North Leeds Plumbing & Heating – Home Improvement and DIY Advice

Archive for the ‘Toilets’ Category

A blocked toilet is a minor crisis, and many people end up paying hefty fees to a plumber to save the day. But curing the problem is an easy – if occasionally unpleasant – DIY job that requires no expert building skills. Anyone, from bus drivers and office workers to architects, can clear it with the right tools. Unlike painting, decorating and plastering, it’ll be over and done with on average in less than half an hour.

Begin with a large toilet plunger: you can buy some WC plungers with pump handles which literally surges a jet of water into the U-bend. These are usually effective in shifting blockages in the toilet bend itself or nearby in the soil stack. A more compacted blockage, though, may require a sterner approach. This is where you’ll need a special instrument called a toilet auger (don’t panic, they cost under £10 from plumber’s merchants). It’s a flexible metal wire, which you feed into the bend until it meets the blockage. As soon as you’ve hit the obstacle, just turn the handle whilst pushing and then pull the blockage outwards (hold your nose – it’s probably not going to smell very nice, but this piece of kit does drag compacted blockages out very effectively).

If the blockage is still there, you can try a chemical cleaner. These are available from plumber’s merchants and they’re extremely powerful. You must be sure that there is no bleach in the pan or a violent chemical reaction can ensue. You’ll definitely need to use thick protective rubber gloves and eye goggles for this. If all this fails, call that plumber!

Toilets are part of bathroom fittings in most households, although some have separate facilities. A toilet suite is made up of three parts and these consist of the actual toilet called the pan, the cistern and the seat.  These suites are normally supplied in white, but can be bought in several different colours, including floral designs to match the other bathroom fittings. There are a few technical terms associated with buying a toilet to match your bathroom suite.

Close coupled means that the toilet pan and cistern are connected when they are fitted. The term high or low level refers to traditional toilets which have the cistern fixed to the wall and connected by a long pipe to the pan. A ‘concealed’ cistern is hidden behind fixtures in the bathroom or even behind a wall so that it cannot be seen.

The most popular WC or toilet suite is the close coupled cistern type which can have a flushing lever on either side, or button flush on top. If space is at a premium there is a range of compact WC suites available that will allow installation in minimal space.

It is certainly not necessary to know anything about WC fittings when you are buying a new bathroom suite, but it can be interesting to know what some of the things on the packaging mean and it can also help in making a more informed choice. The easiest way of all is to ask the advice of an expert but with this small amount of information at least it will be easier to know what questions to ask.

It goes without saying that the lavatory is one of the most regularly used appliances in our homes. As such, when deciding on updating your loo, you should ensure that it is both functional and pleasant.

Fortunately, there are many different types of lavatory to choose from. So whether you want to create a contemporary or traditional look to your bathroom a good look around to see what is on offer is vital.

A Close-Coupled loo has the water cistern (often referred to as the tank or closet) sitting directly over the top of the toilet pan. The pan is fixed to the floor and the cistern to the wall. Depending on the style you choose, the cistern may be tall or short, narrow or wide, and operated by a lever placed on the front or side of the cistern. Some cisterns also favour a push button located on the top of the unit.

A Back-to-the-Wall Pan is secured to a furniture unit or false wall. The cistern is concealed within the unit or boxed into a wall. It is connected to the pan by means of a flush-pipe, which, like the cistern, is likely to be made of plastic as none of the mechanism is visible. Most furniture units are fitted with a removable lid to allow ease of access to the cistern.

A High-Level toilet describes where the cistern is fixed to the wall above the pan and operated by a pull chain and handle, which gives it a powerful flush. The flush-pipe is often complemented with decorative support brackets under the cistern and is available in various finishes.

A bidet is an extremely efficient way to maintain a very high standard of personal hygiene after using the lavatory.

Washing is far more effective than using toilet paper and offers a greater degree of comfort to those suffering from ailments such as haemorrhoids. As such, bidets are highly recommended by health practitioners and doctors.

A bidet stands around 40 cm high – about adult knee-height – and is connected to a hot and cold water supply and waste outlet in precisely the same way as your bathroom sink.

The most popular way to do this is to fit a single mixer tap and pop-up plug. However, some bidet taps also have a variable fountain spray.

