Cold water tank in loft is missing its lid

Bendy_House

O&A, it really is a minor issue.

Once you move in, either call out a plumber as you say, or post a photo of it on here, along with some basic dimensions - we should be able to give a good idea. Then it'll be either (a) there is a proper lid available, hurrah, (b) there ain't, so you should cobble one together as outlined by others before (no, it won't 'conform', but it'll be miles better than now't - and it's only temporary), or (c) have the whole tank replaced - which would be nuts since you are hoping to go 'combi' later on.

For (c), bear in mind that for a combi to work well, you will need a good mains pressure and flow rate. I presume you have no idea what this is like at the moment? There are solutions to everything, tho'.

Section62

oaksandacorns said:

I'd like to install a combi like we have here...

Bear in mind that the eventual ban on gas boilers, and rebalancing of levies on electricity versus gas, means that whatever the future of domestic heating looks like it is unlikely to be 'combi'.

If the existing boiler has a decent amount of life left in it then it wouldn't be a good choice (IMV) to replace it with a combi in the short-term.  At least not until there is a clearer picture of where things are going domestic energy-wise.

Replacing the boiler to avoid the cost of replacing the cold water storage tank wouldn't be very MSE.  The job is DIYable, or shouldn't cost anything like the figure the EA has plucked out of the air if you got a plumber to do it.

If a new cold water tank is fitted with a lid/byelaw 30 kit then the water supplied by it will be 'clean'.  But it is still recommended to only drink cold water from the kitchen tap supplied directly by the mains (/source)

kittennose

Lots of people suggesting new tanks and new lids but nobody considering how to get them into the loft 😂. 

These tanks are usually built into the attic before the roof goes on. It’s impossibly to replace a large storage tank.

Marmaduke123

kittennose said:

Lots of people suggesting new tanks and new lids but nobody considering how to get them into the loft 😂. 

These tanks are usually built into the attic before the roof goes on. It’s impossibly to replace a large storage tank.

You can get "coffin tanks" which will fit through a loft hatch, like this one.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/polytank-cold-water-coffin-tank-70gallon-uk-1650mm-x-610mm-x-500mm/76152.

If the original tank springs a leak it has to be possible to replace it. It may be difficult or expensive to remove the original tank, as it will probably need to be cut up.

Section62

kittennose said:

Lots of people suggesting new tanks and new lids but nobody considering how to get them into the loft 😂. 

These tanks are usually built into the attic before the roof goes on. It’s impossibly to replace a large storage tank.

Not sure why you are resurrecting a thread which is over two years old, but...

There will almost certainly be a way of installing a replacement cold water cistern as there are many options including 'coffin' tanks as per Marmaduke123's post, or having two smaller tanks linked together, or it might be possible to fit standard size cistern through the loft hatch. It all depends how large the loft hatch is and whether any of the roof structure blocks access to where the cistern needs to be installed.

The primary reason for cold water cisterns being installed before the roof wasn't really to do with the size of the loft hatch - since the designers could (in most cases) simply have made the loft hatch larger, if necessary.  The primary reason was that galvanised steel or asbestos cement cold water cisterns (the materials most commonly used at the time) are very heavy, and carrying one of those up stairs and then lifting it through a loft hatch is hard work.  Much easier to have it lifted up externally and placed in the loft space before the roof goes on, especially if the option of mechanical lifting was available.