Toilet seat problem

[ladyalex]

I hope someone here can help. We had a bathroom suite fitted about 10 years ago. Unfortunately the toilet seat has broken and we are searching for a replacement. The problem is that the toilet seat has quite unusual fittings in that you cannot get at the underside of the toilet bowl, the seat screws into a sort of rubber rawlplug-like arrangement within the bowl. The seat is also sort of a fat D-shaped rather than round. The toilet is built in to our bathroom, with the cistern concealed behind panelling. I think they call this 'back to wall', but I am not sure of the correct terminology. The manufacturer of the suite is SARREGUEMINES but unfortunately we do not know the product name or number. We have got as far as discovering that Sarreguemines was taken over by Lecico a few years ago, but we cannot find anything that looks like our suite on their website. When our local friendly plumbers' merchants contacted Lecico, the person on the end of the phone said that they could not help if we did not know the product name or number.....not the most helpful of responses . Does anyone have any ideas as to where we might look for what we need ? i am beginning to despair a bit as it looks as though our whole bathroom will need to be torn up , just to replace a plastic seat......help please! Thanks in advance.

[The Builder]

My Lady A.............perhaps it needn't be as drastic as that. A back to wall WC pan should easily come away from the cistern housing panel. The trick would be to find a replacement that goes with the rest of the suite, and .....................here's the tough part..................has connections that match the ones in the cistern panel. There should be only two..........the larger soil one, and the smaller flushpipe one. It's then just a matter of trial and error ...........possibly make up a cardboard pattern and take it to a showroom for comparison. Don't laugh, but maybe you could post a pic on here???

[ladyalex]

Hello Mr Builder, thanks for your reply...sounds as if it might not be as bad as I feared.
I would like to post a pic on here, but do not know how to do that.
Can you help me with that too ?

Thanks again
ladyalex

[The Builder]

Lady A.................most people on here use www.photobucket.com....................it's a free service.........you just have to sign up.
If you don't like that, I'll send you my email address in a personal message..............if that's still working :o)

[ladyalex]

Hello Mr Builder

Sorry not to reply sooner, been out tonight.
I'll have a look at photobucket tomorrow and post some pics.

Thanks for your help.
ladyalex

[ladyalex]

Hello again, mr Builder.

I have found photobucket and am trying to post some photos of my loo!
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE027.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE028.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE029.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE030.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE031.jpg
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f224/ladyale x1/IMAGE026.jpg

As you can see, it is right up against the panneling which does not make it easy for me to look at the couplings.
You can also see that the seat fixings are not accessible from the side of the bowl, but screw into it with rubber rawlplug-things.
Hope these links work!
Thanks for any advice.
And thanks for putting me on to photobucket.

ladyalex

[The Builder]

Lady A...............very helpful photos.................I bet if I were there for 5 minutes, I'd get that flippin' seat off :o)

Failing that..................on the underside of the seat, it looks like the brackets are screwed to it. If so, perhaps the screws could be removed, thus freeing the seat. You could then cart your seat all over town looking for a close-ish match.
Failing that no.2..........................an experienced plumber could easily remove the pan, find something similar, and refit........even if a little "fiddling" with the connections might be likely.
Sadly, a bit of trial and error..............the hardest bit would be finding a plumber who would care enough to have a go :o)))

[ladyalex]

Hello again, Mr Builder,

We've managed to get the seat off....and trailed round every plumbers' merchants in the town, none of whom have a replacement. All of whom say something like 'Well, you see,that's the trouble if you get foreign bathroom suites, you can't get the parts for it' .Whilst sucking their teeth , of course. Do plumbers have to be specially trained in teeth-sucking, or do they just pick it up ? We could try again , I guess, pleading with them to let us check the dimensions of what seats they have, but I have a bad feeling about this.
Thanks a lot for all your trouble, builder. Do you by any chance know of any web-sites I could try for a replacement ?
We do have a tame-ish plumber, but his problem is going to be the same as ours I think, ie finding a seat that will fit.

Thanks again.

ladyalex

[The Builder]

Lady Alex..................nearest I could find so far.................shall keep looking......................

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/architeckt-dshape- soft-close-2097-17932

[The Builder]

..........also...............Google .............. D shape toilet seat...........................

regards
The Builder

[ladyalex]

Thanks, builder

[terambulan]

I have a very old-fashioned toilet seat which needed replacements; Just bought a new kit in local hard ware store. In the kit was lots of different ways (with plastic fittings) to fix the seat and I think one was a D.

[ladyalex]

Thanks, terambulam.

I really would like to get a matching seat, but feel that this is rapidly becoming a pipe dream.....

[tiger16]

Dear Ladyalex
i think i found the answer to ur question here in this site:http://www.lecico.co.uk/categories.php?cat=2
as you mentioned Lecico is the manufacturing of same or similar product.
good luck and hope you find what you are looking for
Eyes of the Tiger

[ladyalex]

Thanks a lot, Tiger 16 . That web site was very good. Unfortunately, I cannot see a toilet suite matching ours there....
We have had to concede defeat and arranged for our plumber to replace both the seat and the toilet bowl...and we are sincerely hoping that he doesn't have to replace the cistern also.
Note to self...never buy anything unusual or foreign ever again.
Thanks again, to you and to everyone else who has tried to help me.

[ladyalex]

Have now had toilet bowl and seat replaced by plumber......awaiting bill.
new toilet id Ideal Standard so hopefullt no further problems with finding spares/replacements.
An expensive mistake !

[exmouth1]

I know it's over 6 months since this query - but did you get a replacement?

We have the exact same problem - I beleive the range is SARREGUEMINES - LAGO.

However, the stockist we bought ours from is no longer in business.

[ladyalex]

hello exmouth 1

Sorry not to give you better news, but we had to have the toilet completely replaced. We could not get a new seat anywhere despite trying all the local plumbers and plumbers merchants.
Fortunately, the plumber managed to replace the toilet bowl and seat without replacing the cistern so things were not as bad as I thought they might be. I hope you can find a replacement seat but sadly doubt that you will be able to.
ladyalex :-))

[tradeplumb]

You could use Well Nuts. These are specifically designed for Back to Wall pans. Just Google: Well Nuts Back to Wall