Hi. So we have a leak into our basement directly under the toilet. It is a slow dripping leak. Sometimes it doesn't drip at all and then sometimes it will drip all day. I was looking at the toilet to try to figure it out and realized that I was hearing a drip behind the toilet, even though I hadn't flushed the toilet in a while. When I turned the water off, the drip stopped. Turned the water back on, the drip started again. I couldn't see any water on the floor or anywhere. The toilet wasn't running. I'm assuming this drip is the cause of the drip in the basement. What do I do?

Note, we had a plumber come out and it wasn't dripping for them so they couldn't figure it out.

Also note, the water is yellow and dirty, if that helps.

Thanks for any help!

To add complexity, just went back and listened again and there is no dripping sound anymore. And to clarify, I went in initially and heard a drip without having flushed the toilet. When I turned the water off, the drip continued but when I flushed the toilet (water off), the drip stopped. Then when I turned the water back on, immediately the drip started again. And now the drip is gone, even after I just flushed the toilet again....



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To many possibilities to even guess, but you COULD have steel pipe in the wall connecting to the water valve and it has rusted, giving you the yellow/brown water.

WOW, if a plumber doing onsite troubleshooting can't figure it out, that kinda leaves us at venturing wild guesses.
so, my wild guess is to check the refill tube to make sure it is aimed down the overflow pipe and not shooting water in other directions.

I'd say the plumbers (there were two) that came out were kind of new (they were both young and seemed somewhat unsure), but they did check the refill tube and I believe it was off, so they fixed that. Then they said to watch it and see if it kept leaking, that that was probably it. But it's leaking again today and given that the drip goes off and on, seemingly unrelated to whether the toilet is flushed, I'm wondering if it would be hard for them to figure it out again upon second inspection.



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Is there any way for us to check that? Thanks!

Send us a photo of the pipe coming out of the wall with the valve on it going to the toilet.

Ok, I took a photo with my camera phone but i don't understand how to post that

i think at this point you need to spread out some paper towels like a rug all around the toilet to see if the water is dripping from anywhere above the floor.
if the paper towels remain dry but a drip shows up down below then we will be one step closer to an answer.

click on the orange link at the top of the page. "how to post images"

Ok I'll do that. And I'll see if I can figure out the picture post. Thx!