problem with concealed cistern (toilet) in a constant state of flushing / pouring water

[R B Customs]

hey guys,

I've been googling but it's very difficult to find words to describe the problem that return results.

I've got a concealed cistern toilet in my bathroom and the flusher has just malfunctioned. there's no resistance on either the 'big flush' or 'little' flush button and the toilet cistern is just constantly filling up and emptying simultaneously - as if the release valve is jammed open. The only way to stop it is to turn the mains water off

Has anyone got any what I can try? I've tried turning the mains off for ages, and then letting it trickle back on but had no joy. the whole thing is tiled in so I can't get to it.

cheers,
Rick

 

[R B Customs]

the property is a new build, about 1 and a half years old. It's a set of 21 appartments. there's absolutly no access panels what-so-ever. The shower is on the same wall and also has concealed workings.


the other bathroom is the same.

the only stop valve is the main stopvalve which stops all water across the property - there's nothing to isolate baths, taps, toilets or anything.

It's rented but our letting agent (can't deal with land lord directly) is that special kind of useless and has not replied to me at all. (this happenned yesterday)

cheechm, there's no sign of keyhole (even a tiny one) on the button assebly. I thought the whole thing would unscrew by turning it with the palm of my hand but it doesn't.

It's utterly stupid design. I bet they were sold as 'maintainance free' or something silly. These appartments were never intended to be rented out, so I guess they were installed to give a better finish and maintainance would be int he hands of whoever owns the property. the suites are all made by 'Sanitana' btw

Where do I stand with getting work done by the land-lord? as far as I can see this should be the landlords responsibility to fix, and that it should be done in a timely fashion? any advice here would be great.

here's a pic, thanks for the replies so far.

 

[R B Customs]

My toilet does this sometimes, usually hammering the button really hard sorts it out although sometimes you need to lift the cistern lid so it can uncatch itself. In my case it just seems to be a cheapo flush assembly that sometimes catches when you flush, nothing actually wrong with the internals so to speak just some shoddy tolerances.

I've tried hammering on it as much as I dared, then i though 'screw it' and hammered on it more than I dared before. I've even shoulder-barged the wall to try and shake it up a littlbit and free anything that's stuck. obviosuly nothing has worked (just had another go now)

Ok, first of all I would make a record of your water meter reading (if your on a meter) I would then inform the letting agents of the problem and tell them you have taken a meeting reading and plan to invoice them for the cost of the water that is being wasted until a repair is effected. That might get you someone out a bit quicker to fix the issue. I know most of the toilets of this type will have some kind of turn off value on the pipework somewere. ( A flat head screwdriver on/off value in the pipeline) If it doesnt then the plumber that installed it cut a few corners and did it on the cheap which is quite common in these types of hidden systems. I have had this type of problem with a set of toilets in a building I premise manage and after a number of them failed I told the installer I wanted them all replacing becuase they were defective installs. We have a large panel that is actually tiled and then fitted on the wall and we used some suckers to get it on/off. I wouldnt do anything and do as I said above and contact the letting agent and tell them as above.

I've noted the meter reading down and will keep this in mind. I've double, and triple checked for any valves that will isolate it and there's not even any exposed pipe-work, nevermind stop valves. none of the plumbing in here is fitted with stop valves as I found when I was installing my dishwasher. as someone has pointed out - this has got to be against building regs?

sounds like I'm at a loss until the letting agent gets through to the land-lord and so on. I'm going to ring up again tomorrow and get them to take some action as this turning the mains on everytime I want to use some water, theen back off again routine is getting old.

if is was my own property I'd have had the tiles off by now and had it fixed! I bet when the tiles do come off that they don't have spares to replace them with; that's gonna look ace!

Thanks again guys, I'll let you know how I get on.

Rick