Need parts for broken toilet tank lid and Load Hog wheelbarrow

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I have done a bad thing! I dropped and broke into 100 pieces the lid to my 15 year old 3g capacity toilet tank. With the new regs on toilets, I'd have to get into blackmarket prices to find one to fit. I was determined that there would HAVE to be some salvage yard where I could get another lid, but apparently eveyone just takes it to the landfill!!!!!!! I am not willing to go buy another toilet just because I am missing a lid on this one! I tried one of the plastic temporary ones and it is about a mile too long. We found a web page that'll search for you at $75 dollars a pop or make a new one that isn't guaranteed to fit. What gives??? I am now hitting up contractors that do remodeling to bathrooms for lids to toilets they are tossing. They don't seem real interested. ALSO>>> I have a "Load Hog" two wheel wheel barrow or cart that is very old, but I love it! One wheels rubber has rotted off and one of the bent aluminum legs has rusted off. Has anyone heard of this brand or know where I might get parts? It sounds ridiculous but I can't stand buying new stuff that'll just fall apart in a year after paying some awful price. HELP!

-- Sonya (clb@watervalley.net), July 07, 2001

Answers

Sonya, I don't know if this is something you'd be interested in doing to rescue your toilet, but you could build a cover from 3/4 inch plywood and tile it with ceramic tiles that are either the same colour as your toilet or a complementary one. Another idea would be to install an attractive looking shelf right over the toilet that would double as a cover. Might look a bit funny, but as long as you can't see the works of the toilet it might not be too bad. Just ideas. Maybe you'll luck out and find a replacement, though.

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), July 07, 2001.


Sonya, check with any "demolishion" company in the phone book. They usually have an outlet where they sell recycled windows, doors, toilets ect.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 07, 2001.

Sonya, Listen to Mitch. He has outstanding recomendations. You might try to find plumbers or plumbling stores that might be able to help you. Our local plumbing store has a post-it board for requests like yours. I would think that if you call enough plumbers, one might be able to help. In Indianapolis, there is a wonderful not for profit place called Rehab Resource that takes donations of construction materials, both new and used, and resells them to the public at a fraction of the cost if you bought it new. At one time, I kid you not, they had maybe 50 new and used 3g toliets with lids. Price on those complete toliets was 15 bucks. Another place to try is a salvage building material place that caters to the old historic preservation crowd. Last summer I visited the one in Indy called Tim & Billy's, and they had an overstock auction where they sold 200 or so toliets at 2 to 5 bucks each. If someone were to find a lid for free, would you pay the UPS charges to get it to you? If I stumble across one, I would be happy to do so. What color do you need?

-- clovis (clovis97@Yahoo.com), July 08, 2001.

Be careful of a shelf above the toilet, one day something will fall from the shelf and break the pan.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), July 08, 2001.

The color is "yellow" of some light hue, but honestly, I just about don't care the color! I could paint it or put on one of those fuzzy dust catchers! I think I would pay for the shipping though I don't really know how much that might be. I am not in any huge hurry, so it could be the cheapest carried-by-donkey price they have. If you don't have to go to too much trouble, I would really appreciate it! I have looked for demolition sites in the phone book, but don't see any as such, but I'll ask around. I didn't think about a post-it board, I'll call around to see if anyone has one up. I plan on calling the plumbing circuit here on Monday. I like the tile idea but don't have a whole lot of time for the tiling at the moment and would have to come up with some way to seal the plywood against moisture and mildew. Think it might be a future project though someday! Also, what do you all think of me using some floor flanges bolted to the bottom of the cart and some metal conduit in a "U" shape between them? I wouldn't be able to load it as much as before maybe because of the flanges pushing up through the metal bottom?

-- Sonya (clb@watervalley.net), July 08, 2001.


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