Water leaks, Continued

Yesterday, I talked about emergency water leakage. Here are some pointers for the non-emergency kind, which are slower, and much less dramatic, but can waste enormous amounts of water over short periods of time.
Toilet running - The inside of the toilet needs to be adjusted or rebuilt. If you absolutely/positively want it fixed the first time, replace the entire guts of the toilet, and the supply line (the flex line from the valve to the toilet).
Leaking faucets - A dripping faucet can drip over 200 gallons a month. Faucets have cartridges (also called valve stems) that can be replaced. OSH carries a great selection of valve stems. If OSH doesn't carry your valve stem, Barron Park Plumbing Supply in Mountain View probably does. If your faucet is older, and a replacement valve stem is not available, you have no choice but to replace the entire faucet and both supply lines.
Leaking shower valve systems - We have seen a fair number of shower valve leaks where valve stems were no longer available. Unfortunately replacing the shower valve mechanism requires opening a wall. Since it is easier to open and patch sheetrock (compared to tile) you want to open the wall behind the shower to eliminate the need to remove and replace tiles. If you have to open the tile wall in the shower it's not the end of the world. It is possible to replace a shower valve by removing and replacing only 16 tiles. However, most people don't have matching tiles lying around in storage so this creates an aesthetics issue. When it is necessary to patch with different color tiles, many of our clients use sharply contrasting tiles so it looks intentional and less like a patch job. This sounds like major surgery but really isn't. This task can be completed in only 6 to 8 hours.
Leaking shower pan - If your shower pan is leaking, it is major surgery and is beyond the scope of this article. Symptoms are that the floor is soft and gives when you put weight on it, and/or you notice water damage on the walls in the room below the shower.