How can I shut off the water to our toilet?

[GaryM]

Thanks for the clarification. I suspected it was something like that. Not to different from the USA. In condominiums here it’s the same, but here the term apartment usually refers to a rental where the management is responsible for all repairs inside and out.

[sitchensis]

@psychonaut

I think it’s incredibly wasteful to treat everything as disposable instead of carrying out simple maintenance. In my case, all that was necessary was to soak the innards in vinegar for a couple hours; when I put them back, everything worked fine again. Toilet innards aren’t recyclable (at least not around here) and so I’m glad I didn’t contribute to world’s ever-growing mountain of non-biodegradable plastic trash. At any rate, the “BS” I endured was significantly less onerous than swapping everything for new parts, since I didn’t have to track down the parts in a physical or online store, and all I had to spend was €2 on a big bottle of vinegar (which I actually already had on hand)

Cool, Are you sure you know how to use a toilet? From the picture it looks like you’re shitting in the top of it.

[kayaker]

@sitchensis

From the picture it looks like you’re shitting in the top of it.

Totally normal looking tank/cistern. I applaud the OP’s approach to maintenance.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@psychonaut

I think it’s incredibly wasteful to treat everything as disposable instead of carrying out simple maintenance.

Darnette Disposable Toilets Ad - Saturday Night Live

[Colibri]

@sitchensis

Cool, Are you sure you know how to use a toilet? From the picture it looks like you’re shitting in the top of it.

Moderator Note

Let’s keep this kind of snark out of General Questions. Even if you were joking, this isn’t appropriate here.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Little_Nemo]

@LSLGuy

If this is an apartment, the building management will want to handle this, not you. If that valve fails and you get a flood that won’t be shut off for many minutes, be prepared for major problems.

It appears that everything worked out for the OP, which is good. But I would recommend other people in a similar situation have a back-up plan in place. If you’re not sure you’ve shut off the water to the toilet and you can’t shut off the main water supply in an emergency, you should have a hose ready that will let you divert the water coming out of the pipe into your sink or bathtub. If you then find that you haven’t shut off the water, this will allow you to minimize the flooding and downgrade the subsequent situation from a crisis to a problem.

[psychonaut]

@kayaker

I applaud the OP’s approach to maintenance.

Thank you!

[psychonaut]

@Little_Nemo

I would recommend other people in a similar situation have a back-up plan in place. If you’re not sure you’ve shut off the water to the toilet and you can’t shut off the main water supply in an emergency, you should have a hose ready that will let you divert the water coming out of the pipe into your sink or bathtub.

That’s an excellent suggestion. We did happen to have a hose in the house that we could have used, but I probably would have been to dense to think to use it in the event of an emergency. I’ll know for next time.

Incidentally, 17 years ago I was housesitting for my parents when I heard an explosion upstairs. It turns out some gasket in the toilet had spontaneously ruptured, turning the toilet into a gushing fountain. Then, as now, I couldn’t find the shutoff valve (but only because, back then, I was completely ignorant about domestic plumbing and didn’t know such things even existed). I had to call a plumber to talk me through it over the phone, though by the time things got under control the bathroom was completely flooded and leaking water down to the lower floor.