Onto the bog ...

[Arfa Daily]

OK, progress being made on the daughter's bathroom. Bath and shower now all in, plumbed, and leak-free. Tiles are in all around the bath, grouted, and silicon rubbered to the bath. I have to say that the cradle for the bath was a flimsy affair (B&Q Barcelona range) and allowed considerable flexing when it was stood in, which it will be mostly as they are both 'shower people' most of the time. To sturdy it up a bit, we cut some lengths of studding timber and 'wedged' them at several places around the bath edge, under the built in wood battens. Anyone see any potential pitfalls with this strategy ? It seems to have worked well enough. The bath seems much more solid now.

Tonight, I have to put the new bog in. Typically, the cistern inlet point is the opposite side to the existing. There is already a service valve on the feed pipe, so my question is, is the inlet coupler the same size as a tap ? If so, I'm just going to stick a short stub in the top of the service valve (with a new olive, of course!) and run a tap flexi with a push fit at the far end to save me having to run new pipework across the back, and then get it to all line up. If it's not the same size as a tap, does anyone know if there is a flexi made that does fit ?

TIA

Arfa

[Toby]

I think you will find, the thread on the service valve is 1/2", probably the same as the thead on the toilet - try screwing the nut from the service valve onto the toilet, if it fits, it's the same!

All you will then need is one of these in the appropriate length...

[mark.hannah]

I have the Barcelona bathroom suite - no problem with flexing of the bath at all - once the brackets were secured to the wall the thing is solid.

As for the Barcelona toilet - what a piece of junk. Let me know how you get on with this.

I had 3 replacements from B&Q and they all had the same problem - when the cistern is fitted it doesn't sit at 90 degrees to the pan - it leans forward. This is with washers properly fitted and bolts properly tightened.

This means that the back of the cistern won't sit flush against the wall (there are no fixing-points to secure the cistern to the wall.) I called B&Q's supplier - and they told me that this is deliberate design - and this toilet isn't supposed to be fitted against a wall - it's meant to be free-standing!

Mark.

[mark.hannah]

Yes - the inlet to the toilet is the same size as a tap - I used a flexi with a tap connector on one end and a compression fitting on the other end to connect mine. (I used a 2m flexi as a workaround till all the pipework was in place!)

Mark.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mine certainly has the same fitting as a 15mm tap - it's part of the Torbeck valve.

[John Rumm]

Sounds rather like the bog I installed at the last place... in which case, a couple of large bobs of silicone on the back of the cistern before offering it up to a tiled wall, fixed that nice and firmly.

(free standing may be ok on a concrete floor, but on a wood one, there is too much natural movement for it to be a good idea)

You can also tweak the angle slightly by wedging the thing at the desired one, and applying a bead of silicone along the gap at the base of the cistern/back of the pan and letting it go off. (has the benefit of also stopping any erm "liquids" getting splashed into the gap for later exercises in DIY aromatherapy !

[mark.hannah]

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Though of wedging it - but though that would be a decidedly ugly botch! And I don't fancy trying to clean the erm "liquids" from the silicone!

Mark.

[Arfa Daily]

Thanks for the tip. I will look out for this, and report back. I guess at a pinch, holes for wall fixing, could be drilled in the back of the cistern, where they are usually located. A while back, I used one of their "Bog to Go" range in my shower room, and that is junk also, although it has got fixing holes in the cistern. Biggest problem I have found with it, is that the glaze is not as 'smooth' as it looks down in the pan, with the inevitable consequences which I'm sure you can imagine ... Suffice to say that the bog brush is never dry in its holder ... !! This is exacerbated by the fact that the flush mech has a mind of its own. It seems to pick long or short flush at random, based on nothing I can figure to do with how long you hold the actuator. Needless to say, it always seems to do a short flush, when a long one was what was needed ... :-\

Arfa

[Arfa Daily]

Good advice John, as always. All duly noted and absorbed !

Arfa

[The Medway Handyman]

Yup 15mm flexi fits taps and/or ball valve inlets. When I change a ball valve I almost always chop the old pipe & fit a flexi as you describe, but with compression, not this new fangled push fit malarky.

[John Rumm]

How far out is yours? (mins was only 1 degree or so)

Easier from a nice neat bead of silicone than a gap!

[Arfa Daily]

I've been using push fit for some years now since I put in my first shower pump at my own house, and have never had a problem (touch wood!)

Now, another question. Would I be right in assuming that a combi boiler won't work if the CH circuit is depressurised and partially drained ? Have run into a little problem in my daughter's bathroom refit. Tonight, I was going to take off the old radiator, which is going to be replaced by one of the fancy ladder ones, so that her husband could tile that wall in readiness. The plan was to just shut off the valves either end, then unscrew them off the rad, catching the water in a bowl. However, as soon as I shut off the right hand valve, just at the point that it came to a full shut off, the compression joint at the bottom started to leak. I tried pulling it up another quarter turn, but made no difference, so I had to turn it back on, to relieve the water pressure again from the joint. That has left me a bit stuck as to the best way to proceed. I can't fit the new rad to the wall until the tiling has been done and has dried, but I can't now take the rad off the wall, without draining down. I figure that I am going to have to do that, and then put on a temporary stop end or whatever, then refill and pressurise to get the boiler to run and get them some hot water back. Does that sound right ?

Also, I noticed that the pipework feeding the current rad, is smaller than

15mm, so what size would that be, and are there any implications with hooking up to one of those ladder rads ?

Back to the bog, it's quite right - there are no holes to fix the cistern to the wall, so I guess it's going to be stick it with silicon, as John suggested. Also, good old B&Q. There was no 'bag of bits' in the box. No syphon / flush mech, no fixings or donuts - nada zip zilch. So daughter goes storming off down there, and they just took a bag of bits from another on the rack, so I guess some other poor sap is gonna find themselves in the same position in a few days ...

Arfa

[The Medway Handyman]

It does I'm afraid, but assuming the bathroom is on the upper floor you only have to drain down to below its level. Turn off all other rads to reduce the amount of water you have to drain.

Typical B&Q that. Wickes are as bad, I've had three sinks without the clips & sealing strip. Each time they have taken them from another sink on the shelf. When I've mentioned it they say they will remove it later, but I bet they don't.

I now unpack the sink to check before I leave the store.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ah - it's you is it? ;-)

[mark.hannah]

Possibly been a return that she has bought. When I took back my first one they said - "oh just put it over there next to the other three". (All returns of the identical product!)

Mark.

[mark.hannah]

I think I measured it at about 5 degress at the time. The bottom of the cistern touches the wall and there is a 20mm gap at the top - I guess I could do some trig and work it out exactly!

Mark.

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[jgharston]

...anna isolating valve. Saves huge hassles being able to turn off a single appliance.

-- JGH

[Arfa Daily]

...anna isolating valve. Saves huge hassles being able to turn off a single appliance.

-- JGH

There's already a service valve on the bog feed, which is why I was going to just stick in a stub of pipe with a new olive, and then use a push fit connector at that end.

Arfa

[The Medway Handyman]

Absolutely. I fit those as well whenever I can, always asking for the customers agreement first of course.

[Rod]

Late arrivals at the plumbers' ball:

Mr and Mrs Isolating Valve and their daughter, Anna?

(I know typos aren't funny, I make enough of them, but I did laugh.)