Household water feeds.

[ss]

I need to replace a washer in toilet cistern. I turned water off at the mains under the kitchen sink but altough this turned of the cold in the kitchen it didnt turn off the cold water in the toilet. Would I be correct in assuming the toilet feeds come from the loft tank and the kitchen cold a direct mains feed. This being correct I assume there should be a stopcock of some kind in the attic to stop the cold feed to the toilets. Trying to avoid going up there but looks like I may have no choice :-(

[Chris Bartram]

Maybe. If they are fed from the tank, leave the stopcock off, and run a cold tap in the bathroom to empty the tank if you really can't face the loft.

[Harry Bloomfield]

ss formulated on Friday :

It does seem likely, that is how it was done in some areas of the country.

[harryagain]

Could be. It was done so the toilet tank would be very quite in filling. Also back then they had this idea that the water supply could somehow be contaminated with direct mains connection. Turn off mains water & drain loft tank with cold water bath tap.

[polygonum]

Back when? So far as I can see, OP says nothing about when the plumbing was done nor the age of the property.

I decided to feed one WC with mains, the other from tank. Nothing to do with noise. It can be useful when the water supply is interrupted.

[ss]

House built 1980, Scotland

[Lobster]

Surely it's what certainly used to be a bog-standard installation everywhere; a cistern in the attic fed everything in the house except the kitchen sink, and you were always therefore supposed to drink water from the kitchen tap (since water from everywhere else would likely be contaminated by dead pigeons.

And plumber's piss:

[polygonum]

Rather than back in the era of Thomas Crapper... As harry seemed to be suggesting.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

It's likely. The idea is that you get fresh water at the drinking tap in the kitchen (but not at eg the taps in an upstairs bathroom). The water from a tank in the loft might be polluted if eg some beast has managed to get into the tank and drown there.

There should be a stopcock on the rising main that takes water up to the attic, so you can turn off the supply to it. You'd still need to drain the loft tank by flushing the toilet until its cistern no longer fills.

Some loft tanks had valves on them which could be operated by pulling a wire; when my parents bought an old (1900s?) house in Edinburgh these wires came down to the upstairs bathroom (which was under the loft tank) so one could control them from there. At some point my father removed those so one had to go into the attic to turn off the tank's ability to supply the rest of the house; the wires were still there, but shortened.

[ss]

Heres hoping there is another stopcock as I have recently had about 18 inches of insulation in the loft and I dont want to crawl around in that unless I have to. I suppose I could always tie back the float in the loft tank if I cant find a stopcock although I would still need to empty it. Now that I think about it I had a plumber move a radiator for me a year back and while he was there he cleaned out the inlet valve/float for the loft tank, I didnt pay much attention but he disconnected the float to have a look at it so he must have somehow turned the water off to the loft tank...Mmmmm

[Graham.]

Back then it was to hell with contamination , and you could get mixer taps that actually mixed, instead of modern compliant ones that keep the H&C separate until the water exits the spout.

[Graham.]

Never seen anything like that but I can well believe it of Edinburgh. My Grandparents lived in a flat in Edinburgh, 15 Forest Road. It had wire operated bells originally to summon the maid, the front door bells worked in the same way; big brass knobs you pulled, and best of all a big brass levers on the landings to lift the latch downstairs.

[S Viemeister]

I used to spend a lot of time on Forrest Road many years ago - folkie friends had a flat there.

[Bob Eager]

Me too. We had friends who lived just the other side of Nicolson Street. At the time, there was a really nice place to eat on Forrest Road, but it was also our route (on foot) to all sorts of places.

[S Viemeister]

There was Willy's place near the (now renamed) Forrest Hill Bar, and there was a rather good Szechuan restaurant on the opposite side - it was a long time ago...

[harryagain]

In England at least, posh houses (ie the ones with indoor toilets) built in the late 1800's/early1900's were plumbed this way (tank fed) more often than not. They had this toilet fetish thing back then. Hence the need not tobe reminded about toilets. (And the fear of cholera)

Most of these houses actually had commodes and the commodes were emptied by servents into the bog..

The herbs had outdoor toilets.

[harryagain]

Flush toilets date from long before him. He was just a salesman anyway.

[polygonum]

Still did qualify, in my view, as a "back then" plumbing design/decision.

[harryagain]

Those are quite common. When I was an electrician, I often came across the wires under floors. Only once saw one actually working. An enthusiast had repaired it. I expecthe wanted to summon his wife from the kitchen :-)

Where to you suppose the trem"bellcrank" comes from?

[polygonum]

Of course, meant:

Still did NOT qualify, in my view, as a "back then" plumbing design/decision.