My home is 16 years old, two stories, 2 full baths up stairs half bath down stairs. Lately I've heard what sounds like water running from a toilet that has been flushed. I can hear water running through the pipes and exiting the house to the sewers in the basement, but no toilet has been flushed, It does this randomly and I can't figure out why or what it's from. Any suggestions on what this may be?
What could this be?!
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Does it sound like a trickle?
JG plumbing
Well-Known Member
Bad flapper
The hose from your fill valve to far into the overflow tube
Replace all worn parts. If they’re 16 yrs old, they’re due.
No, not a trickle it's like a toilet has been flushed. When I hear it I try to check the toilets to see if one of them has a tank that's refilling or empty but haven't found an empty or low one yet!
Do you have any type of pump at your home ? Drainage, sewage, condensate removal, irrigation......
All can use pumps
Put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank water. In the corner, then let it sit for 30 minutes.
If the bowl water gets discolored, that toilet is leaking.
All can use pumps
Put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank water. In the corner, then let it sit for 30 minutes.
If the bowl water gets discolored, that toilet is leaking.
Yeah, guess I'll have to run over to Menards and buy new "stuff!"
First make sure it’s the toilets. But the toilets may need work even if it’s not your current issue.
That was my next thought.....maybe sump pump.
Only "pumps" are two sump pumps in the basement, a main and a back up pump. The water sound is definitely not coming from those pumps it is originating from, now I think, one of the up stairs bathrooms. I'll try the suggestion of the food coloring in the in the tank and see what happens.
Do your pumps, pump up and out?
Pumps are in the basement, main pump and a battery back up pump, and pump out through the foundation then pipes disappear into the ground outside. Both pumps are relatively new having been replaced in the last one or two years. Oh and I almost forgot a third pump, replaced last year, that was put in when the house was built, a pump to handle the waste if we were to put a bathroom in the basement, which we never did. It just pumps out water from a dehumidifier and whatever the water softener we have down there drains out. That pump, I assume, would go directly out to the sewer system.
FishScreener
Well-Known Member
To check toilets for leaks, I add a couple of blue dye tablets near the flapper, and wait a few to see if it shows up in the bowl. You can buy them in bottles of 200 for $10 off Amazon. Toilet Leak Dye Tablets. They may sell them at your local supply house.
I knew a plumber in Vegas who bought a bunch of the dye tablets, in five tablet foil packs, and had them attached to door hangers. He would hire the Boy Scouts to go through neighborhoods, and hang them on the door knobs. The hanger had instruction on how to use them, and his business information. They generated enough calls that he had been doing it for five years last time I talked to him.
I knew a plumber in Vegas who bought a bunch of the dye tablets, in five tablet foil packs, and had them attached to door hangers. He would hire the Boy Scouts to go through neighborhoods, and hang them on the door knobs. The hanger had instruction on how to use them, and his business information. They generated enough calls that he had been doing it for five years last time I talked to him.
I have to sit here and 
. Was about to try the dye, nothing, and now the problem has "somehow fixed itself!" Not one sound of a toilet flush, other than one if it was "really flushed" in the last week or so! Guess I'll have to wait till the "next time" it does it again! Thanks to all for the help and ideas how to solve my "mystery"
. Was about to try the dye, nothing, and now the problem has "somehow fixed itself!" Not one sound of a toilet flush, other than one if it was "really flushed" in the last week or so! Guess I'll have to wait till the "next time" it does it again! Thanks to all for the help and ideas how to solve my "mystery"
