Nearly finished installing my new bathroom, just the decorating and some fitting of new architraves top do now. It has been hard work and as my first attempt it has also been very stressful. But I am now beginning to enjoy it.
Thanks are also due to PeteP who at very late notice turned up early morning to help me lift concrete tile backer boards onto place on my new false stud wall, thanks again Pete.
Some learning’s worth sharing, maybe?
Unless you are competent and confident get a professional in to do your tiling. Other than a ceiling skim it is the only area where I got professional help and whilst not cheap it was well worth it. Even the best fittings will look crap if your tiles are wrong.
LED down lighters are great and now there are pull switch dimmers they can be lowered to suit your bath time mood. At £26 a pop (from TLC Electrical) they are not cheap but are very very good ,IP66 rated and cheaper to run than other bulbs.
One other product that I am well happy with is the
Outasight Shwer screen. A great alternative to mouldy curtains or cumbersome lime scale covered glass screens.
The next fantastic revelation is John Guest JG push fit plastic fittings. These have mad the plumbing an absolute joy. Zero leaks, easy fitting, easy to cut (get the proper tool) and re-fitting is simple (except the inserts can be a pain to get out of the fittings. No doubt the professional plumbers will recoil in horror but I hate compression fittings and any attempt to use solder fitting around the wooden stud wall would have led to me burning the house down. The only bit of my plumbing worked that leaked was the exposed compression fittings to chrome pipe used to connect the toilet water feed.
Over boarding a ceiling is a faff, instead just rip down the ceiling and do the job properly if you can. It makes later fitting of down lights and wiring for fans etc a lot easier.
LED mirrors are dirt cheap on ebay and are the same as the £200+ models in bath showrooms.
Screwfix are a godsend and being open till 8pm and all day Sundays is just fantastic.
Some mistakes
Don’t buy bathstore bensham taps. They have terrible reviews, which I found out too late. Mine are fine but they tend to fail in a couple of years. Bristan fittings is what I would go for in the future.
Making a stud wall takes a lot more time than you would think and getting studs and noggins in the correct place to fit basin baths/taps etc takes a fair deal of time and lots of measurements, many of which can only be done with the new floor fitted.
Don’t assume someone has fitted a toilet using the screw holes to fix it to the floor when a foot high mound of very hard concrete will do the job!!! Chiselling this mound away took 2 hours in 15 minute shifts for me and Mrs Bockers.
Pictures will follow when the decorating is done.