Toilet repair
Quoted
Flush valve, fill valve, wax seal, isolation
- Diagnostic + repair
- Common parts on the van (Fluidmaster, Siamp, Wirquin)
- Wax seal replacement if needed
- Stopcock + isolation valve replacement
- Pressure-test before we leave
Plumbing
Toilet & shower leaks
Stopped toilets, leaking shower trays, dripping mixers and slow refills, diagnosed and fixed in a single visit.
Pricing Quoted
Clear quote · Gas Safe registered · Checkatrade approved
- 1Send the detailsPhotos, postcode, what's happening: phone, WhatsApp or form.
- 2Same-day replyNigel confirms price, visit time or survey slot.
- 3Fixed quoteWritten down before any work starts. No surprises.
What's going wrong?
Find the closest match. Phone is fastest, and Nigel will usually tell you the next step on the call.
- Water marks on a ceiling below the bathroom
WhatsApp a photo of the mark and one of the bathroom floor above. We'll usually triangulate the source before arrival.
- Shower tray puddling outside the glass
Failed silicone seal or a slipped tray. Quick fix £90–£150 if it's silicone; tray refit £280–£480.
- Toilet running constantly
Worn flush valve or fill valve
- Toilet won't refill after flush
Fill valve faulty or a stuck float. £80 typical.
- Water at the base of the toilet pan
Could be condensation
- Macerator not draining
Macerators clog if non-toilet items go in. Strip-and-clean £140; replacement £380.
Indicative scope
Exact pricing is confirmed before work starts and depends on the property, access, parts and fault diagnosis.
Shower repair
Quoted
Cartridge / element / silicone re-bed
- Mixer cartridge replacement (most makes)
- Electric shower element + thermal cut-out
- Silicone tray re-seal + pressure test
- Calcified flow restrictor cleanout
- 12-month workmanship warranty
Tray reseal + tank
Quoted
Full re-seal where leak is through the floor
- Tray lifted and re-bedded if cracked
- New silicone with anti-mould additive
- Tanked seal where mastic has failed
- Ceiling stain remediation referral if needed
- Pressure-tested overnight before sign-off
Toilet & shower leaks
Toilet running, ceiling staining, shower dripping?
Stopped toilets, leaking shower trays, dripping mixers and slow refills, diagnosed and fixed in a single visit.
Bathroom leaks are usually one of four things: a worn flush valve, a tired toilet wax seal, a perished shower mixer cartridge, or a failed silicone bead around a shower tray or bath. Each has its own fix, and none of them need a new bathroom.
Toilet problems
- Constantly running: usually the flush valve or the float arm fails. Cistern fills, dribbles into the pan continuously, water bill creeps up. £90–£120 fitted with a Fluidmaster, Siamp or original-spec replacement.
- Won’t refill: fill valve, isolation valve under the cistern, or partially blocked supply line. Diagnostic visit and fix usually done in the first hour.
- Leaking from base: wax seal has failed and water is escaping under the foot of the pan when you flush. Pan needs lifting, new wax seal or rubber doughnut fitted, and re-bedded. £140 fitted.
- Hairline crack in the cistern or pan: replacement is the only safe fix. Cistern-only swap (Twyford, Roca, Vitra basics) £180–£240 fitted; full close-coupled swap £280–£420 fitted.
- Macerator silenced or refusing to discharge: Saniflo / Sanibest / Setma faults are usually the carbon brushes, the macerator blade, or the float switch. We carry common spares.
Shower problems
- Dripping from the head when off: worn ceramic cartridge in a single-lever mixer, or perished rubbers on a deck-mounted bridge. Cartridge swaps are 25–40 minutes; a thermostatic cartridge (Mira Excel, Aqualisa Visage) is 45 minutes.
- Leak through the ceiling below: usually a failed silicone bead around the tray or a hairline crack in the tray itself. We re-seal, pressure-test the tray with the head pointed at the seal, and ask you to confirm 24 hours later that the ceiling stain isn’t growing.
