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Mystery of the leaking toilet

View the thread, titled "Mystery of the leaking toilet" which is posted in Boiler Advice Forum on UK Plumbers Forums.

If this isn't fixed yet, try getting a couple of bottles of different coloured food dye. Put one colour in the cistern, another into the water in the pan. Leave some white kitchen paper where the puddle forms and wait...

This should narrow down your search area a bit.

Note added later: I've had great success using dyes for tracing the source of difficult leaks but keep in mind that they may stain some types of finish. So, if the bathroom floor has been done with in Carrarra marble tiles at a gazillion quid a square meter you probably don't want to use this method without thinking about how to protect the finish. On the other hand, a leaky bog is a problem that has to be fixed somehow.
Thanks for the reply we are worried about damaging the tiles like you said but may end up having to do this
 
Why not remove the toilet for a couple of days and just rule out water coming up through tiles

This is probably your best next step.

If I've understood correctly, the leak happens at night and not when you're around/using the toilet? Using two different coloured dyes as recommended by @Chuck is a great idea, but you're concerned about staining your tiles.

You could try this:

cover floor surrounding toilet with kitchen towel (up to a couple of feet distance from it), cover where the pan connects to the soil stack with kitchen towel, place kitchen towel where the pan & cistern join, surround the pipe that supplies water to the cistern with kitchen towel.

Then the "fun" bit starts, set yourself a timer to go off every 15min and each time it goes off inspect the kitchen towel without disturbing it, until there's an initial trace of water.

Its time consuming and a lot more hassle than using dyes but won't damage your tiles. It will also show you whether the water is coming from somewhere else, hence surrounding a wide area around the toilet. Once you've narrowed down the location the water is coming from report back and we'll see what we can do.
 
Err how when your original post says "As above .." 🙂
(Please note I have no wish to argue or start a willy waving contest)
It says or move the pan completely the A’s above was reference to the pipes connected to the toilet
 
If I've understood correctly, the leak happens at night and not when you're around/using the toilet?

This can happen as a result of a combination of two independent faults. Firstly the float valve is set too high or is faulty and is letting by. When not being flushed, the level in the cistern creeps up. Secondly, the overflow has not been installed correctly and leaks when the cistern level gets up to the outlet...

I always test overflows for leaks and proper operation very carefully. Once bitten, twice shy...

My apologies if someone else has already suggested this. There's a lot of noise on this thread so I might have missed it.
 
This can happen as a result of a combination of two independent faults. Firstly the float valve is set too high or is faulty and is letting by. When not being flushed, the level in the cistern creeps up. Secondly, the overflow has not been installed correctly and leaks when the cistern level gets up to the outlet...

I always test overflows for leaks and proper operation very carefully. Once bitten, twice shy...

My apologies if someone else has already suggested this. There's a lot of noise on this thread so I might have missed it.

Yep I'd agree usually but seeing as they're on their 3rd toilet it seems very unlikely that their plumber has cocked up the overflow installation 3 times (although they do say assumption is the mother of all...)
 
on there 3rd toilet?!! i totally missed that bit... as mentioned, idd be removing the toilet and drying it out with a fan and see if it continues to get wet without it for a few days
 
This can happen as a result of a combination of two independent faults. Firstly the float valve is set too high or is faulty and is letting by. When not being flushed, the level in the cistern creeps up. Secondly, the overflow has not been installed correctly and leaks when the cistern level gets up to the outlet...

I always test overflows for leaks and proper operation very carefully. Once bitten, twice shy...

My apologies if someone else has already suggested this. There's a lot of noise on this thread so I might have missed it.

Don’t most syphones have intergrated overflows nowadays? Surely the water takes same route as when you flush it if the cistern is over flowing?
Or are you talking about when the overflow has been drilled to outside?
 

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