Tap washer confusion

[john eastwood]

Have some bathroom basin taps and bath taps that came with the house and have never ever seen similar ones anywhere. Somebody told me they thought they might have been imported from Italy.

I want to replace all the tap washers. Measuring the 'base' of the washers, I get 15mm and 21mm.

Going to my local wickes their washers are only labelled in inches. (do they know its 2011? . Like an assistant in a shop in archway road near archway station told me in a grumpy fashion, 'i dont do metric'....)

Being a novice, is there a logic or some reason behind the Wickes washers labelled 1/2" actually being 3/4" in diameter and the packet labelled 3/8" being 5/8" ?

Any advice on where I might go in north west London to get some decent washers?

[John]

Refers to the pipe size of the tap 1/2 inch basin and 3/4 inch bath (15mm &

22mm pipe conventions - was 1/2inch and 3/4 inch)

My local B&Q has other washers for Pegler and other proprietary tap designs.

[Stephen Mawson]

You might be comforted to know that Italian iron plumbing fittings use BSP threads and are even marked "3/4" etc. Copper pipes are metric but they seem to use an intermediate 18mm size which I think is pretty rare here if it exists at all.

Stephen

[Tabby]

Any plumber's merchant or diy shed will have tap washers. If you get some too big, trimming them is trivial.

NT