Bathroom Rework

[PanBiker]

Not DIY but a proper bathroom fitters work. Here are a few photos of this mornings work.

Sheeted up:



John, our bathroom fitter has said we will always have a toilet which is a bonus. First job was to get all the old stuff out.

Door removed for easy access:



Remains of our bathroom cabinet:



Tiles off back wall, front and side:






Remains of shower and washbasin pipework:



New Corner shower unit will go here, this maze of pipework in the corner will need to be re-jigged and simplified:



New washbasin and cabinet will go in this front corner:



John and Kyle knocked off for lunch and are back now working on the pipework

[Big Kev]

Good stuff. Nice to see things neat and tidy.

[chinatyke]

They are keeping the job clean and tidy and working at a cracking pace. It will be finished before you know it. Nice to document it in pictures so that we can see, thanks.

[PanBiker]

Some of the pipework has been added to over the years. When we moved in there was an electric shower over the bath. We took that out and replaced it with one fed from the combi when we had the cistern taken out and the first boiler put in. Second rework of the bathroom is what we have just had taken out. This will be the third and hopefully last rework in the 33 years or so that we have been here.

Here is my fag packet, (or graph paper) sketch of what I gave to the fitters. Just the layout plan and not exactly to scale but it will give a bit more room when it's done. New washbasin will be on a two drawer base unit and there will be a mirrored cabinet above. Corner shower is 800mm quadrant. All walls and ceiling will be finished in aqua board. Ceiling will be slightly under drawn, LED down lights to go in to replace the centre light, fan moved to between the washbasin and shower. Replacement toilet will remain in the same place as the original. Radiator replaced with vertical heated towel rail.

[PanBiker]

They are keeping the job clean and tidy and working at a cracking pace. It will be finished before you know it. Nice to document it in pictures so that we can see, thanks.

The job has been priced on two men for a five day week. Reduction of course if they finish early.

[PanBiker]

John and Kyle cracked on after lunch and tidied up all the pipework. By the time I took the pictures they had part re-boarded the floor. When we had the bathroom reworked last time we wanted to varnish the bare boards but the originals weren't suitable so we had all the exposed timbers double boarded. This has the knock on that we now have two levels once the bath and washbasin cupboard has come out. First photo shows the washbasin corner with the newly reworked H&C and waste pipes. They made a start on levelling up the floor with extra boards in that corner.



Shower corner with new H&C feeds, waste is hidden behind the timber for the ceiling studding which they will start tomorrow.



This corner has new boards at the first level fitted after all the pipework was tidied up. The joist underneath the shower end of the bath was water damaged and need to be bolstered to provide proper support for the shower tray. Fortunately it was only the section under the bath, either side of this length was sound so a new length of joist was screwed securely to either side. I knew this had been damaged in the past as the leak that caused it brought the ceiling down in the kitchen under that section. I replaced all the plasterboards again when I replaced the kitchen a few years back.

Last bit to re-board and level up.



John says once it is levelled off it will get a thin sheet of ply over the whole lot to smooth out all the joints and give a better base for the shower tray and drawer unit for the washbasin.

All swept up and the door popped back on.

They will be back on site at 9am tomorrow morning.

[Stanley]

Looks to be going well. Good luck with it....

[Big Kev]

Coming along nicely

[PanBiker]

Studding is now sorted for the ceiling. Hoping to get Ant here this afternoon to sort the cabling for the down lights and fan. John is currently boring a new hole for the latter. I think the lads have already cut the plasterboards to size ready to put up once the cabling is in. Been on town this morning and ordered the new Vinyl for the floor, John will pop that down before the appliances are fitted. Kyle fitted the new pipework for the shower this morning. As you say Kev, coming along nicely.

[PanBiker]

Close of play today and moved on a pace. My son in Law Ant came when the lads were having lunch. Cabling installed and down-lights and a new whisper quiet fan dropped off. John and Cain, (I have been incorrectly calling him Kyle) pressed on with the back wall. The plasterboards were for there and not the ceiling. Here is the back wall battened out and plaster boarded, the new hole for the fan is above and will be between the shower and washbasin.



Rest of the floorboards were fitted to get them all to the same level and then the topping sheet of ply was fitted. Half the floor has been covered in ply the other side will be done when the toilet comes out and is replaced.



New waste was fitted for the shower tray and then that was installed using a bed of foam to secure it in the corner and fill any gaps in the vicinity. They have used some of the original vinyl to cover it and then weighted it down to cure off. Cant see a lot in this picture but it is an 800mm quadrant.



The ceiling panels are a honeycomb construction and glued to the batons and screwed through the tongues as each length is fitted. We have a curved ceiling at one end which had to be catered for. Each of the panel lengths are also corrugated lengthwise so can be bent to cater for such anomalies. Once completed, John drilled out for the down-lights (4) and then fitted them. This picture shows one in the finished ceiling.



We have ordered the new vinyl which will be here on Thursday.

Didn't see John and Cain when they knocked off but I think tomorrow will be a wall cladding day. Coming along nicely and we have a lovely smell of pine with the fresh cut timber.

