This morning 0500h, the cat decides to resume its persecution of the local mice.
The wife descends to let it out.
Then a holler from below, "there's water running into the shower room".
More to the point, the toilet. We just call it the shower room because, well, you know.
Hustle downstairs expecting to find water dripping through the ceiling, but no, the 1960s loo cistern has cracked. Not where the seat opens against it, but lower, horizontal, a good 12" of crack. Why??
Water pouring onto the cherry-wood floor.
The water shutoff valve was painted over by PO - on my Things To Do list - and of course inop.
Eventually, the water was shut off by tying up the ball valve.
Could have happened any time. We were very lucky to catch it early.
Given time, it could and would have run into the rest of the ground floor rooms, so I shall now insert a little upstand to ensure that if ever there is another escape, the water will run out under the front door.
Now ... this morning the search for a replacement cistern began.
No suitable antiques available locally, so it has to be new.
Why are there so many different loo cisterns?
Talk about complicating a simple process.
Eventually find the necessary spec at a local Wolseley - mid-height, side fill, BS dimensions. Space is tight, so thank goodness British Standards have survived our sojourn in the EU. But it's modern, I hate modern.
Anyway, now there's just the usual imperial/metric issues to plumb it in.
Until last year we had a spare antique cistern in stock. Deco, Shanks, nice condition.
I bought it in 2011 at an antiques auction, intending to fit it in place of the 1960s placeholder. It sat in the bottom of the airing cupboard. Then, for domestic reasons shall we say, it got moved to the garage where I knocked the lid over and broke it.
Nine years we had that cistern sitting there. Nine blooming years
V8
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Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
88V8 wrote:Eventually find the necessary spec at a local Wolseley - mid-height, side fill, BS dimensions. Space is tight, so thank goodness British Standards have survived our sojourn in the EU. But it's modern, I hate modern.
Anyway, now there's just the usual imperial/metric issues to plumb it in.
Until last year we had a spare antique cistern in stock. Deco, Shanks, nice condition.
I bought it in 2011 at an antiques auction, intending to fit it in place of the 1960s placeholder. It sat in the bottom of the airing cupboard. Then, for domestic reasons shall we say, it got moved to the garage where I knocked the lid over and broke it.
Nine years we had that cistern sitting there. Nine blooming years
Commiserations. It can be really hard to find suitably retro toilets these days, unless you're willing to fork out absurd amounts of money. When we bought Bungee Towers in the 1990s (a total restoration project), we had seven washbasins and three toilets to buy, and since we were broke, we had the good fortune to find a cheap Chinese range that were the dead spit of authentic Shanks. We bought it in the expectation that we'd keep it for six or seven years and replace it when we could afford it, but 27 years later it still looks like the real deal. (Give or take a few more tasteful toilet flush handles.) Only the taps and sink drains have needed replacing.
But you can go too far with this here authentic toilet stuff. We are currently renovating a retail property for conversion into offices, and our builder says we should rip out the close coupled flush and replace it with a nice retro high-level cistern complete with a metal chain. (Think Niagara or Thunderer, or even Thomas Crapper.) He says Crapper cisterns are ever so fashionable in London these days. I told him that I've always hated pull-chain toilets, because when you wrap your hand into that ornate metal handle you know exactly what the last person was doing just before he reached his hand up to flush it.
BJ
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
88V8 wrote:
Until last year we had a spare antique cistern in stock. Deco, Shanks, nice condition.
I bought it in 2011 at an antiques auction, intending to fit it in place of the 1960s placeholder. It sat in the bottom of the airing cupboard. Then, for domestic reasons shall we say, it got moved to the garage where I knocked the lid over and broke it.
Nine years we had that cistern sitting there. Nine blooming years
V8
It's always the way, nearly...
About 10 years ago I scrapped my Toyota Camry. Before I did I stripped it for Ebay and kept a few 'useful' bits,trim clips, odd bolts, bulbs, etc. In Feb we sold the house and a lot of old stuff just got left in boxes and dumped in the new shed.
Last week the central locking failed on the Carina - I removed the door card to get to the switch and snapped a door rod clip.
3 hours searching the shed, several hours online and on Ebay looking for one the right dimensions, and finally I got one from Toyota for £3.50 on Monday. I decided to mow the lawn this morning, went to get the foot pump to top up the tractor tyres, and found the box of clips.
Paul
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
My house is a bit complex with several loos, showers, umpteen basins, hot water cylinders, cold tanks, 22 radiators and so on.
As is life, sometimes things leak. My rule of thumb is:
- (as expected) shut off at the nearest gate or inline valve
and
- poke a hole in the ceiling plaster where the leak is coming from (then get a bucket)
My logic is that filling a a small hole is a trivial job, whereas if the plasterboard gets soggy it swells, sags and ultimately needs replacing, and the ceiling will need repapering. In a few critical areas where leaks have happened before, I leave a small hole unfilled just in case. This will give me advance warning of impending problems.
As is life, sometimes things leak. My rule of thumb is:
- (as expected) shut off at the nearest gate or inline valve
and
- poke a hole in the ceiling plaster where the leak is coming from (then get a bucket)
My logic is that filling a a small hole is a trivial job, whereas if the plasterboard gets soggy it swells, sags and ultimately needs replacing, and the ceiling will need repapering. In a few critical areas where leaks have happened before, I leave a small hole unfilled just in case. This will give me advance warning of impending problems.
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
I suspect you're Russian. C.stewamax wrote:My house is a bit complex with several loos, showers, umpteen basins, hot water cylinders, cold tanks, 22 radiators and so on.
As is life, sometimes things leak. My rule of thumb is:
- (as expected) shut off at the nearest gate or inline valve
and
- poke a hole in the ceiling plaster where the leak is coming from (then get a bucket)
My logic is that filling a a small hole is a trivial job, whereas if the plasterboard gets soggy it swells, sags and ultimately needs replacing, and the ceiling will need repapering. In a few critical areas where leaks have happened before, I leave a small hole unfilled just in case. This will give me advance warning of impending problems.
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
csearle wrote:I suspect you're Russian. C.stewamax wrote: In a few critical areas where leaks have happened before, I leave a small hole unfilled just in case. This will give me advance warning of impending problems.
With that many leaks, he sounds more like Boris Johnson. Speaking of which, now there's a man who ought to have had isolation valves installed in his pipework.
BJ
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Re: Saved by the cat/nine blooming years
bungeejumper wrote:csearle wrote:I suspect you're Russian. C.stewamax wrote: In a few critical areas where leaks have happened before, I leave a small hole unfilled just in case. This will give me advance warning of impending problems.
With that many leaks, he sounds more like Boris Johnson. Speaking of which, now there's a man who ought to have had isolation valves installed in his pipework.
BJ
I now realise why it's called a stopcock
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