- No hot or weak flow on an electric shower: element fault, thermal cut-out tripped, or the flow restrictor has calcified. Mira Sport, Triton T80 and Aqualisa parts are stocked in the van for the most common models.
- Pressure imbalance: hot and cold flow rates have drifted apart. Usually a partial limescale block on one side, fixed by removing the cartridge and back-flushing.
Why ceiling leaks are tricky
Water from a leaking shower tray can travel several feet along a joist before it shows on the ceiling below. So the wet patch on the kitchen ceiling is often nowhere near the actual leak point. Diagnosing properly means:
- Confirming the source room. We pressure-test the tray, the bath, the toilet, and the WC fill in turn. Only one of them is the source.
- Tracing the path. Once we know the source is the shower tray (e.g.), we lift a small section of flooring above to see which joist it’s tracking along.
- Fixing the actual cause. Not just refreshing the silicone. A failed silicone bead is a symptom of either a dropped tray (joist deflection) or a missing tank seal underneath. We re-bed properly so the leak doesn’t return in 6 months.
Pricing
We charge £90 for the first hour (covers diagnosis and most repairs) and £55 per hour after that. Materials at trade plus 15%. Most repairs are done in 60–90 minutes total.
For ceiling-leak jobs that need flooring lifted or trays re-bedded, we’ll quote fixed-price after the diagnostic.
Workmanship and warranty
Every repair carries a 12-month workmanship warranty. For shower tray re-bedding we offer a 24-hour pressure-test guarantee: if the leak comes back inside the warranty period, we re-do the seal at our cost.
We’re WaterSafe approved, which is the standard insurers and conveyancers look for. We don’t do half-done jobs that pass the eye-test but fail the pressure-test.
★★★★★
If you look for a professional plumber who is very skilled, polite, tidy and communicative look no further. Thank you Nigel for installing our shower.
Recent jobs near you
A few of the jobs we have finished lately, with the postcode and what was involved.
- CF23 April
Penylan terrace, shower tray re-bed, pressure-tested overnight.
- CF14 April
Whitchurch, Fluidmaster fill valve + new flush button.
- CF11 March
Canton flat, wax seal failure, new pan flange + reset.
- CF24 March
Roath, Mira Sport element + thermal cut-out replacement.
How the job runs
- 01
Photo + postcode
1 minSend a photo of the toilet / shower / leak point. For ceiling stains, photograph the stain and the room above. We'll text a fixed-price band within the hour.
- 02
Diagnostic
30–45 minMost leaks have one of four root causes. We systematically rule them out before quoting the fix.
- 03
Repair
30–90 minCartridges, valves, wax seals and silicone are mostly carried on the van. Less than 5% of calls need a parts run.
- 04
Pressure test
10 minToilets get a full flush plus a 60-second watch. Showers get hot and cold for 5 minutes with the head pointed at the tray seal. No leak left to find.
- 05
24-hour follow-up
Day afterFor ceiling-leak jobs we ask you to text us in 24 hours with a photo of the patch. This confirms the leak's actually stopped, not just hidden.
Common questions
What counts as an emergency?
Suspected gas leak (call us first, then turn off at the meter). No heat or hot water in winter where there are kids, elderly residents or vulnerable people. Burst pipes, meaning water actively coming through ceilings or walls. Sewage backing up. Anything actively damaging your house or making it unsafe.
How fast will you get there?
Inside Cardiff, 60 minutes door-to-door for genuine emergencies. Penarth, Llandough, Roath: 60–75 minutes. Barry, Caerphilly, Cowbridge: 60–90 minutes depending on the time of day. We'll give you the live ETA when we pick up.
What does an out-of-hours callout cost?
