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Could a plumbing shut off valve turn itself?

I have a leaky toilet in my house. When my brother and sister in law moved in a couple months ago, I replaced all of the parts in hopes of making the toilet usable, but I think the problem is that the tank doesn't fit onto the bottom properly. I decided to just turn the shut off valve to the toilet off and deal with it later on when I'm doing other work up there. It's one of the cheap plastic ones, if that makes a difference. Anyways, everyone in the house knew not to use the toilet and that the water needed to stay turned off, but this morning I got up to find that part of the ceiling under it fell down and there was water dripping from the ceiling. I went up to see where it was coming from, and the shut off valve to the toilet was turned on. Everyone in the house swears they didn't touch it. All of the stuff that they had been storing on and around the toilet was still in place, too. Is there any chance that the water pressure made the valve turn itself on or something like that? I had turned the valve off 2 or 3 months ago... if I didn't turn it off all the way, if it possible for it to slowly turn itself on over time? When I went up there to check on it, I had to turn it a few times to shut it off again. I want to be CERTAIN that there's no other explanation for what happened before I start accusing people of things. :-(

Public Comments

  1. No, the water pressure could not have caused the shut off valve to open by itself. It is simply not possible.
  2. Valve did not turn itself on. Either you did not fully close it or some one will not own up to opening
  3. No if it was turned off all the way even if it was a cheap valve, no it cant turn itself on there isn't enough pressure in the line to force it open.
  4. You said it yourself "It's one of the cheap plastic ones, if that makes a difference." Was you able to shut it off again? I seen them break and leak, but they do not turn themselves.
  5. if the tank already had water in it the seal between the tank and bowl could be leaking, or the pipes you installed that are plastic did not seal good and finally started to leak while the pressure is on, ( the pressure before the shutoff valve ) but the valve would not turn itself on from water pressure..
  6. You have a ghost!
  7. some one opened it, do yourself a favor and buy a good one,cheap just caused you a lot of damage to ceiling and also mold,lucky no one was under neath when it fell.