Bathroom Help

es1984_2

We're finally getting around to upgrading our bathroom after moving in 18 months ago.

Firstly, there is only a bath, not a shower in the bathroom. According to the plans of the house (it's only 7 years old), there is plumbing and wiring in for an electric shower although we've not actually checked to see if it is there yet. If it's there, it is at the freestanding end of the bath, there is about 14" from the end of the bath to the wall, this gap is currently boxed in - I'm guessing to hide the plumbing/wiring that's in place ready for an electric shower. So my 1st question is what would be the best way to build a false wall at the end of the bath, as the shower is going to need to be fixed to something.

Secondly, there is currently 3 rows of tiles all the way around the bath, but we want to install wet wall for when the shower goes in. Do we need to remove the tiles first? Is this likely to damage the wall underneath? How do we seal between the wet wall and the bath?

Thanks in advance :-)

alan.t

A decent plumber will be able to supply or do the labour of whatever boxing out and repairing walls is needed to get to where is needed. It sounds like you will be having the shower at the slopey end of the bath not where the taps are? You really need to have the shower at the end where the taps are, this will probably be easier to run pipework and cables to anyway, especially if you are going to finish off with some sort of shower wall panelling. Take the existing tiles off, make good any plasterwork to end up with a solid smooth wall and put the waterproof panels on the walls. You can even replace the plasterboard or cover over the plasterboard with special waterproof tiling boards before putting on the shower panels to make certain everything will be waterproofed, hardibacker is the best known product but there are loads on the market just as good.

ed110220

alan.t wrote: »

A decent plumber will be able to supply or do the labour of whatever boxing out and repairing walls is needed to get to where is needed. It sounds like you will be having the shower at the slopey end of the bath not where the taps are? You really need to have the shower at the end where the taps are, this will probably be easier to run pipework and cables to anyway, especially if you are going to finish off with some sort of shower wall panelling. Take the existing tiles off, make good any plasterwork to end up with a solid smooth wall and put the waterproof panels on the walls. You can even replace the plasterboard or cover over the plasterboard with special waterproof tiling boards before putting on the shower panels to make certain everything will be waterproofed, hardibacker is the best known product but there are loads on the market just as good.

It does really depend on the shape of the bath. I put our shower over the 'wrong' end of the bath and it works fine as we have a bath with a near vertical back. If the back of the bath is more sloping it won't work well.