Standard out-of-hours rate is £150 for the first hour (covers diagnosis and most fixes), £85 per hour after. Materials at trade plus 15%. Bank holiday rate is £180 first hour. Genuinely-urgent cases involving vulnerable residents we'll discuss the rate before we set off.
Do you actually answer the phone at 2am?
Yes, between 7am and 7pm Nigel or one of our engineers picks up directly. Outside those hours, your call goes through a triage line that makes a real-time decision. True emergencies wake Nigel within minutes. Things that can wait until morning, we take details and call back at 7am. You always get a same-day human reply.
My boiler's lost pressure overnight, is that an emergency?
Usually not. Re-pressurise via the filling loop (target 1.0–1.5 bar cold) and we'll come out on a normal callout slot tomorrow. If it keeps dropping there's a leak somewhere; that's worth a same-day visit. If you've got no heat and someone vulnerable in the house, it's an emergency and we'll come out tonight.
How much does a new bathroom cost in Cardiff?
For a standard 3-piece bathroom (bath, basin, WC) refit including tiling, flooring and second-fix electrics: £6,500–£9,500 fitted, depending on tile choice and whether the layout moves. Wet rooms and en-suites with shower trays start £8,500. We quote fully fixed-price after a survey; supply-only items are at trade plus 10%.
How long does a bathroom installation take?
A straight refit (same layout, same waste positions) is 5–7 working days. Layout changes that need waste pipe reroutes add 2–3 days. We work clean: dust sheets up, daily clean-down, the rest of the house stays liveable.
Do you do tap repairs or just full installs?
Both. Most tap drips are a £20 cartridge, and we charge £90 for the first hour (covers diagnosis and most repairs) and £55 per hour after. If your taps are end-of-life we'll tell you and quote a swap, never the other way round.
What's the difference between a powerflush and a magnetic filter?
A powerflush is a one-time deep clean of the heating system using a high-flow pump and inhibitor, which clears years of magnetite sludge from radiators, boilers and pipework. A magnetic filter (MagnaClean or equivalent) is fitted permanently on the return pipe and traps sludge as it circulates, year on year. Both are needed for a long-lasting modern system. Powerflush £450; magnetic filter retrofit £180 fitted.
My water pressure is low, can you help?
Yes, first we'll find out whether it's coming in low (a problem with the incoming main, your stopcock, or a partially-closed valve), or dropping mid-house (a leak, a cylinder issue, or scale in the pipework). Diagnostic visit is £90 and gets credited if you go on to have the work done.
Are you WaterSafe registered?
Yes: WaterSafe approved plumber scheme. That's the recognised standard for any work that touches the mains supply (stopcocks, incoming mains repairs, unvented cylinders, water softeners). It's also the scheme insurers and conveyancers look for on home reports.
Do you charge a call-out fee?
No, not for any job we go on to quote or carry out. Diagnostic visits where we don't end up doing work are charged at our standard hourly rate (£90 first hour, £55 after) and we'll always tell you that up front.
Are quotes fixed price or estimates?
Fixed-price for everything we can survey: boiler installs, bathrooms, EV chargers, EICRs, central heating refurbs, heat pumps. Variable-rate for diagnostic and repair work, but with hourly rates published on every relevant page so you know before we start.
Can you take a deposit and stage payments?
For jobs over £3,000 we take a 30% deposit at scheduling, 50% on day one, balance on completion. That covers our materials outlay without exposing you. Smaller jobs are paid on completion. We accept bank transfer, card, and Apple/Google Pay; no cash in hand.
Do you offer finance?
Not directly: we're not authorised to broker credit. For boiler installs, Worcester Bosch and Vaillant both run their own finance schemes (0% over 12 months on installs through accredited installers like us). Ask at quote stage and we'll send you the application link.
Do you give written quotes?
Always. Every job over £200 gets a written, itemised, fixed-price quote before any work starts. The quote is yours to keep, valid for 30 days, and the price on it is what you'll pay: line-item breakdown for materials, labour, and any provisional sums.