Latest Bathroom refurb

[macten]

Hi guys, had quite a slow Nov/Dec but things are picking up now and it seems Jan is the month people order their Bathroom Suites as I have 3 complete refurbs on at the moment and went to order a suite with a customer and people were queuing so I am sure the work will pick up for us all soon.

I'm doing my usual photo journal of progress with all my jobs so now I'm finally busy again I thought I'd post a work in progress. Please feel free to add advice and criticism as it really helps my learning/progress.
No tiling started on this job yet (though they are on order). Two days before the suite arrived I stripped the artex off the ceiling, I then got a spreader in to skim the ceiling:


I found a heat gun and a Gundlach scraper to be the most effective method.

[macten]

Pics of the current bathroom:



Plan is for a staight swap and then tile. Sounds simple put like that but but as always I've found it alot more complicated.
I'll be replacing the rad with a towel rad which I've done many times now but this is the first time I've had to work with 10mm microbore and customer wants pipework coming out of wall (first for me again).
I will also be putting in a shower screen but as you can see from the last pic the shower unit needs to be moved to the left to accomodate the screen - I also want to hide the pipework entering the unit.
The customer hates the fact that the basin is offset to the left in relation to the window so I have agreed to alter the pipework and waste to centralise it.

[macten]

Suite arrived so I checked it for defects and spent the day ripping out old suite, removing the tiles and adhesive from the walls and plumbing in the new toilet:

[brian c]

nice Pink suite Macten!Good to hear you are busy m8,excellent....just need to watch the cashflow to accomodate the quieter times eh?Microbore- try not to over bend it as it kinks easy,im sure you know that anyway.I am sure if you get the tails hanging out the wall and fit valves on rad then you should be ok.Make sure you have support for the towel rad from behind the wall(extra pieces of timber) to accomodate and im sure you will be fine...best of luck m8.

PS...you need to get on here more m8

[macten]

Next day was spent sorting the pipework and getting the bath in:

Centralised the hot + cold feeds for basin taps:

Removed half a brick from outside and drilled/chiselled blockwork for new wastepipe position:

Floor battened back down:

[brian c]

did you take those pics with your phone?

[macten]

Bath in:


As you can see from the pics - the bath is too bloody short!!
Customer went with a bath that was exactly the same length of the last one but if you notice on the original pics it had that nasty looking bath seal strip, now I know why!!! The tiles are 9.5mm thick. I'm hoping with addy and a good bead of silicone I'll be OK - I plan to fill the gap with a bit of wood or backer board and silicone it all into the wall before tiling.

[macten]

did you take those pics with your phone?

No mate - 5 year old camera!

[brian c]

you could always plasterboard the wall ,over the existing wall.I am sure you will find something,how big is the gap?why are the walls so bad?




5yr old camera and still takes cracking pictures.

[macten]

Time had come to check out the microbore so cut out a bit of the floor to see what was going on, then I removed a bit of the wall:

Didn't want to buy a 25m roll of 10mm pipe (don't like the stuff and as Bri says it kinks and can get blocked far too easily) so used reduces to take it to 15mm.
I picked up a towel rad that morning so knew the pipe centers, so sorted new pipework and continued the earth bonding:


Hope it don't leak 'cos it'll all be tiled in when the water starts flowing

[macten]

you could always plasterboard the wall ,over the existing wall.I am sure you will find something,how big is the gap?why are the walls so bad?

Yeah, the way I see it I have several choices:
1. Hope I can fill the gap (18mm gap and using 9.5mm tiles) Gonna be a 6mm silicone bead
2. Build a little tiled shelf - only be big enough to stand a teatree candle on mind
3. PB wall - gonna have to be window wall or I'll lose door architrave
4. Lay a row of cut tiles along bath edge
5. Use a bath seal strip like before!!!

[macten]

Gonna permanently fix bath in 2morro and overlay the floor with nomoreply.
Also got to sort the toilet out. Although customer is happy that the basin is central to the window (I dry fixed it) the toilet now looks too close to it in relation to the gap to the wall on the other side. Offered up a flexi pan connector but even with cutting the soil pipe right back as far as I can reach it will still bring the toilet out too far from the back wall. I've explained that all I can do is use the biggest offset pan connector I can get (which is 2 inches), then with the raised height of the floor I maybe able to move it an inch away from the basin. Not ideal but the basin being central is priority so she's happy.

[brian c]

i would loose it at the window wall and bridge the gap...could always use a bit of pvc.

[macten]

I may not fix the bath 2morrow then Bri - need to leave my options open and won't really know until I've got the tiles in my hand.
Bri - do you mean bridge the gap at the window wall?

[faithhealer]

Always a bit awkward when the wall isn't square to the bath

[Saltire69]

Can u not give it a quick skim yourself or build it out with addy. Keraflex maxi goes up to 15mm so it would do the job. Then see if u could get thicker door facings?.

[macten]

Got the flooring down:


Blobbed the bath in and started on framework for tiled panel:

Ran a lighting cable from loft to a new dimmer switch in hall ready for the downlights:



Only managed to put one full day in on this one but all is ready for tiling when they arrive. Flat out on another bathroom at moment which has been a right demolition job - ripping down walls, building new walls and a door so can't get back for a couple of weeks.

[Stonearth]

Have you done counter top basins with shinny chrome bottle traps? What are they like to install? I see that they are very popular now!

[macten]

Have you done counter top basins with shinny chrome bottle traps? What are they like to install? I see that they are very popular now!

Like these?:


Plumbing's easy enough but cutting the front face to suit shape of basin is a pain.
Basin I'm doing on one of my jobs is the pedesteless type that comes out the wall. Not done one of them before.

[macten]

Had to break off from this one to do another bath refurb - which was really hard going but fun and I learnt loads, I'll chuck that up in another thread if anyone's interested.
Been back at this job this week so here's an update.

Down-lights in, shaver socket wiring removed and ceiling painted:

[macten]

Walls done (needs skirting tiles and bath panel to be made and tiled):

[macten]

Here's the last of the pics.

The short bath and unsquare walls have been concealed nicely - luckily the tub is rounded inside so you can't notice. If it had been square then I would have overboarded:

Bath panel and access hatch:


Rad in (always my fave job):

All grouted and floor down so final fix of sanitary ware:



Shower and screen in:

After a good clean:

[macten]

I quite liked the pink myself:

[Dave]

Looks very good.....thanks for doing this portfolio on the job macten....

[macten]

No probs Dave - got the other one I was working on at the same time if you're interested.

[CJ]

Looks the dogs vegetables

[Dave]

No probs Dave - got the other one I was working on at the same time if you're interested.

Interested...Interested....Interested..


Of course we are...we love pics...get them on mate...

[bathroomboy]

I'll give you a good tip Macton, don't leave that blowtorch stood up as they are prone to the neck breaking if they fall over, bathrooms very nice by the way.

[doug boardley]

ia that an aldi prop against bath panel macten?

[macten]

It is Doug yes - I got 10 of them about a year ago when they were £4.99 - Originally got them for window reveals but use them for all sorts now.