The bowl area is longer than it is wide and fairly shallow. This allows you crouch over the fixture with both feet placed on either side to comfortably wash yourself.

When choosing the right tap for the bidet be sure to remember that there are two types of mixer, the so-called monobloc mixer and the three-hole appliance.

The monobloc basin mixer provides a hand-operated multi-directional swivel nozzle, whilst the three-hole mixer combines a spray douche with a built in device to clean the underside of the surrounding basin rim, switching between functions by means of a diverter.

And also have a good look around for bidet taps. These come in a wide variety of metals and designs and should be chosen to complement the rest of your bathroom fittings – particularly those on the lavatory, sink and bath.

With traditional bathroom suites, the toilet tends to come in the high-level variety, where the cistern is placed high above the bowl, with a flush operating via a chain hanging down. There is a wide range of options that will come in this design and it will be the perfect way to maintain an authentic look to your bathroom.

Victorian-style bathrooms always look better with this sort of toilet installed, and more shapely and sculpted bases will give a more classic look. However, low-level options can also be considered, and will prove a lot easier to install. Low-level cisterns are more popular for Edwardian-style bathrooms, but if you are trying to recreate a Georgian look, a high-level unit will be required.

Traditional toilet pans will usually come with a wooden seat, either in an oak or beech finish, so it is important to take this into consideration when choosing your bathroom furniture, or accessories, such as towel rails or bathroom mirrors.

High-level cisterns were originally made out of metal, but today they are nearly all manufactured from ceramic. There will be a few suppliers selling the metal variety, but these will not come cheap. Brass or wooden pulls are the more popular choices for the cistern chain, while the pipe work can be finished in either brass or chrome.

Where your toilet is to be installed may have a large impact on whether you go for a high-level or low-level design. If you find that the toilet is going to be close to the bathroom sink or shower cubicle, a higher cistern will give a bit more room.

Regarding colour and how toilets match with the rest of the features in the bathroom, the majority of toilet manufacturers also manufacture bathroom sinks and bathroom basins with similar colours and appearance. But it is important to note that a white colour from manufacturer A is not necessarily the exact white colour from manufacturer B. So it is crucial that toilets, bathroom basins and bathroom sinks are purchased from the same manufacturer.

To make a bathroom even more aesthetically appealing, there are firms that specialise in making bathroom accessories such as flush handles that can match everything else in the bathroom from soap dishes to towel bars to the bathroom fan.

Toilets come in different shapes and sizes. There are the round front bowl toilets as well as the elongated bowl toilets. In terms of cost, round front bowls are more affordable than then elongated bowls. There are also different flushing mechanisms in use ranging from a gravity flushing mechanism to the pressure flushing mechanism. Round front bowls are mostly installed in bathrooms where space is at a premium. Elongated bowls provide more comfort and are suitable in roomy bathrooms.

But aesthetic appeal of a bathroom can not only be achieved by having a uniform decor. One other way is by installing concealed toilet cisterns. With a concealed cistern the water closet unit, where the cistern is hidden, the hidden plumbing results in an extremely neat bathroom. And because access to the concealed cistern must be provided, the majority of the concealed toilet cisterns possess a front panel that is easy to disassemble and assemble.

One very visually appealing option currently available for the bathroom is the concealed cistern toilet. With concealed cistern toilets you have the option of having the cistern resting on the floor like any ordinary toilet or, alternatively, it can be wall-hung which means it is not resting on the floor. A wall-hung concealed cistern toilet creates a lot of space but they also require a lot of support.

One of the advantages that come with a concealed toilet cistern is the fact that they are not visible to the eye and this not only releases a lot of space creating room in the bathroom but also makes the bathroom look very neat. Another advantage is that the noise that results from flushing a toilet is greatly reduced since the flushing action and refilling of the water closet is happening inside the bathroom wall.

When concealed toilet cisterns are mentioned to most people, the misconception they have is that should a plumbing problem arise, it will be very difficult to solve – probably even requiring bringing down the wall. The truth is that any plumbing expert can easily service the cistern. This though is dependent on how the installation was done. In situations where the cistern is hidden in the wall of the bathroom, all that is required for servicing and repairing is opening the access panel. If the cistern is hidden in bathroom vanity units or atop the ceiling, the access panel is not necessary since external access is the obvious option.