Any way to temporarilly seal toilet valve until replaced?

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ilyaz

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We have a leaky toilet valve in our rental condo. It's old and will be replaced, but not until some time next week when the condo office shuts off the water in the building. In the meantime, we put a small bucket under the valve but it gets full in about half a day.

Is there any way to seal it until it gets replaced? For example, can it be some sort of material, spray or not, that can be used to coat the whole darn valve? Some sort of caulk-type compound that would harden and not let any water out? Otherwise we will have to drive across town twice a day to empty the bucket...

Thank you in advance for any pointers!
 
We have a leaky toilet valve in our rental condo. It's old and will be replaced, but not until some time next week when the condo office shuts off the water in the building. In the meantime, we put a small bucket under the valve but it gets full in about half a day.

Is there any way to seal it until it gets replaced? For example, can it be some sort of material, spray or not, that can be used to coat the whole darn valve? Some sort of caulk-type compound that would harden and not let any water out? Otherwise we will have to drive across town twice a day to empty the bucket...

Thank you in advance for any pointers!

Do you have renters now?
 
If it is leaking around the shaft of the valve, there is a nut under the handle you use to turn it on and off.

If tightening that nut does not stop the leak there is a packing material inside that nut which can be replaced.

At you local hrdw. store pick up some packing material, it appears like a white cord, shut the valve off, remove the handle and the packing nut, remove the deteriorated packing and replace with new and reassemble.
 
His challenge is they can't shut the water off to the unit until next week.

It's old and will be replaced, but not until sometime next week when the condo office shuts off the water in the building.

If tightening the nut as mentioned by snoonyb you might see if you can find a cap at the home center or plumbing house that fits the threaded outlet of the valve. You'll want to wrap the threads with Teflon tape to seal the threads between the valve body and the cap.

While the water is off, you might want to install a shut off ball valve on the main into your condo if the main water line is accessible. They make ball valves with Sharkbite fittings on both sides. You want to use a ball valve instead of a gate valve as they are much more reliable. This way if there is a plumbing leak in your condo you can shut off the water to just your condo without having to shut it down to all of the condos. The advantage to a Sharkbite connection is you don't need to drain the plumbing to be able to sweat on a copper connection.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SharkBite-Brass-3-4-in-Push-Fit-Ball-Valve/1000296481
 
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here where I live, if it is a residence that is owned, it has to have its own shut off
if it is a residence that is rented, the shut off can be for all the units
 
here where I live, if it is a residence that is owned, it has to have its own shut off
if it is a residence that is rented, the shut off can be for all the units

Being that he has to wait for the main to be shut off I'm assuming either that isn't the case where he's located OR he's got a leaking gate valve and can't kill the water to just his unit. Hence my recommendation to add a ball valve. I have a gate valve at my house and it doesn't shut off the water completely. I'm thinking of adding one the Sharkbite ball valves after the gate valve to solve that problem. I just replaced my water heater and replaced the gate valve with a ball valve so I don't get dripped on the next time I need to replace the water heater. That gate valve leaked too.
 
gate and globe valves are chit valves in my opinion
and should be replaced when ever you see them
 
OK so here's what I did:
1. Used one whole roll of this to wrap around the valve.
2. Prevented the tank from filling up.

I did #2 because I noticed that not only was the valve leaking it was also not shutting off water to the toilet completely. When the tanked filled up and the tank valve closed, the bottom valve started dripping again. The dripping went away when I did #2.

I did this at about 8am this morning, then checked around 3pm and saw no leak. Will probably check once again tonight or tomorrow but it seems to work as a temporary solution.

20170928_143747.jpg

20170928_143811.jpg
 
Perhaps the connection at the bottom of the tank is leaking and dripping down the hose...so it appears that the valve is leaking.

PS. I was originally going to answer your first post by saying "get a bigger bucket" :rolleyes:..Anyway, if you feel like doing an experiment, skip step two and let us know how well the tape works. The stuff is good, but I wonder if it is that good.
 
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Perhaps the connection at the bottom of the tank is leaking and dripping down the hose...so it appears that the valve is leaking.

PS. I was originally going to answer your first post by saying "get a bigger bucket" :rolleyes:..Anyway, if you feel like doing an experiment, skip step two and let us know how well the tape works. The stuff is good, but I wonder if it is that good.

So I just came back from the condo. No signs of water after 12+ hours. So #1+#2 seems to work. When I get there to meet the plumber, I might do the experiment.
 
Perhaps the connection at the bottom of the tank is leaking and dripping down the hose...so it appears that the valve is leaking.

PS. I was originally going to answer your first post by saying "get a bigger bucket" :rolleyes:..Anyway, if you feel like doing an experiment, skip step two and let us know how well the tape works. The stuff is good, but I wonder if it is that good.

Bigger bucket and a pump.
 
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