Help needed in bodging a shonky pedestal WHB

[David W.E. Roberts]

Hi,

further to my previous ever more despairing posts:

I now have the WHB screwed to the wall and level.

The screws going up at about 35 degrees from the bottom of the WHB are not exactly efficient in holding the whole thing on the wall. If you wanted to hang something this big and heavy efficiently then you would put the screw holes horizontally in the top so the turning moment (I think that is the right term) would try to force the bottom of the WHB through the wall and the screws would also provide vertical support.

With the screw holes at the bottom the turning moment tries to peel the top of the WHB away from the wall. [And is doing a partially successful job] The downwards force is not at right angles to the screw, so the resultant force also tries to ease the screws out of the wall.

Try thinking of a shelf bracket fixed only at the bottom most point with an upwards slanting screw. Visualise the shelf slowly peeling off the wall :-(

So the whole thing is not robust without relying on the pedestal for support.

However now the pedestal is finally screwed to the floor the lack of precision in the casting is even more obvious. The pedestal touches the bottom of the WHB at only one point - elsewhere there are gaps of various widths. Packing the pedestal at the bottom does not seem a viable option due to the irregular nature of the gap between pedestal and WHB.

I have everything sound and secure at the moment by using a couple of wedges, but this is not pretty.

I was going to fill the gap with Silicone Sealant, but I am concerned that this will be too flexible and will not provide a rigid support for the WHB when set.

Is there an alternative sealant which will set hard like mortar and so provide a rigid support, but which is white and suitable for use with bathroom porcelain?

I can even see myself resorting to mortar, with a bead of silicone sealant to hide the awfulness.

Suggestions gratefully received.

Dave R

[David W.E. Roberts]

My lady love has suggested tile grout. What does the team think?

[BillR]

Sounds like a shoddy bit of kit to me. Take it back. I've had to fit several washbasins and the problem I had was the holes were usually too big, so no problem with the angle. I reckon a washbasin ought to be mounted firmly on the wall without having to rely on the pedestal if possible. The latest one I fitted, from Bathstore.com and wasn't expensive, came with large double ended bolts. one end had woodscrew thread that screwed into wall and the other took washers and nuts. Nice firm job when fitted. Although I first had to fit timber batten in dry-lined wall at correct position. Haven't bothered to screw down pedestal as its barely more than just decorative

[gandalf]

------------- My first inclination is that you may have the WHB level with regard to the centre of the earth, but not the floor. Perhaps if you shim the pedestal you can get it meet as it should and thus provide support for downward forces.

[David W.E. Roberts]

Yep - from my Collins book I would have expected a robust metal bracket concealed beneth the washbasin.

I hadn't really considered how bad the design was until I fitted it and started to have problems - then I looked at the layout and thought 'Hmmm...'.

This was an 'all in one' suite from Homebase so I would anticipate a delay in replacement of a single component; I also suspect I might have to go through several before finding a good fit :-(

I am trying out the 'tile cement' packing which in theory ought to give me a perfect fit between the pedestal and WHB - we shall see.

If that fails I may try to chage the WHB.

I am seriously considering just junking it for a better design, but then I have to potentially move the waste pipe etc.

So least hassle is probably to 'bodge' I mean constructively re-engineer things.

Thanks Dave R

[BigWallop]

Twyfords, Shanks and others usually recommend something like this :

does away with the weight being taken solely by the pedestal.

[David W.E. Roberts]

Good point - but I experimented with wedging under the pedestal and still couldn't get a good fit with the WHB.

I suspect I have YGWYPF syndrome.

Thanks Dave R

[David W.E. Roberts]

Damn right - unfortunately that does not seem to be an option with the shonky WHB I have, so I am trying to do the best I can to set this up safely and securely.

Another time (or even quite soon if the fix doesn't work) I will know more about what is required for a securely fixed WHB.

The traditional ones with the cast iron brackets were so solid you could climb on them - wouldn't fancy doing it with this one :-(

Cheers Dave R

[John Stumbles]

Seems to be a generic difference between british and continental (at least: southern european) basins.

The brit ones seem to have been designed to be supported by those cast iron brackets so popular a century or so ago and they don't seem to have got round to updating the designs since the brackets became passe.

The southern euro ones seem designed to serve double duty as support for an extra storey of building should one feel like it

As to the quality of casting (or whatever one calls it) I've had a s.euro basin which only touched its pedestal at one point, so it's not just brits which can be crap in that respect. (That got a bit of tile grout to fill the gap, for decorative rather than structural reasons in this case.)

-- John Stumbles

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-+ Bob the builder / it'll cost yer Bob the builder / loadsa dosh

[Essjay001]

That's a good idea!