Toilet Repair and Replacement in Phoenix

A toilet that runs or refills by itself

The tank holds water until you flush. A rubber flapper at the bottom keeps it in. A fill valve on the side refills the tank and shuts off. When the flapper gets stiff or coated with scale, it stops sealing and water seeps into the bowl all day. The fill valve then kicks on for a few seconds to top the tank off, which is the "ghost flush" people hear at night.

One simple check: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper is leaking.

Phoenix water speeds this up. The minerals in hard water build up on the flapper and inside the fill valve. A toilet here often needs a new flapper and fill valve years before it would somewhere with soft water. Both are quick to replace, and we fit the type that matches your toilet.

A toilet that rocks, smells, or leaks at the base

A toilet sits on a ring that connects it to the drain pipe in the floor. In most Phoenix homes that drain is set in the concrete slab. Two bolts hold the toilet down, and a wax ring between the toilet and the flange makes the seal. When the bolts loosen or the flange sits too low, the toilet rocks, the wax seal breaks, and dirty water seeps out under the base when it's flushed.

The fix is to pull the toilet, clean off the old wax, check the flange, and reset the toilet on a new ring with new bolts. If the flange has cracked or sits below the tile, a repair ring or a spacer brings it back to the right height. Then the toilet goes back down solid, with a bead of caulk around the base to keep mop water out.

Water on the floor around a toilet isn't always the wax ring. It can also be a cracked tank, a loose tank-to-bowl connection, or the supply line and shutoff valve behind the toilet. We check all of them before anything comes apart.

Weak flush and double flushes

A toilet that needs two flushes usually has a part problem, not a toilet problem. A flapper that closes too early cuts the flush short. A tank filled below the line doesn't have enough water. The small holes under the rim, where the flush water comes out, clog with scale over time and slow the water down. Each of those gets adjusted, replaced or cleaned.

If the toilet is old and the flush is weak no matter what, replacing it is the better fix. New toilets use 1.6 gallons or less per flush, and most now use 1.28. The good ones flush better than the old 3.5-gallon toilets they replace.

Replacing a toilet

A new toilet has to match the distance from the wall to the bolts in the floor. That's the rough-in, and on most toilets it's 12 inches. Some older homes have 10 or 14 inches. Measure from the wall, not the baseboard, to the center of the bolt caps. If you're buying the toilet yourself, send that number and we'll tell you whether the one you picked will fit.

Height matters too. Standard toilets are about 15 inches to the rim. Comfort-height toilets are 17 to 19 inches, which is close to a chair. They're easier to stand up from, and many people who switch don't go back. Elongated bowls stick out about 2 inches further than round ones, which matters in a small powder room where the door swings close.

The old toilet comes out, the floor gets cleaned, the flange gets checked, and the new one goes in with a new wax ring, new bolts, a new supply line and, if the old one is seized, a new quarter-turn shutoff valve. We haul the old toilet away.

Shutoff valves

The small valve on the wall behind the toilet is supposed to let you stop the water if the toilet overflows. In older Phoenix homes it has often seized from scale and won't turn, or it drips from the stem once it's finally turned. We replace it with a quarter-turn valve and a braided steel supply line while we're there. It's a small add-on to any toilet repair and worth doing.

Problems we fix on this page

• Toilet runs constantly
• Toilet refills by itself every few minutes
• Toilet won't flush all the way
• Weak flush
• Toilet clogs often
• Toilet clogged and plunger won't clear it
• Toilet rocks on the floor
• Toilet leaks at the base
• Water on the floor around the toilet
• Sewer smell around the toilet
• Toilet tank leaks from the bolts
• Toilet tank sweating
• Toilet handle loose or broken
• Toilet fills slowly
• Toilet seat broken
• Tank lid cracked
• Cracked tank
• Cracked bowl
• Toilet supply line leaking
• Toilet shutoff valve leaking or stuck
• Want a comfort-height toilet
• Want a new toilet in the same spot
• Want a low-flow toilet
• Want a bidet seat installed
• Toilet flange broken or rusted
• Toilet sits too far from the wall
• Toilet keeps hissing
• Smell around the toilet base
• Dual-flush toilet button stuck
• Dual-flush toilet running
• Pressure-assist toilet loud or weak
• Wall-mounted toilet loose
• One-piece toilet leaking at the base
• Toilet with a tower flush valve leaking
• Kohler toilet flapper keeps leaking
• Kohler Canister flush valve seal
• Toto toilet running
• Toto flush valve leaking
• American Standard toilet won't stop running
• Glacier Bay toilet leaking
• Mansfield toilet flush valve leaking
• Bidet seat leaking
• Bidet sprayer hose leaking
• Handheld bidet sprayer installed
• Should I repair or replace a running toilet
• How long does it take to replace a toilet
• Can I fix a running toilet myself
• Toilet overflowing (after shutting off the water)
• Only toilet in the house not working
• Flapper chain keeps falling off
• Toilet whistles when it fills
• Toilet seat loose
• Touchless toilet flush not working

How it starts

Send a photo of the toilet and one of the wall behind it, showing the shutoff valve. If it's running, tell us whether it's constant or every few minutes. You'll have a fixed price before anyone shows up. Levi does the work himself.