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How Do I Know If I Have A Leaking Toilet?

Prioritising water leak detection and repair is a must for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and across all industries, as this is one of the main ways in which water is wasted – and given the fact that the UK’s water supplies are facing increasing amounts of pressure because of climate change, population growth and urbanisation, saving water should be at the top of the agenda for all of us.

The problem with leaks is that they often happen tucked away below ground or they’re so small that they’re scarcely noticeable, until you suddenly see a huge spike in your water bills or you start spotting signs of water damage on your premises.

If you’re concerned that you may have a leak somewhere onsite, you might want to start by checking your toilets, given new research from Yorkshire Water revealing that seven per cent of households across the region actually have a leaking toilet they may not be aware of.

Finding such leaks and having them repaired is important, because the average toilet leak will lose approximately eight litres of water every single hour – the equivalent of more than two baths a day or 876 baths annually per household.

Director of water service delivery with the water supplier Neil Dewis said: “It is really important that customers check their pipes, taps and toilets for leaks – not only could it save you money, but it also helps us all to save as much water as possible.

“The Environment Agency recently warned that the UK’s water demand could outweigh supply by as early as 2045 – in order to protect the supply of the future we all need to take care of it now and make sure you’re not accidentally wasting it through things like unnoticed leaks.”

Signs that you may have a faulty toilet somewhere, wasting all that precious water, include a constant trickle in the bowl.

You can also check by wiping the back of the bowl at night (at least half an hour after the last flush) and then putting a new dry sheet of toilet paper across the back overnight. If the paper is either torn or wet the next day, it’s possible that there’s a leak.

It’s also possible that your dual-flush toilets – products originally designed to save water – could also be wasting water, as well. A recent BBC report has found that approximately 400 million litres of water leaks from toilets around the UK each day, much of this as a result of dual-flush loos and confusion over flush buttons, as well as leaky mechanisms.

Apparently, the amount of water lost daily from toilets is enough to supply 2.8 million people – or the populations of Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Sheffield, Bristol and Liverpool combined.

Want to find out if you have a leak? Call H2o Building Services today.