DIY near miss. How leaving the toilet seat up could kill you!

My house is 200 years old and until 1930 was two houses that are now knocked into one. As a result there are lots of “architectural anomalies”, lumps of masonry sticking out, miscellaneous brackets, remnants of an old stair case and so on.

Whilst prepping my son’s room for plastering last night I decided to take down the large and unexplained sheet of plywood that was fastened to his wall by a series of studs and nuts. On removing the nuts I was able to push the studs back through the holes and lift off the plywood.

Cut to this morning… I wandered into the bathroom and noticed a load of dust on the loo seat. I then noticed that the brackets holding the high mounted cistern were hanging off the wall that and the tank was supported only by the water feed pipe and the tube connecting it to the toilet. I hastily shoved all the bolts back through then went into the other room and re attached the sheet of ply, washers and nuts.

If the loo seat had been up I wouldn’t have seen the dust. I would have sat on the pan, knocked the cistern off and been killed.

I’m not sure how I want to die… but I can guarantee that it is not at the age of 41 with severe head injuries sustained whilst taking a dump.

From now on I shall live every day like it is a gift.

get a webcam in there – just in case, like

When he’s dead i’m bagsieing his bike.
And Wife.

and been killed

possible exxageration there.

But what a way to go!

Oh, I’d hold fire on the DIY if you just undo random stuff without any investigation 🙂

It’s all a bit ‘Final Destination’ to me. You got off any planes/roller coaster rides recently?

and been killed

possible exxageration there.

I dunno. These tanks weigh a bit.

If the impact hadn’t killed me my wife would have.

cynic-al – Member
and been killed
possible exxageration there.

Could kill you, I reckon…..High level cistern, presumably ceramic must weigh at least 10kg. Full of water would be another 10kg….so 20kg falling on your head from a few feet would be quite an impact!!

You’ve gotta love other people’s DIY efforts when it comes to re-decorating/renovating!! The ones I have come across are pretty tame, but I bet there are some shockers out there.

Your children/wife wouldnt have made the connection with the dust. ****. 😯

I’m in the middle of doing up my new house after gutting it and have come across loads of little things that were bodged etc. ****.

was good enough for elvis 😉

was good enough for elvis

True, but his fatal injury was sustained whilst trying to force something the size and mass of a ceramic cistern out through his ass not in through his head.

I can’t decide which reply to post, so here are all three:

1. Statistically, you’re more likely to receive hospital treatment for an toilet-injury than to won the lottery. I’m not sure whether your near miss means you should rush out and buy a ticket or not bother.

2. That would have been a shitter.

3. This is why I always wear a helmet when I go to the loo.

hmmm the toilet-shower, thats a product dying to be invented, you may have just had a eureka moment and not noticed?

hmmm the toilet-shower, thats a product dying to be invented, you may have just had a eureka moment and not noticed?

With a built-in electric razor socket, you could have all three Ss covered in one product.

Optional extra glory hole ?

I’ve never understand that form of Pron.

You’ve got to love the quality construction in the first place. 🙂

My house is also pretty old and there’s loads of stuff like that.

For example, I discovered when I decided to fix the wonky coat rack (which is pretty heavy since it has about 20 coats on it), that it was held on by some bits of wood wedged into the plaster and the main gas pipe!

Re: MikeTually.
Don’t wear a helmet, it’ll snap your neck. Just ask TJ.

Bloke I used know took a sheet of hardboard out the back of a built in cupboard in his 300 year old house.

He found himself looking at the inside of the equivalent cupboard in his next door neighbours house.

Don’t wear a helmet, it’ll snap your neck. Just ask TJ.

It’s okay, I wear a neck brace too.

worse thing would be if the sudden additional weight broke the pan – you’d have very deep cuts and the requirement for someone who knows you well to put the pressure bandages on.

Bloke I used know took a sheet of hardboard out the back of a built in cupboard in his 300 year old house.

He found himself looking at the inside of the equivalent cupboard in his next door neighbours house.

That’s similar to what I was expecting. An old window, store access (it used to be a weaver’s cottage) or a void filled with the skellingtons of cats, dogs, favourite pigs and/or inbred mutant children.

They took down a partition wall in the cellar of my local pub (16th century coaching in) and found a pagan fertility shrine! The pub is adjacent to the parish church. Wicker Man style goings on right under Big G’s nose!

Now that I am stuck with these metal studs sticking out of the bedroom wall I have had to rethink my plans and will need to camouflage them.

How easy is it to put up tongue and groove?

large and unexplained sheet of plywood that was fastened to his wall by a series of studs and nuts.

I do wonder why you didn’t actually question what the sheet of plywood and studs fastened to the wall separating the bedroom from the bathroom was actually doing mind you. 😯

Wasn’t there a guy on here ages ago who knocked through a wall in his cellar and posted photos of the decorated deer skull (?!) he found therein? Was very spooky!

I do wonder why you didn’t actually question what the sheet of plywood and studs fastened to the wall separating the bedroom from the bathroom was actually doing mind you.

I know. Bleedin obvious when you think about it. 😳

I thought the studs were holding the panel on, not the other way round. Also, with the much altered layout of the house the studs were central in the room, but the toilet is at one side of the bathroom.

😀

How easy is it to put up tongue and groove?

If you were prepping the room for plastering why not line the wall with batton & plasterboard? I’d sort the WC fixing first so it can be removed/replaced in the future if necessary.

…and further in my defence. We had one of these fitted at our last house and IIRC there were not 6 wing nuts on the outside holding it to the wall. The bathroom side of the wall is new (2006), but for some reason instead of making it sound enough to take the weight they just bolted through to the other side.

If you were prepping the room for plastering

Only plastering the adjacent wall (so I can paint Buzz Lightyear and friends on it). The rest is being cleaned up and filled before painting to retain that “rustic” look.

You can still dry line it, if I pop around to do the plastering the rustic look is guaranteed. As a bonus the floor will probably look agricultural by the time I’m done!

The rest is being cleaned up and filled before painting to retain that “rustic” look.

Nothing says ‘rustic’ like half a dozen rusty wingnuts and a sheet of play.

This pic is useless without pics.

I actually said to the missus “Get ready to call the police if we find a body behind here”. I thought that the discovery of a corpse was a more likely outcome than the shitter falling off the wall.

Can’t find the thread on deer skull, would love to

I thought that the discovery of a corpse was a more likely outcome than the shitter falling off the wall.

I’d have thought there’s more toilet cisterns leaving wall incidents every year than corpses behind panels.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and find a corpse next time, eh?

catflees46 – Member
Can’t find the thread on deer skull, would love to

Maybe it was Harry’s local pub cellar I’m remembering – did you post pics of that HTS?

I pulled up lots of old carpet and found a perfect large brown circle stained into the bare floorboards 😯

My dad was a builder, he brought a house at auction without seeing inside. It was double fronted and detached, it had 3 upstairs windows as you looked at it. When he had the keys and went upstairs he noticed there was only two windows facing out to the front, I was working fir him at the time and we knocked a hole were a door would have been ( the layout was symmetrical it was obvious from the window bring visible from outside but nit inside and the large lack of space/geography of the house there was a room there ) after taking a few bricks out we put a torch through into the bricked up room and saw a deer skull and various wreaths. Never did find out what it was all about. Dads got photos of it. Hence my intrest in the other deer skull story.

I imagine witchcraft.