Toilet Repair in Pittsboro, NC

Our house is fairly new. Why is the toilet already running?

Because the parts inside a tank wear out on a much shorter schedule than the house. Only about 11% of Pittsboro's homes were built before 1980, and growth around Chatham Park keeps adding more. Many newer toilets left the builder with basic plastic fill valves and rubber flappers, and after enough years the flapper hardens or warps and water slips into the bowl. The tank then refills on its own, sometimes every few minutes. The fix is usually a new flapper or fill valve, done without removing the toilet. A toilet in a newer home that rocks or leaks at the base often means it wasn't set firmly on the flange at first, which calls for a reset on a fresh seal.

Who handles our water and sewer now?

TriRiver Water, the regional utility run by the City of Sanford, took over the Town of Pittsboro's water and sewer operations on July 1, 2024. Three subdivisions outside town limits, Chapel Ridge, Laurel Ridge and The Parks at Meadowview, are billed and serviced by Aqua, a private company, and customers there have reported very high water rates. Wherever your bill comes from, the toilet and everything on your side of the system is yours to fix. A toilet that runs between flushes is one of the most common reasons for a bill that suddenly climbs, so it's worth checking with a dye test before calling the utility.

Do toilet jobs in Pittsboro need a permit?

Chatham County Central Permitting & Inspections handles building permits and plumbing inspections for the Town of Pittsboro, along with Siler City, Goldston and unincorporated Chatham. Swapping a flapper or fill valve is routine maintenance. For a full toilet replacement or anything that changes the drain or supply piping, ask the plumber whether the county wants a permit at your address.

A note for homes outside town

Beyond town limits, water service depends on the address. Chatham County requires homes to connect to county water where a line is close enough, and it estimated about 15,000 private wells countywide in 2021. On a well, a running toilet also means extra pump starts. County well testing found manganese above the health advisory in about a third of wells, so dark stains in the tank and a fill valve fouled by grit are common in those homes. Calls about failing wells have clustered south of US 64 between Pittsboro and Siler City and around Chapel Ridge, according to the county.