Leaking stop valve on 1st floor toilet

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terripellatt

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I am trying to repair a leaking stop valve on my 1st floor toilet. The leak (very slow) is occurring at the connection between the wall and the stop valve. I have tried tightening it but it doesn't seem to work. I would like to remove the valve and put teflon tape on the connection. I first shut of the water supply to the house (I have a well) and the water pump, then emptied the toilet and ran water in the bathroom sink until it would run no more. When I removed the stop valve I was flooded. Water kept pouring in - there were not enough buckets...
Did I miss a step or do it in the wrong order??? I figured the water supply was turned off and the pressure was relieved - all would be good.
What am I doing wrong?
Please help,
Terri
 

Plumber1

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If you shut off the whole house, do you have an outside faucet? If you do you could drain water down there and then put a pan under the stop and remove the stem assembly. (Take the stop apart.)

You don't say if it's a pipe thread or 1/2" compression.
 

hj

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valve

The reason you got flooded would have a lot to do with how the system is installed, which we don't know anything about. If it is compression valve, then teflon tape won'd do any good, and tightening the valve could damage the copper and make the leak, and repair, more difficult.
 

Mikey

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Turn off the valve at the water heater as well -- you might be draining the WH through the cold water system. If the water isn't coming in under too much pressure, you could hire a young Dutch boy to stick his finger in the pipe while you ponder your choices.

I assume you know about compression fittings. Do the brass ferrule, copper pipe, and interior of the stop valve all look undamaged? If so, you could first try re-useing the old stop valve after giving everything a general cleaning. I use WD-40 on the compression fitting and valve threads so that there's very little friction to resist tightening. Tighten only enough to stop the leak.

On general principles, you might replace the stop valve. The old ferrule and nut probably won't come off easily, so first try re-useing them. If it still leaks, you'll have to remove the ferrule and nut and use new. The ferrule can be removed by carefully (so as not to damage the pipe) sawing it juuuust enough to split it with a screwdriver, then slide it off. Then examine the pipe -- if it's buggered up from overtightening the old ferrule, it's time to call for professional help, probably, or at least take a picture of it and post it here for the real pros to comment on. You might be able to trim the pipe and set a new ferrule further back, or sweat on a new valve on the end of the stub.
 
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Verdeboy

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Finding an outdoor spigot that is lower than the shutoff valve will help drain the system faster. Are you sure the valve is not leaking at the packing nut? That would be easy to fix by just tightening the packing nut or replacing the guts if you can find the same valve.

I've had success with using teflon tape on compression fittings. So, if it's leaking at the compression nut, go for it.
 

Plumber1

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If that's the case, I would just turn the water off at the pump and remove the pressure and back the compression nut off and slide it back then dry that area and spread some plumbers grease on the Ferrel and the threads and tighten it up using end wrenches or crescent wrenches. That should do it. Also as verdaboy said, look at the packing gland and the 3/8" compression too.
 
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