Bathroom refurbishments, if thought about planned and budgeted, can be one of the most rewarding and satisfying Diy projects to undertake and deliver into a home. A tired, damaged or dated bathroom is like an irritating eyesore: it's a question that enduringly stares you in the face and it just gets worse each time you go there.
Upgrading a bathroom suite or detach cloakroom and toilet does not have to cost a fortune, or commit you to unaffordable credit. I can't emphasise enough, when undertaking such a project, keep your investment within budget and don't be tempted by state of the art mod cons on display in bathroom centre showrooms, and builders' or plumbers' merchants' displays.
Plumbing
The more you plan, the less occasion of the project going down the pan!
Systematically write down a list of priority bathroom fittings and replacements, and then undertake your own explore into what is available and where you can source it for the best potential price.
Choosing a New Bathroom Suite
Online explore can source both local builders' merchants and Diy suppliers as well as the nearest plumbers' merchant's depot, or a master provider from supplementary afield.
Pre-set a total budget ceiling to buy and setup your new bathroom suite, and be sure to itemise each item you wish to collect be it a close-coupled toilet and cistern, pedestal and hand basin, bath, shower screen, shower head and riser support, and water and waste piping.
Look online at suppliers' websites and systematically check out their prices and delivery costs, and personel product specifications. Be sure to check product sizes, especially in areas of dinky floor space like a bathroom, cloakroom, or bedroom en-suite. It is no use buying products from separate suppliers if they won't certainly fit in the floor layout you are planning.
Research is the key to retention within budget and not getting tempted or carried away with expensive, state of the art bathroom designs.
Design Styles
With so many modern and classical bathroom designs to choose from, and so many architectural features to reconsider in homes today - it is to keep an open mind and escort as much explore online as you feel is primary to get the best designs and the best value for money offers in the marketplace. Visit show rooms to get an idea of how things might look and paint a optic photograph of the hereafter of your bathroom. Don't get carried away, remember, you'll have dinky room.
There are certainly hundreds of traditional or modern designs to choose from and the decision will be a subjective one as it is your property you are upgrading.
Prioritise Requirements
Is it to be a plastic or steel bath you require? Or maybe a free-standing, Victorian roll-top institute with clawed feet? Are you plainly seeing to replace an old, coloured, plastic bath with a new plain white institute plus taps, washers, waste, and side and end panels? Is your project a major refurbishment job where an old bathroom suite and pipes need to be removed and substituted with a astonishing new classical design?
Do you intend investing in an eco-friendly, modern suite with water flow controls to sell out inordinate consumption? This is something worth inspecting if you are on a water meter or have a large family. These modern flow controls can sell out water consumption by up to 80% foremost to health savings on your utility bills.
Discipline and tight budget controls are key to production the right decisions, as well as taking professional guidance from any trade experts in your local showrooms.
Planning Your New Bathroom
It is extremely wise to draw out a new floor plan and immediately mark out your total floor space, entry door, waste exit point, hand basin, toilet, bidet, bath and shower positions, together with areas of travel for habitancy to get in and out freely.
You also need to reconsider if an extractor fan is necessary. It can be primary if you plan to address the question of condensation, especially in winter. It can be fitted into an face wall or window, or with conduit tunnelling into an attic and across to an face wall.
Electrics
Did you know it is illegal to setup any electric wall sockets or plug socket systems into a bathroom, except a modern shaver socket and cover? Only ceiling light pull cords can be installed within the bathroom. Ceiling light wall switches can be installed face the bathroom entry door on an adjacent wall in the hallway or first floor landing area. All electric fittings must conform with current I. E. E. Wiring regulations and building regulations. If unsure, consult and commission a great electrician to advise you on re-wiring or planning any bathroom wiring requirements. All the time get at least 2 quotations if you intend request an electrician to perfect the rewiring project, or test the existing electricity circuits before planning your extractor fan, or entertainment, lighting and electrical installations.
En-Suite Facilities
Not only might you be inspecting upgrading a bathroom or cloakroom, but you may also be planning to change a small bedroom or box room into a new en-suite factory as the children grow up.
Again, faithful notice about budgets, designs and layout plans - (including drawings with standing areas clearly marked) - are the maxims to achieving success. buy of fixtures and fittings should not be undertaken before all your plans have been meticulously drawn, tested and popular ,favorite by all the family.
Disposing of waste from an en-suite toilet, shower, bath or hand basin to the property's soil stack may not All the time be potential without installing a Macerator pump. Even if your new en-suite facilities are being installed on the opposite side if the house to an existing soil stack, it will be potential to perfect the factory by adding a Macerator pump and 32mm waste exit pipes.
Removal of an Old Bathroom or Cloakroom Fittings
Listing the sequence of events - together with their estimated timings - is a very wise part of your bathroom conversion plans. Getting things done in the right order can make all the difference. Here is an example list to consider:
1. Fit stop cocks to pipes from cold water warehouse tank and hot water cylinder supply.
2. Turn off water supplies. Flush toilet. Turn on all old taps and drain off all water in existing pipes.
3. Take off old bath, toilet, hand basin, pedestal and toilet, together with cistern and waste pipes. Be sure you have assistance, especially if removing a heavy steel bath. Ensure you have the approved tools like wrenches, power drill and driver, hacksaw and pipe cutters.
4. Start by removing the toilet and cistern tank. Disconnect the cistern downpipe to the pan first by unscrewing the nut below the cistern and then unscrewing the connection at the pan end. Take off any wall screws and disconnect the cistern. Then Take off the pan floor screws and lift the pan from its flooring position.
