Tap & Toilet Repairs Folkestone

Tap, toilet and Saniflo repairs in Folkestone

Small plumbing jobs are the ones people put off, usually because they feel too minor to call anyone about. Then they sit there for a year quietly costing money.

We are happy to take on the small stuff, and if you have a list of things that have been annoying you, tell us when you book. We will work through the lot in one visit, which costs considerably less than booking three separate callouts and means we turn up with the right parts.

Why a drip does not stay a drip

Every drop passing a worn washer erodes the brass seat underneath it. The seal gets progressively worse, the drip becomes a trickle, and the seat eventually pits badly enough that no new washer will seal against it.

That is how a five minute washer change turns into a cartridge replacement, and then into a new tap. Same fault, three times the cost, purely because it was left.

A running toilet is the quieter version of the same problem. It puts a serious volume through your meter every day and there is nothing dramatic to prompt you into action, so people live with it for months and only join the dots when the bill lands.

Taps

Dripping and worn taps. Traditional taps use a rubber washer that hardens and perishes. Modern taps use ceramic disc cartridges, which do not wear the same way but do fail when grit works between the discs. The water across Folkestone and Hythe is hard, so we see plenty of both.

Stiff and seized handles. Usually scale build-up on the spindle. Often freed and serviced rather than replaced.

Whistling, humming and juddering. Not a mystery and not a sign of anything catastrophic. It is generally a worn washer vibrating in the flow, a loose jumper valve, or high pressure across a partially closed valve. Worth fixing before the vibration works a joint loose further along the pipe. See why do taps make a whistling sound.

Leaks at the base rather than the spout. That is the O-ring or the body seal, not the washer, and it is a different repair.

New taps fitted. Including the ones seized solidly onto the tails, which is common in older properties and the reason a straight swap occasionally takes longer than either of us expected.

If you are choosing replacements, choosing the right taps for your home covers matching them to your water system, which matters far more than most people realise. A powerful mixer fed by a gravity system will disappoint you whatever you paid for it.

Repair or replace

Worth repairing: most drips on a decent quality tap, any leak at a joint or valve, seized handles, and anything where the tap body itself is sound.

Worth replacing: taps where the seat is too pitted to seal, budget taps where the cartridge costs nearly as much as a new tap, and anything already repaired twice.

We will tell you which you have got. See leaking tap, repair or replace.

"He explains all the options, pricing etc and doesn't just go straight for the usual 'Mmm, you're going to need a new one of those' line but instead will try and repair what you've got if he can."

Tim Hack, Google review

Outside taps

Fitted with an internal isolating valve and the double check valve water regulations require, so you can shut off and drain down before the first frost rather than discovering a split in January.

See a guide to outdoor tap installation, and preventing frozen pipes in cold weather if yours is already in and unprotected.

Boiling water taps

Quooker, Fohen, Grohe and similar. They need an accessible under sink tank position with room to service it, plus a switched fused spur. If that electrical supply is not already there it needs adding, so it is worth checking before you order the tap rather than after it arrives.

Toilets

Running constantly. Almost always the fill valve or the flush valve seal, both quick fixes and both worth doing the week you notice rather than the year after. See toilet keeps running, causes and solutions.

Weak flush. Usually the flush valve, a water level set too low, or partial blockage in the rim channels. See why does my toilet flush weakly.

Overflowing. Either a blockage downstream or a fill valve that has failed to shut off. What causes an overflowing toilet covers what to do in the first minute, and out of hours it is a job for our 24 hour emergency service.

Water pooling around the base. Generally the pan connector or its seal rather than the pan itself.

Rocking pans. Refixed properly. A pan that moves will eventually break the waste seal, and then you have a much less pleasant problem.

We also fit new toilets, including close coupled, back to wall and concealed cistern units, and we will tell you honestly if a concealed cistern is going to make future servicing awkward in the space you have.

"I can't recommend Daimen enough. I had a toilet plumbing emergency and Daimen came over almost immediately and was able to quickly fix the problem. And the price was really fair."

Navied Mahdavian, Google review

Saniflo and macerator units

A macerator lets you put a toilet somewhere with no gravity waste run, which is why they turn up in loft conversions, cellar cloakrooms, garage conversions and the converted flats along the Folkestone seafront and up the hill in Sandgate.

We install, service, unblock and repair Saniflo and other macerator units.

They are also the unit most often blamed when they are not at fault, and most often broken by what goes into them. Only waste and toilet paper should ever go through a macerator. Wipes, sanitary products and cotton buds jam the cutter, and that accounts for the large majority of macerator failures we attend.

Two things we will be straight with you about. Where a unit is genuinely beyond economic repair, we will say so rather than charge for a repair that will not last. And where the waste run could be reconfigured to gravity, we will tell you, because a gravity waste is always more reliable than a pump and it removes the problem permanently.

Valves and isolation

We fit isolating valves under sinks and behind toilets as a matter of course. It is a small thing that means a future tap or cistern change does not involve draining the house.

Seized stopcocks are worth sorting at the same time. A surprising number of the emergencies we attend are far worse than they needed to be because the stopcock would not turn when it was needed. See how to find and use your stopcock.

While we are under there

The braided flexible hoses feeding taps and appliances have a finite service life and fail without warning, at full mains pressure. If yours are over ten years old, replacing them while we are already working under the sink costs very little and is the cheapest insurance available against a ruined floor. See how to spot a failing flexible hose.

When it is not a tap problem

Some things look like a fitting fault and are not.

If water is appearing with no visible source, if your bill has climbed with no change in usage, or if a damp patch keeps returning after you redecorate, you have a hidden leak rather than a washer that needs changing. That needs locating properly before anything is opened up. See leak detection.

If a joint has already failed and you cannot stop the water, see burst pipe repair. If the toilet will not clear rather than will not stop, that is blocked drains. For larger projects, see bathroom fitting and kitchen plumbing, and for everything else, general plumbing repairs.

Landlords

Taps and toilets generate more tenant calls than anything else. With your authorisation we arrange access directly with the tenant, sort several items in one visit and invoice you afterwards, which removes the three way phone conversation entirely. See landlord and commercial services.

Where we work

Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate, Seabrook, Saltwood, Hawkinge, Capel-le-Ferne, Lympne, Lyminge, Elham, Sellindge, Dymchurch, New Romney, Dover and Ashford.

Common questions

Is a single dripping tap too small a job? No. It is a perfectly normal booking, and we would rather you called about it now than after it has damaged the worktop.

Can you do several jobs in one visit? Yes, and it works out considerably cheaper. Send us the full list when you book so we arrive with the right parts.

My Saniflo is humming but not clearing. What is wrong? Usually a jam rather than a failed motor. Stop using it and call, because running a jammed macerator is what burns the motor out.

Do you supply the taps or do I? Either. Buying your own means you pay retail rather than our markup on retail, and we will tell you what will work with your water pressure before you order.

Can you fit a bidet or a shower toilet? Yes, though they need a suitable water supply and, for shower toilets, a fused spur nearby.

Call +44 7915 255984 to book a tap or toilet repair in Folkestone.