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Toilet Repair & Installation

Toilet Repair & Installation in Durham, NC

A running toilet, a weak flush, or water pooling at the base rarely fixes itself. A/C Medic’s licensed Durham plumbers diagnose what is actually wrong, repair it, and replace the toilet when a repair no longer makes sense. Family-owned, 20-plus years in Durham, and rated 4.9 stars across more than 150 Google reviews.

  • Running, Noisy, Weak-Flushing & Clogged Toilets
  • Toilet Replacement & New Toilet Installation
  • Same-Day & Emergency Service Available

919-694-0075

Plumber installing a toilet seat in a tiled bathroom

Toilet Trouble in Durham? We Can Help.

Most toilet problems trace back to one of three places: the parts inside the tank, the seal where the toilet meets the floor, or a blockage in the trap or the line below it. A good service call identifies which one before anything gets replaced. A/C Medic repairs, replaces, and installs toilets across Durham and the Triangle. Durham has trusted A/C Medic for heating and air since 2017. We serve Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Mebane, Cary, Apex, and Burlington with same-day and 24/7 emergency service.

A running toilet is worth taking seriously right now. The EPA estimates that nine percent of homes have leaks wasting 50 gallons or more every day, and a toilet that runs around the clock is one of the most common culprits. Some of those are a $15 flapper you can change yourself, and we will tell you when that’s the case. Others are a failing fill valve, a bad flush valve seat, or a toilet that has reached the end of its life, and those are worth a plumber.

Call 919-694-0075 today for more information and to get a quote!

Toilet Repairs and Installations We Handle

Most toilet problems come down to a handful of parts inside the tank, a seal at the floor, or a blockage in the trap. A/C Medic’s plumbers arrive with the common repair parts on the truck, so a running or noisy toilet is usually fixed in one visit without a parts run.

When a repair no longer makes sense, we’ll say so. A toilet that needs a third repair in two years, one with a cracked tank or bowl, or an older 3.5-gallon-per-flush model is usually cheaper to replace than to keep patching. You get upfront, flat-rate pricing before any work starts, so the number you hear is the number you pay.

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Common Toilet Services We Handle:

  • Toilet Repair: Running, Noisy, Weak Flush, Clogs and Leaks. Worn flappers, failing fill valves, bad flush valve seats, loose supply lines, and clogs in the trap or branch line. We’ll fix the part that failed rather than replacing everything in the tank, and check the rest while we’re in there.

  • Toilet Replacement, Reset, and Haul-Away. Wax ring failures, a rotted or broken closet flange, a toilet that rocks, and full replacements. A/C Medic pulls the old toilet, checks the flange and the subfloor underneath it, sets the new one properly, and takes the old toilet away. If we find water damage under the toilet, we show you before we cover it back up.

  • New Toilet Installation Where There Is No Rough-In. Adding a toilet to a basement, a garage conversion, or a new bathroom means running new drain and supply lines, and sometimes an upflush unit when the drain sits below the sewer line. This is real plumbing work, and it is the kind of job our licensed plumbing installation crew handles.

Choosing the right toilet. Most Durham homes do fine with a standard two-piece gravity-fed toilet. Two upgrades are worth knowing about. A comfort-height bowl sits about two inches taller than a standard one, which makes a real difference for older adults and anyone with knee or hip trouble. And if you want the City of Durham rebate, the toilet has to be an ultra high efficiency model on the MaP PREMIUM list, using 1.10 gallons per flush or less.

Call 919-694-0075 and we’ll walk you through all of your options.

Common Toilet Problems & What They Usually Mean

Toilets tend to announce a problem well before they fail. Here’s what the most common symptoms usually point to, and when it’s worth calling a plumber instead of waiting.

  • The Toilet Keeps Running After You Flush

    Almost always the flapper, the rubber seal at the bottom of the tank. It hardens and warps with age and stops sealing, so water trickles from the tank into the bowl and the fill valve keeps topping it off. A worn flapper is a cheap part. If a new flapper does not stop it, the problem is usually the fill valve or a rough flush valve seat, and that is a service call.

