Toilet Repairs Parramatta

A toilet fault is easy to put off until it is the only toilet in the house and it has stopped working, or until the tenant downstairs rings about a stain on the ceiling. In Parramatta the toilets range from original suites in Federation homes of North Parramatta and Harris Park, through the single-flush cisterns of 1950s to 70s homes in Guildford, Merrylands and Blacktown and the vitreous china cisterns in the walk-up unit blocks of Westmead and Granville, to the back-to-wall suites in the towers around Parramatta Square and Church Street.

Running cisterns and the Sydney Water bill

A cistern that runs constantly, or refills on its own every few minutes, is the most common toilet call in the region. Either the outlet valve seal at the bottom of the cistern has worn and lets water trickle into the pan, or the inlet valve no longer shuts off and water runs down the overflow. High mains pressure makes it worse: the low-lying suburbs near Prospect Reservoir such as Guildford, Fairfield and Wetherill Park and the streets along the Parramatta River wear cistern valves faster than anywhere else in Sydney. A running cistern wastes more water than most people expect and turns up on the next Sydney Water bill. On most suites the inlet and outlet valves are replaced on the spot. On a discontinued cistern in an older unit, replacing the cistern is usually the better repair.

Leaking pan collars and floor seals

The pan collar is the connector that seals the outlet of the pan to the drain in the floor or the wall. When it perishes, shifts or was never seated properly, a small amount of waste water escapes with each flush, tracks under the tiles and shows up as a damp patch beside the toilet, a smell that will not go, or a stain on the ceiling of the unit below. It is a common fault in the 1960s and 70s red-brick unit blocks of Harris Park, Westmead, Granville and Auburn, where the original rubber collar is decades old. The pan is lifted, the collar and floor seal replaced, and the pan refixed and sealed to the floor. Where the floor under the tiles has been wet for months, the plumber tells you so rather than sealing over it.

Blocked toilet or blocked sewer

The first thing the plumber works out is whether the problem is the toilet or the drain behind it. If the toilet is the only fixture affected and every basin, shower and floor waste in the home runs freely, the blockage is at the fixture, usually wipes, a child’s toy or too much paper caught in the trap, and it is cleared at the toilet with a closet auger. If the shower gurgles when the toilet is flushed, water rises in the floor waste, or the overflow relief gully outside is wet, the blockage is in the sewer line and clearing the toilet will not fix it. Across the Cumberland Plain clay of Parramatta, Blacktown and Fairfield that usually means tree roots at a cracked earthenware joint, and in a unit block it may be grease in the shared line. That is a job for a jetter and a camera, covered under blocked drains, and the plumber is honest about which one you have before any work starts.

Back-to-wall replacements and set-out

When a suite is cracked, discontinued or simply worn out, replacing it starts with measuring the set-out: the distance from the finished wall to the centre of the drain, and whether the outlet goes through the floor (an S-trap) or the wall (a P-trap). A suite is chosen to match so no drainage work is needed. Where the set-out is unusual, as it often is in the Federation homes of North Parramatta, the fibro bathrooms of Guildford and Merrylands and the converted outhouses of older Blacktown homes, an adjustable connector or a different outlet type solves it. Back-to-wall suites hide the pipework, are easier to clean and take the same flexi hose and stop tap as any other; the flexi hose is replaced with a new one at the same time, because a failed toilet hose floods a bathroom as fast as a kitchen one. A full bathroom renovation, where the toilet is moved rather than replaced in place, is covered under bathroom and kitchen plumbing.

Water-efficient dual flush

A great many unrenovated homes from the 1950s to the 70s in Blacktown, Seven Hills, Doonside, Fairfield, Yagoona and Bass Hill still have a single flush cistern using far more water per flush than a modern suite. Toilet suites sold in Australia carry a water efficiency rating, and a well-designed dual flush pan clears on the half flush without a second attempt. The saving shows on the Sydney Water bill over a year. The swap is a like-for-like on the existing set-out in most cases and is done in the same visit as a repair, so it is worth asking about whenever a cistern is already coming off the wall.

Cracked cisterns in 1960s unit blocks

The three-storey walk-up unit blocks built through the 1960s and 70s in Harris Park, Westmead, Granville, Auburn and Merrylands, and the same era of blocks in Bankstown and Liverpool, often still have their original vitreous china cisterns. After fifty or sixty years of summer heat, high mains pressure and the odd knock from a cleaning bucket they develop hairline cracks, usually near the inlet or along the base. A cracked cistern weeps for a while and then lets go, and in a second-floor unit the water heads straight into the bathroom below. Parts for these suites are frequently discontinued. Replacing the cistern, or the whole suite, before it fails is far cheaper than the ceiling repair downstairs and the strata dispute that follows it. If a cistern has already let go at night, the 24 hour plumber page covers how the call is handled.

Strata: who pays, and the licence that matters

In a strata unit the toilet suite, the cistern, the flexi hose and the pan collar inside the unit are generally the lot owner’s responsibility under NSW strata law, and the sewer line once it leaves the unit and joins the shared stack is usually common property and a matter for the owners corporation. When a leak from a toilet damages the unit below, who pays turns on what failed and whether it had been maintained, which is why the plumber photographs the failed part and issues a certificate of compliance for any drainage work. All plumbing and drainage work in NSW must be carried out by a tradesperson licensed with NSW Fair Trading under the Home Building Act 1989, and you are entitled to ask for the licence number and check it on the NSW Fair Trading public register. Check your by-laws, tell the strata manager early if the fault is in the shared line, and keep the paperwork. The repair is quoted before work starts and the rate is explained on the phone before anyone is dispatched.