Toilet Repair in Winston, GA

Winston is a small unincorporated community in western Douglas County along I-20, a former town whose charter was repealed in 1995. Water comes from the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority (WSA), drawn from the Dog River Reservoir and disinfected with free chlorine. WSA owns the meter and street-side lines; the customer owns the water and sewer lines on the property from the meter to the house. Whether a given Winston home is on WSA sewer was not verified, and WSA notes that properties in the Dog River basin using private onsite wastewater systems must keep them properly maintained as a condition of water service. Here is how to handle a toilet that acts up.

What to do now

1. Turn off the stop valve behind the toilet.
2. If it will not close, hold the flapper down and shut the main.
3. Run a dye test on every tank. On a private onsite system, a silent flapper leak adds water to the system all day.
4. Check other drains. If everything is slow, the issue is the line out of the house, not the toilet.
5. Problem in the street? WSA's after-hours emergency line is 770-942-6633; business hours, 770-949-7617.

Symptoms and likely causes

Cost factors

• Tank parts compared with resetting the toilet
• Flange or subfloor repairs underneath
• Diagnosing a slow line to a private system
• Replacing a stop valve or supply line
• A new toilet, if chosen
• Travel and timing

Winston is unincorporated, so Douglas County Building Permits & Inspections handles plumbing permits for new or renovation work. The ZIP-level median home here was built around 1994. When you call, say whether the house is on sewer or a private system, what the toilet is doing and whether water has reached the floor. A running toilet can wait for a weekday appointment on sewer, but on a private system it is worth fixing sooner, and a seep at the base should be handled within days either way.