A homeowner in Redmond's Bear Creek neighborhood, east of Avondale Road, called us in April about two toilets and a water bill that had jumped. One toilet ran on its own, the other never filled all the way, and the owner wanted to know whether a pipe was leaking somewhere out of sight. PJ sorted both in one morning.
What We Found
The downstairs powder room had an older Mansfield two-piece toilet, a 1.6-gallon model, with a tired fill valve and a flapper that had stopped sealing, so water seeped from the tank into the bowl and the fill valve kept topping it up around the clock. Upstairs, the second toilet's fill valve was no longer doing its job either. The toilets accounted for the bill; nothing in the walls was leaking.
What We Did
The homeowner chose to replace the powder-room toilet rather than rebuild a fixture that old, so PJ set a Toto Drake elongated toilet at universal height with a soft-close seat, on a new wax ring and closet bolts with a new supply line, and caulked the base once it had been tested. Upstairs, the existing toilet got a new fill valve, a new flapper and a new supply line, and a bead of caulk at the base. Both were flushed and checked for seepage before he left.
Why It Matters
- A running toilet is a bill, not a nuisance. The EPA's WaterSense program puts a typical running toilet at around 200 gallons a day, and Redmond bills water every two months, so the problem shows up as a number before anyone hears it.
- Rebuild or replace is an age question. A fill valve and flapper are a cheap fix on a toilet with years left, which is what the upstairs one got. On an old fixture, that money is better put toward a new toilet.
- Universal height is a small upgrade people notice. The Toto Drake sits a couple of inches taller than a standard bowl, easier on knees, with the same footprint.
- Replace the supply line every time. It is the cheapest part of the job and the one that floods a floor when it lets go.
Why Redmond
Bear Creek is the east side of Redmond, between the slopes of Education Hill and the creek itself. Toilets in houses of this age fail the way these two did: quietly, in the valve and the flapper, with the first sign being the bi-monthly utility bill from the City of Redmond rather than a sound from the bathroom. From Fall City, Bear Creek is a short run up the Redmond-Fall City Road, an easy morning to schedule.
Stop the Running Toilet Before the Next Bill
Call 425-549-2400 or schedule an appointment.
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