Fitting a bath to wonky walls

pboae

I am trying to plumb in our new bath, but I am having trouble with the walls. They are stone and really uneven. I can't get a good seal down the side of the bath against it. If I raise the bath so it's flush with the plaster (rather than inset into it) then because the plaster is so thick (3cm in places), I can't get a solid fix in it.

I was thinking about securing battens to the wall and fastening the bath part way down that instead, so it would be flush with the plaster, but screwed to the batten. Then I could seal between the bath and the batten.

Is there any reason why that would be a bad idea? Will the bath squeak against wood? If water does get behind the cladding and the sealant stops it going down the side of the bath, it will presumably get soaked into the batten, which wouldn't be good either.

border_collie

Hello Poo :j

Does it fix to the wall? Ours doesn't. It just stands on the frame I think.


Anyway a rawlbolt will go through 3cm of plaster into the underlying stone I think.


Hopefully an expert will come along :rotfl:

pboae

:-o fancy seeing you here!

Yes it does fix to the wall, it doesn't really have a frame, just a batten along the long side, and the metal legs. There's a bracket to screw the side to the wall. It would be hard to rawlbolt it, the plaster would just crumble away I think. Plus the screws for the bracket are quite small.

border_collie

Oh !b#gger. Well what was the last bath fixed to................and why are you doing it yourself

pboae

It was fixed to the wall, but it wasn't watertight and the ceiling below is rotten now from all the leaks. Luckily they had a false/low ceiling put in below so the floor joists were protected from the worst of it.

I'm doing it myself because we are skint and I've had enough of water pouring through the kitchen ceiling everytime someone has a shower :-(

ormus

you can buy longer screws you know!

and if the brackets are too small for the new screws then buy/make new brackets.
simple enough job.
whatever you do make sure the bath is fitted securely to the wall. dont scrimp on this matter and hope itll be ok..

Steve_xx

You need a length of right angled plastic. Then you can put some silicone sealent on the top of the bath and on the wall and then sit the angled plastic on it. Any gaps between it and the wall would be padded with silicone sealant.

pboae

When I said the screws were small, I meant in diameter, which limits what I can swap them for, unless, as you say, I make new brackets. But the brackets are shaped, and I wouldn't know where to begin making new ones. This project is stretching my mediocre DIY skills to the limit is at is.

I'm also going to get some board to go under the length of the bath, then I can screw that fast to the joists and screw the bath legs screw into the board. Which will hopefully fix the second problem of wonky floor boards as well.

Anyway, someone pointed me in the direction of this stuff
http://www.classic-marble.com/classi_seal.php
Apparently PTS stock it. If it does what it says, it'll be perfect I think. I'm still torn between fastening the bath straight into the wall (brackets permitting) or onto a batten though.

27col

I have installed baths in the past using the special brackets to secure them to the wall. However, if you want to change or move the bath later on you will do severe damage to the tiles. I have not found it necessary to fix the bath to the wall. If you sit it on a purpose built frame and tile down to it it is unlikely to move. Mine has been installed for over 30 years and also, it was moved when I rearranged the bathroom. There is absolutely no sign of any movement.

border_collie

I have just bought a fab sealer for round baths and showers.

It is a two part sliding system. One length fixes to the wall, one length fixes to the bath edge.
The wall length overlaps the bath length and moves up and down with the different weights but still stays overlapped.
I will get the name tomorrow.