Doing up the bathroom

gelato_cat

Hi all

I'm thinking about gutting my bathroom and putting in a new suite, shower, tiles and floor.

a) Do I have to get an electrician in to fit an electric shower (to be honest I think I'd rather, just in case!)?
b) Should I put the floor down first (I fancy floor tiles) before I put the suite in?
c) Is it easy to fit a new suite? I'm fairly handy but have never fiddled with plumbing before.
d) I'll need to level out the floor with sheets of plywood before laying the tiles. How straightforward is this? I have visions of a squeaky, bendy floor if I just stick a flat board on top of what's already there

Please let me know your experiences of DIY bathroom renovations!

thanks

Suze

weekendwarrior

Hi Suze,

Here are some links that should answer your questions, it is best to get a sparks to wire up the shower but you can se some of the work involved below.

Fiting an electric shower


Fit the new bath first and then tile up to it, fit rest of suite after floor has been tiled.

Floor tiling


DIY tiling


I have done a fw bathrooms and if you follow the advice above you will not go far wrong.

kat21

hi, here goes,
electrical work, no, unless you have a great deal of electrical installation knowledge. There are regulations for electrical installations in bathrooms steer clear and seek advice.You could ask an electrician if you put the cable in and hes supplys it would he do the final install? might be worth considering but its hard work. plaster walls next (after electrical work) then pipe works put isolators on all your plumbing connections this is handy later on if you wish to change washers on taps or isolate the toilet/ washbasin. next after all your pipe work move on to the waste systems from your bath, sink, and toilet, once they are done work on leveling the floor becarefull not to put screws through pipes its a good idea to mark the plywood before fixing it down as to where pipes are. once your plywood floor is down the next item on the list is installing the bath. The trick with the bath is to make your plumbing connections to the hot and cold taps before installing the bath as space is usually limited. fix the taps on the bath first then connect short pipes to the hot and cold taps. make sure your bath is level in both directions (get a good spirit level) and I mean good! saves headaches later on when tiling.
once you have levelled up the bath connect the waste pipe under the bath secure the bath with what ever brackets came with it. once that is done your ready really to tile the floor then tile the walls and then install the sink again put the taps into the sink first then short pipes to your isolator valves and then the final connect up. Make sure your sink is level and screwed to the wall. apply sanitary grade sealant to the back of the sink and bath. connect sink waste done. Next is the toilet the most important thing to remember is make sure its level in both directions for the pan you can use quick fit connector on the waste drill mark out the position of the screw holes in the bottom of the toilet pan with a felt tip pen then using a masonary drill slowly drill through your floor tiles the four holes required. I tend to use brass screws go to your hardware shop to purchase. (before you actually fit the toilet pan it would be a good idea to place it in position with the cystern in situ slide it back to the wall carefully mark out the position of the screw holes of the cystern on the wall, make sure its level too. once you have drilled all your holes both floor and cystern do the plumbing work on the cystern again a short length of pipe from the cystern then connect that to an isolator valve. finnish off with sanitary grade sealant.
hope this is of some help to you
kat21

Volcano

Floors are normally levelled with chipboard, not plywood as this is too flexible, especially if the floor underneath may be a bit flexible itself.

Floor levels: Putting down 12mm of chipboard then say 7mm of tiles (+ couple of mill of tile cement) will obviously raise the floor height. Will this be a problem? Will there be a smooth transition for the threshold from bathroom to adjoining room?

Toilet: don't forget to allow for this increase in floor height when plumbing in the toilet.

emilyt

Suzey wrote:

Hi all

I'm thinking about gutting my bathroom and putting in a new suite, shower, tiles and floor.

a) Do I have to get an electrician in to fit an electric shower (to be honest I think I'd rather, just in case!)?
b) Should I put the floor down first (I fancy floor tiles) before I put the suite in?
c) Is it easy to fit a new suite? I'm fairly handy but have never fiddled with plumbing before.
d) I'll need to level out the floor with sheets of plywood before laying the tiles. How straightforward is this? I have visions of a squeaky, bendy floor if I just stick a flat board on top of what's already there

Please let me know your experiences of DIY bathroom renovations!

thanks

Suze

Hi There Suzy,
We had a new bathroom fitted 18 month ago now.
My advice to you would be to get a plumber in to fit your bathroom suite toilet and shower. Definately use a qualified electrictian. This is what we did. My OH tiled the bathroom but to be honest if i was to have another bathroom fitted i would definately have someone else to do it. My OH works full time so it took him a long time to do the tiling. Although we did end up saving a lot of money.We had the floor fitted after everything else was finished. Again by proffesionals. Definately worth it INHO. Hope this helps.

BobProperty

Volcano wrote:

Floors are normally levelled with chipboard, not plywood as this is too flexible, especially if the floor underneath may be a bit flexible itself......

The OP was talking of tiling the floor, if you are going to tile the floor, you use ply not chipboard. (check the link weekendwarrior posted)

kat21

yes you use plywood if installing floor tiles preferably marine ply, you always have to becarefull in forums like this on how much information is best given, especially with it being possilby a novice
I have always used marine ply for fixing to make a good preparation for tiles
you could bond or screw, I prefer screw just incase there are problems later on with leaks then bond tiles with the appropriate. I have tried to let the poster know its quiet involved and you should have a reasonably good knowledge of domestic plumbing, electrical installations and regulations and of course bonding too,

kat21

BobProperty

kat21 wrote:

yes you use plywood if installing floor tiles preferably marine ply,.....

You don't need marine ply, WPB is good enough. IIRC, marine and WPB are equally waterproof but marine is made from better quality laminations because it has to be able to be shaped for marine use (?) and / or it is also waterproof against salt water which isn't usually a problem in bathrooms. I'll stop digging now, er....help