  • The Toilet Refills On Its Own, or Makes Noises When Nobody Flushed It
    This is a phantom flush, also called a ghost flush. Water is leaking slowly past the flapper, the tank level drops, and the fill valve kicks on to top it back up. It is the same failure as a running toilet, just slower, and it’s the one that easily runs your water bill up. A constant hiss or whistle points at the fill valve instead. A hard thud or a bang when the tank finishes filling is water hammer, which is a pressure problem rather than a toilet problem.
  • Weak or Incomplete Flush
    If the bowl empties slowly or needs a second flush, check the water level in the tank first. Too low and the flush has no volume behind it. If the level is correct, the usual causes are mineral buildup in the rim jets from Durham’s hard water, a flapper closing too early, or a partial blockage in the trap.
  • Water Pooling Around the Base
    Stop using the toilet and call. Water at the base usually means the wax ring has failed or the closet flange is cracked, and every flush is putting water under the toilet and into the subfloor. Left alone this rots the floor and can reach the ceiling below.
  • The Bowl Is Filling and About to Overflow
    Take the tank lid off and push the flapper down to seal it, which cuts the water feeding the bowl. Then reach behind the toilet and turn the shutoff valve clockwise until it stops. Once the water is off, a plunger clears most clogs. If the bowl refills and rises again after you plunge it, or if another fixture backs up at the same time, the blockage is past the toilet.

If you aren’t sure whether your toilet is leaking, there’s a simple test the EPA recommends: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait ten minutes without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl, water is getting past the flapper. Flush right away afterward so the dye doesn’t stain the tank.

Call A/C Medic even if you think the job is too small to bother a plumber with, and even if someone has already told you the whole toilet needs replacing. We’ll tell you when a repair will hold, and we quote the price before we start either way.

Call 919-694-0075 today for more information and to get a quote!

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on which part failed. Across the Triangle, most common tank repairs, a flapper, a fill valve, or a flush valve seat, run about $150 to $400. Pulling and resetting a toilet to replace a wax ring generally runs $250 to $450, because the toilet has to come up and go back down. A standard toilet replacement installed usually lands between $400 and $900. A/C Medic prices toilet work as a flat rate rather than by the hour and gives you the full number before any work starts, so you approve the cost up front.

Repair is usually right for a single failed part in a toilet that otherwise works well. Replacement makes more sense when the tank or bowl is cracked, when the toilet has needed several repairs in a short span, or when it is an older 3.5-gallon-per-flush model. In that last case the water savings and the City of Durham rebate often cover a good part of the difference.

Yes. The City of Durham Department of Water Management runs an Ultra High Efficiency Toilet rebate for city water customers. Replacing a toilet that uses 1.6 to 3.5 gallons per flush earns up to $50, and replacing one that uses more than 3.5 gallons per flush earns up to $100, applied as a credit on your water bill. The new toilet has to use 1.10 gallons per flush or less and be on the MaP PREMIUM list, and you have to apply within twelve months of installation.

If you apply using a plumber’s invoice, that invoice has to list the toilet model number and price separately from the installation cost. A/C Medic itemizes ours that way so it qualifies. Program details are at durhamnc.gov.

A straight swap in an existing location is a realistic DIY job if the flange is in good shape. Two things usually surprise people though. The first is the rough-in measurement: standard is 12 inches from the finished wall to the center of the drain, but older homes sometimes have 10-inch or 14-inch rough-ins, and a toilet bought for the wrong one will not fit. The second is the flange itself. If it’s cracked or sitting below the finished floor, no amount of wax will seal it. If you pull the old toilet and find either problem, that is a good point to stop and call.

The porcelain itself can last decades. The working parts do not. Flappers and fill valves are wear items that typically need replacing every few years, and a wax ring lasts until the toilet is pulled or starts to rock. Most homeowners replace a toilet for performance or water use rather than failure, usually when an older high-volume model is costing more in water than a new one would cost to install.

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