[Stanley]

Nothing to do with the job but why would some parent call their son Cain? More Kung Fu watching than Bible study?

[PanBiker]

Well it's a name and he is a good worker, he's only young and probably at the start of his apprenticeship. Very useful on the job and saves the legs of John who just cracks on from job to job. Cain is feeding materials and he must have been up and down stairs 50 times yesterday fetching wood, panels, plasterboard and managing tools in and out of the van. John explains every job though and lets him do the ones he is capable of, good teamwork.

I noticed last night that we had a towel round the old radiator pipes which I think the feed side is weeping slightly. I did hear them say that they would be sorting them today to suit the new radiator / towel rail.

[Big Kev]

Kane (Cain) has been quite a popular name.
https://www.ukbabynames.com/boys/kane

[PanBiker]

Don't know if he is a K or a C but he is here and sheeting up. I think John has gone to pick up some more stuff. I see that he has already brought another sheet of ply for the floor. That can only go down when the toilet is replaced, they may do it in two pieces though which would sidestep that and progress the schedule. Will get an update when John is on site.

[PanBiker]

The lads worked on the toilet and radiator wall this morning. The floor is double boarded there and John had to get through both levels to get to the pipework. They removed the toilet and skirting boards before sorting the radiator pipework. They also sorted the cold water feed for the toilet as the design is somewhat different to the cistern that came out. Once the pipes for the radiator were sorted and the floor made good the last sheets of ply went down.



New toilet was then installed.



I noticed also that they have cut back the window bottom which is now surplus to requirements as the cladding will include this as well. There will be no need for any painting at all in the room apart from the door and architrave which is a bonus.



They have moved on to cladding the walls this afternoon it should look somewhat different by knocking off time today.

[PanBiker]

John and Cain started in the shower corner with the cladding and also fitted the shower hardware.



They completed the back wall and into the washbasin corner. You can just see the curve in the ceiling and how the ceiling cladding can be bent to shape. New position for fan, offered up but not wired up yet.



This is their industrial version of a Henry I suppose. It both sucks and blows and has a mains extension socket on the top. John says that if you plug a power tool into the extension it auto powers the vacuum from the tool. It has fittings for the dust extraction ports on various hand power tools. Handy bit of kit.



On close inspection I notice that the lads have signed their work.



Vinyl should come tomorrow and the base unit for the washbasin. John says they can take the toilet out to fit the vinyl as it is on flexi-fit connectors. Although fully functional the bowl and cistern are not fasted to the floor or the wall yet. John wants to fit the vinyl before the rest of the cladding if possible it makes it a lot easier as the only fitting required will be around the shower quadrant which is relatively easy from the corner. The rest of the panels will then sit on the vinyl as will the toilet and the rest of the furniture, makes a better finish.

[chinatyke]

Eeee,it's reet gradely, lad.

[Stanley]

Makes me dizzy.... I think I'm past the age of refurbishments. Bad enough when they service the boiler.

[Wendyf]

We have an industrial vac like that one, it's been more than useful over the last 20 years!

[Big Kev]

It's looking good, I have similar panels around my shower.

[PanBiker]

Roman Marble Kev. Related and interesting, I found a length of twisted newspaper used for packing when they took the original washbasin cupboard out. It was the front page of the Barlick and Earby Times from August 1998. I think we had the last refurb around September of that year. The headline was regarding a proposal to turn the former Town Hall on Jepp Hill into a pub! That didn't quite work out.

[Big Kev]

Roman Marble Kev. Related and interesting, I found a length of twisted newspaper used for packing when they took the original washbasin cupboard out. It was the front page of the Barlick and Earby Times from August 1998. I think we had the last refurb around September of that year. The headline was regarding a proposal to turn the former Town Hall on Jepp Hill into a pub! That didn't quite work out.

I love little finds like that, a snippet of local history. There would have been a lot of pubs in that area if it had gone ahead.

[PanBiker]

Gilianne rang this morning from the carpet shop, vinyl has been delivered. John picked it up while we were out shopping and when we got back the toilet is out and he is just finishing laying it. They can crack on now with the rest of the cladding and then furniture fitting. Hopefully our base unit for the washbasin should be delivered today.

[PanBiker]

Famous last words, John has just been down and said that the company supplying the base unit for the washbasin have not delivered as promised. Jane has chased them and they said it would definitely be today. He said Jane would normally not sanction a job start until all the goods were in stock but she had a firm promise on the delivery and the spare week was ideal for our install. Next week is the best they can do for the unit we originally chose.

They can supply a floor standing unit, same basic design and colour that they can deliver tomorrow so we have opted for that. John said that the firm would stand any difference in price and they would pass that on to the supplier. A floor standing unit will probably be better as it totally conceals the pipework and there will be no sweeping or mopping underneath. More storage space as well. That will become the final fit so a change of schedule for John's planning, not ideal but workable. If that is the only snag in what has turned out to be an exemplary install we are still happy.

[chinatyke]

Yes, it's going well from what you tell us. Sounds like a bonus with the floor standing washbasin cabinet at the same price. Well done.