Tuesday 14 February 2012

Starting the week with a leak...


Nothing is better than starting the week with a leaking toilet!

I am so glad Chris knows so much about DIY including plumbing!

In no time he took the flushing system apart and found the leak. A few minutes later, I had the faulty part on my desk and my job was to find one pretty quickly as the toilet was out of order. Thankfully we have a second toilet in the house and 2 more in the gite!

With the help of ‘Good Old Google’, I found out the part I was looking for was called a ‘diaphragm washer for insert valve’. All I had to do was looking for the French term! It is not because I am French that I know all the DIY terms!

Anyway, it is called ‘membrane avec insert’.

I called the DIY shop in Rennes where we bought the toilet from and they told me it could take up to 3 weeks to get the part. That was no good!! I needed to use the toilet sooner!

I then called Brossette, a plumbing shop based in Dinan, and all over France, where professionals get their plumbing material from and they told me within seconds the part was in stock. The shop is open to anyone, not just professionals.

Brossette is a very useful place for plumbing and electrical materials. Pipes, spare parts, radiators, heating systems, pumps, tools, fixings, tiles, taps, etc, you name it and they will have it!

The only think I didn’t like was the 3 euro charge for the invoice. I did say I didn’t need an invoice but they told me I had to have one!

The part was 5.69 euros and the invoice 3! So nearly 50% more than the price of the part!!

If you spend more than 150 euros the invoice is free!

It is one way to make money, I suppose! A very cheeky one though, I think. Never mind, I got home 1 hour later with my part and Chris fixed the toilet the same afternoon.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo!


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