The cistern on our 30 year old close-coupled WC cistern is cracked at the corner of one side and the font and leaking. This will undoubtedly mean a new WC but I am wondering if I can make a temporary repair to get us over the next two weeks.
I have drained it and am letting it dry out at the moment. The interior is has a fairly rough surface and I wonder if it would be feasible to cover the cracked area with Araldite and some sort of material to make a 'plaster'. Or would a viable alternative be something like car body filler?
I have successfully "tanked" a cistern, using fibreglass matting and resin. Get some matting (you can use car repair kits, but it's cheaper to but matting/resin), and some resin and catalyst. It's handy to have some cellulose thinners and cheap 1/2" paintbrushes, too. Cut out shapes from the matting to approximately fit the inside of the cistern, with 2" overlaps. Make sure you've a number of disposable containers to mix the resin in. ISTR I started at the bottom, with one piece of matting, and overlapped oblongs for the sides onto it. Make a small amount of resin (perhaps 1/8 pt., *don't* use too much hardener), quickly and roughly soak the area of the cistern your first patch will cover, put on the patch, and stipple in more resin 'till it's saturated. Don't bother to coat the mat where it covers holes, BUT the matt *must* be soaked to the edge of the hole. When one bit is on, do anoother bit, and continue, ideally not letting the resin cure completely between patches. Put in another "bottom", and then sides. When it's solid, cut out any holes (drill and padsaw). De-nib if necessary around the "holes", and loosely put the "gubbins" back inside, using more resin or filler to make sure the washers etc. form a flat bed to seat on. When it's gone off enough, remove the "gubbins", make sure the seatings are OK, and put the lot back together. Fill the crack with clear casting resin, or just resin with a tiny amount of catalyst so it's not particularly coloured. Done reasonably well, this job will last many, many years. I did this to rescue a cracked cistern in a matching decorated suite. What have I forgotten? Hm. Cover the crack with tape before you start, on the outside, so that dirt doesn't get into it and make it show as a black line. The thinners is for cleaning up resin that's not rock hard.
We had a plastic bath with a crack in it, leaked terribly. A bit of gaffa tape on the inside sorted it. It was still doing its job perfectly well until we replaced the suite some six months later.
If nothing else, it will only cost you 5p worth of tape to find out! Someone
Whilst a repair should be fairly simple, so is replacing the cistern. I'd be tempted to do the job properly right away if you can get hold of a compatible cistern. There shouldn't be any need to replace the business end, unless you had your heart set on a change of style.
Very many thanks for all the suggestions - I have decided to try the Plastic Padding body filler reinforced with their aluminium mesh - it may be a bit belt and braces but I am concerned that the cracks are a position that could easily get knocked.
I suppose you could - the cistern I repaired was cracked so badly that it might have fallen to pieces, though! Interestingly, the resin did not bond at all well to the porcelain, for some reason. That black sht sticks to almost anything!
Probably not - firstly the odds on the concealed polyhawk feed to the cistern being in the right place are from previous experience, rather high. I have decided that I need to run a new cold feed into the bathroom before changing any part of the suite. Secondly we have decided to change the suite from coloured to white and this means the wall tiles need replacing.
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