, am thinking to lift the cistern, so awkward to get my head and arms around the back!