Questions about having bathroom fitted/re-tiled

xxxpinkladyxxx · 10 June 2017 at 8:48PM

We're thinking of having our bathroom re-tiled, as well as a new toilet and wash basin.

Our bathroom is absolutely tiny, about a metre wide and 2 metres long. I attempted to work out the square metres and I think it's around 7 square metres. Does anyone know how long this would roughly take to do? I mean our bathroom is literally big just big enough for a bath, toilet, sink and one person, 2 at a push!

I also have a question about what order to do it in. Do we have it tiled with the toilet and sink removed or can it be done with the new ones installed? We only have the one bathroom in our house and with 2 kids, it's going to be really difficult to be without a toilet. So, if it takes a while, then I guess they'll have to go to nanny's.

A.Penny.Saved · 11 June 2017 at 9:15AM

Get some buckets and do the toilet first. The toilet bowel itself can be used by pouring a bucket of water down it after the cistern water supply is disconnected. Leave the bath connected while you do the toilet so you can fill buckets of water easily. Then you should be able to deal with tiling after the cistern is removed. Just be a little careful not to over fill the toilet bowel with the bucket of water, unless you can put something on the water inlet to prevent any water flowing out.

BTW your bathroom sounds slightly larger than mine but mine does not have a toilet because that is separate. Think about the location of your toilet and the other items near to it because unless you make sure everyone puts the toilet lid down, bacteria can be dispersed around when it is flushed.

GDB2222 · 11 June 2017 at 9:23AM

It's quite common to install the new toilet and then tile around it. However, you can't expect the tiler to work with you coming in and using the loo every five minutes.

Are you planning to hack off the old tiles? That takes a day or so and is unbelievably messy. It's not as good a job to tile on top of what's there, but people do it precisely to avoid some of the mess.

xxxpinkladyxxx · 11 June 2017 at 10:52AM

I think we will hack the tiles off, to be honest. I wouldn't tile on top of them, firstly because our bathroom is small enough and we'd lose a bit more of it by doing that and plus I did the tiling. I have no idea why I did the tiling, but our walls are a pain in the backside because, although they're flat, they kind of veer outwards a bit as the wall goes up, which is why I had problems doing the tiling myself. If they do it while the kids are at school, I can just pop to my sister's or my mum's if I need to use it.

southcoastrgi · 11 June 2017 at 1:35PM

I would never tile around the wc pan or basin pedestal, it will never look right & water can get underneath & if either need replacing in the future you will have to get the same model or it won't fit, always tile first then fit the pan & basin

GDB2222 · 11 June 2017 at 8:56PM

southcoastrgi wrote: »

I would never tile around the wc pan or basin pedestal, it will never look right & water can get underneath & if either need replacing in the future you will have to get the same model or it won't fit, always tile first then fit the pan & basin

Absolutely agree! However, it means the bathroom is out of commission much longer.

Annie1960 · 11 June 2017 at 9:56PM

Hire a portaloo so you have time to take off the old tiles and do the work properly?

How do you get 7 square metres? Do you mean the area of walls that needs to be tiled?

Is it possible to fit your door so it opens outwards, as this will give you a little more space inside?

Bathroom fitters are usually good at making sure everything works overnight so long as you discuss this with them before they quote.

andyhop · 12 June 2017 at 5:59AM

Find a installer with experience. In 15ys I've never left anyone with a WC overnight, nor have I cut round WC or basins

Rapid set flexible can take just a few hours to set and even if the floor is laid at ththe last point in the working day , come 7pm it'll be good to walk on lightly

thescouselander · 12 June 2017 at 8:53AM

Did a bathroom exactly the same size in our old house. We had stud walls so rather than make a huge mess I pulled down the plasterboard with the tiles still attached and put new plasterboard up - this together with removing the suite took a day.

We had the tiler come in the next day and he finished the tiling including grout in 1 day. It then took me almost a day to install the new suite.

With the toilet we just put it back in place over night so we at least had use of it. Flexible waste and fill connectors help massively here.

xxxpinkladyxxx · 12 June 2017 at 11:33AM

Annie1960 wrote: »

Hire a portaloo so you have time to take off the old tiles and do the work properly?

How do you get 7 square metres? Do you mean the area of walls that needs to be tiled?

Is it possible to fit your door so it opens outwards, as this will give you a little more space inside?

Bathroom fitters are usually good at making sure everything works overnight so long as you discuss this with them before they quote.

I just made an educated guess on how to calculate the square footage. I basically did the length and width of the shortest end of the bathroom (it's a rectangle shape) and multiplied them together, then I did the same with the other, longer wall. So it doesn't include the floor, which we want tiled, but then the floor space there is so tiny, it would only probably need a few tiles.

Our door already opens outwards. There wouldn't physically be enough space to have it open in to the room.

They're coming round tonight to give me an idea of cost and how they'll do it, so I can fire some questions at them then. We cannot be without a toilet over night.

xxxpinkladyxxx · 12 June 2017 at 11:34AM

thescouselander wrote: »

Did a bathroom exactly the same size in our old house. We had stud walls so rather than make a huge mess I pulled down the plasterboard with the tiles still attached and put new plasterboard up - this together with removing the suite took a day.

We had the tiler come in the next day and he finished the tiling including grout in 1 day. It then took me almost a day to install the new suite.

With the toilet we just put it back in place over night so we at least had use of it. Flexible waste and fill connectors help massively here.

I think we will actually get a plumber to fit the bathroom suite, he's also coming round tonight. My husband is really good at DIY, but I think as it's the bathroom and it's the one room you really can't live without, it'll be better and quicker.

Questions about having bathroom fitted/re-tiled

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free