5. When removing the pan, be faithful not to damage its soil pipe. Cover the soil pipe exit with a cloth to preclude any debris from getting into the soil pipe.
6. Check for any damage or repairs needed in the floor boards or wall plaster after removing the cistern and toilet.
7. Continue by removing the pedestal and hand basin, by disconnecting taps and unscrewing all wall brackets to lift the basin and pedestal. Again check for any subsequent repairs to the wall or floor.
8. Take off Bath: Take out any side or end panels. Disconnect hot and cold taps using a wrench. Disconnect waste pipe and water furnish pipes. Lift bath with help from an assistant. Manipulate bath out of the bathroom and Take off from the building. Check for any damage to existing walls, plaster or floor boards.
9. Now plan the positioning of new water furnish pipes and any waste pipes' exit routes to the soil stack.
10. Take off any remaining old fixtures and fittings like towel rails, toilet roll holders, bathroom cabinets, mirrors etc. Fix any screw holes in the walls using the approved plaster filler.
11. Have any old electric wiring or ceiling lights tested and take guidance on their replacement, using a great electrician.
Trade Tip: Do not Take off any old fittings before you have purchased all the new exchange bathroom fittings and double check they are the accurate size; come perfect with all taps, washers, screws, waste pipes and supports; are neither chipped, cracked or damaged in any way whatsoever; and you have a reliable assistant to help with any lifting and discharge of old fittings, and the factory of your new bathroom suite.
Note: discharge of lead pipes can earn you a few quid at the local scrap yard, and advertising old bathroom suites on a local Recycle/Green website can find a grateful new owner rather than dumping your old fittings into a local Council landfill tip.
Installing New Bathroom Fittings
Read all the manufacturers' fitting instructions carefully, first and don't start any new installations before you have checked through each component box, and double-checked that all the fittings and screws/piping pieces are included.
Toilet:
1. Connect the extra plastic and rubber pan connector to the exit soil pipe, having first removed the soil pipe's temporary debris rag cover.
2. Then screw the pan into your bathroom floor using the manufacturer's screws supplied, together with their plastic head covers. Ensure it is positioned at the accurate level using a spirit level.
3. Position the close-coupled cistern tank above and Connect the water supply, plus water furnish to the pan and the overflow pipe to its exit pipe.
Always fit an isolating valve to the new water furnish pipes for simplifying any maintenance in future.
Bath and Hand Basin
1. All the time check all components are perfect in both product packages, together with waste outlet pipes. Supervene the manufacturer's fitting instructions to the letter.
2. Fit washers, taps, overflows and waste pipes first, before installing the bath and wash basin and pedestal in position.
3. Water supplies to the hand basin are from 15mm copper pipes and 22mm copper pipes for the bath.
4. Waste water from the hand basin will run away into its soil pipe through whether a U-trap or bottle trap below the basin and it's new, 32mm plastic pipework.
5. Waste water from the bath will run into its soil pipe through new, 40mm push-fit, plastic piping.
6. Use the bath's two steel floor supports and adjustable feet below its institute to create the water outflow along a suitable downfall by applying a spirit level. Don't guess this primary water downfall.
7. Fitting new servicing stop valves in the water furnish pipes is a frugal move while these upgrade installations.
8. Fit both the new bath side and end panel as per the manufacturer's instructions using the screws provided.
Tiling and ornamental Finishes
Always be sure you are using waterproof wall tile adhesive and grouting when tiling nearby hand basins, baths, shower enclosures and wet rooms. Use professional plastic spacers when mounting each wall tile. Supervene manufacturers' fixing and grouting instructions to the letter and you will then accomplish a professional finish.
Do not affix wall tiles to a new bathroom floor. Ceramic or cork floor tiles, or a vinyl floor face can be fitted to accomplish an entertaining halt to your bathroom every person will admire.
Wall and floor tiles today come in a multitude of designs and face finishes from slate, to porcelain or a high glaze finish, and in plain or patterned colour ways. Again, classical or modern designs are available to complement your new bathroom suite or cloakroom.
Be sure to spend in a tile cutter to fit all the tiles in any tight spaces, or nearby a bath or hand basin, or door frame.
Sealants
Before the new bathroom factory can be classed as waterproof and complete, you must seal any gaps between the bath and basin, and any adjacent wall tiles. Flexible, waterproof silicon sealants are primary to preclude any water dripping and damaging the grouting and plasterwork below your new bathroom or cloakroom walls and floors.
Furniture and Fittings
Embellishing your entertaining new bathroom or shower room with furniture, mirrors or accessories will give it that ultimate finish, and furnish warehouse for people's personal effects like towelling, shampoos, shower gels, hair sprays, deodorants and shaver systems. In addition, it's those dinky extras like toilet roll holders, glass shelving and artefacts that make it a statement worth delivering.
Trade Tip: If using a power drill to make a screw hole into a glazed wall tile, place a criss-cross strip of masking tape onto the tile first and then mark the exact drill spot. Switch the drill to a slower speed and apply moderate pressure when starting to drill into the surface. This will preclude a sudden slip and damage to your tile surface. Withdraw the drill and growth the speed to accomplish the closed depth required.
Affix all bathroom furniture and fittings only with the manufacturers' screws and wall plugs provided.
Congratulations - you now have a gorgeous new bathroom every person in the household is proud to use.
Planning and Plumbing a New Bathroom installation
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