Plumber?

Not me...

There is no reason why anyone should have to call out a plumber to service a WC cistern.

So says the Collins Complete DIY Manual. Maybe I'm not just anyone.

The cloakroom toilet flush has been getting worse and worse. And now it is hardly ever working. Diagnosis - torn diaphragm in the cistern syphon. (Doing OK so far!).

At Marlows the other day I picked up a new syphon (for £4 less than at Homebase), and today I tackled doing the replacement. Easy-peasy? Err...

I had instructions from the Ultimate Handyman. (It's amazing what you can find on the web). Unfortunately it didn't go quite to plan:

The WC had been installed and then the pipes enclosed. This meant the connection to the water supply could not be undone without removing the (nicely painted over) wooden housing. OK so I pulled it off. Yes I'll have to do some painting later.

Similarly the connection to the overflow pipe could not be undone without cosmetic damage. Well I undid the cistern from the wall first which meant I could undo it without ripping the rest of the housing apart.

One of the screws holding the cistern to the wall was so rusted it had no discernable slot. This one took me ages! Eventually the rawlplug gave up gripping the plasterboard and I was able to saw the screw off.

The nut holding the syphon in place was too big for any of our spanners or wrenches. OK. So I went out and bought a bigger pipe wrench.

But I got the cistern off, removed the old syphon, (yes the diaphragm was in tatters), put the new syphon in its place and put everything back together again. I turned the water mains back on....

Woosh! Water spurted out from the connection between the water supply and the cistern. Ooops. I redid the connection and made sure it was tight. I turned the mains back on...

The ball valve was getting jammed. OK I can sort that later. Lets try a flush...

Woosh! Water spurted out from the joint between the cistern and pan. Ooops. At least the toilet flushed OK. But I have a leak when I flush.

So I took it all off and put it back together again. Lets try a flush...

Woosh! Water spurted out from the joint between the cistern and pan. Again. Aargh!

Time to get a new rubber seal. OK. Got that. Try again tomorrow....

No. Becoming a plumber is not a good Enterprising Idea.