This article will describe the strategy in which a conventional bathroom installation may run with a ukbathroomguru installation.

The introduction

Understanding the proper flow to arrange the many trades/things included in an average bathroom installation will ensure that work gets finished more rapidly, less expensive and to a higher finished standard.

The rest of this article will cover the steps involved in a common bathroom refit (accomplished by myself and my team in Horsforth, Leeds in this instance.)

Removal

The bathroom is cleared of various your own property prior to the bathroom installation group coming.

On arriving carpet covers are positioned to minimize possible damage.

Water is switched off & the central heating system is cleared
Miscellaneous objects are cleared e.g. your blinds, cabinetry, toilet roll holders, etc.

The current suite is taken off i.e. the bath, shower tray and enclosure, bath & bath screen, shower, basin, toilet, etc and placed inside a trash bin.

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The bath will be the final suite item taken away to permit any waste water coming from the toilet pan or basin trap to be drained into it.

All of the waste pipes are taken out as fresh pieces will undoubtedly be included as a part of a new installation - this approach ensures the brand new pipework is without a doubt clean and clear of debris for instance hair & soap which regularly clog up outdated waste piping, particularly when they run uphill!

All electrical connections are shut off where proper and capped off e.g. the old electric shower for example.

Tile elimination

The tiles are then taken off the wall surfaces and then the damage to the wall structure under the tiles is examined - in this instance the existing tiles happened to be tiled onto walls that had been rendered & plastered, and that render was found to be 'blown'. This means that it is no longer adhered properly to the brick wall behind, and had to be removed in order for the next phase of the job to begin.

Please see Preparing the wall surfaces for tiling - The removal of tiles for additional details on this subject and the guidelines that are required to do this.

At this moment, more expanding foam insulating material is placed all around the poorly fitted UPVC window frame to help insulation and confine heat loss from the bathroom. For more tips on how you can keep bathrooms warm see managing bathroom humidity.

First Fix Electrics

This action consists of running every one of the cabling that will control the items that are to be included in the fresh bathroom installation:

A switched fused spur is fitted to energize the electric underfloor heating, and a single back box is chased directly into the wall outside of the bathroom to support the modern digital thermostat. A conduit is chased directly into wall to feed the underfloor heating cable & temp sensor wire through, allowing for simple replacement in case the sensor is identified to be flawed prior to full installation.

Electrical cables are run and openings are drilled in the ceiling to hold new ceiling spotlights.

Electrical cables are also run to the position required for a cutting edge electric shaver socket, and a back box is chased straight into the wall when preparing.

A hole is drilled into the exterior wall to accommodate an extractor fan as part of an effort to lessen moisture & mould, and then the required cabling are run into the loft space above. Provisions are fashioned for an isolating button to allow the user to turn the fan off if desired.

Wall preparation

After the walls have been taken 'back to brick' and 1st fix electrics are carried out, they're then re-boarded with water resistant plasterboard using the 'dot 'n' dab' strategy.

This procedure is definitely the best, easiest and most economical method of getting entirely level, plumb, square walls when you're boarding an area from 'back to brick.'

Great point
While boarding out the area, make certain the inner wall edges are square (specifically at the place the shower tray or bath rim will rest) to make sure the tray or bath will sit snugly up to the walls enclosing it - this helps to produce a watertight seal along the bath when installed correctly.

The surface where the shower will be located is rendered by using bonding plaster (rather than boarded - to guarantee the bath fits into the available space with this case.) Because rendering usually packs the wall out significantly less than 'dotting 'n' dabbing' and that is important on walls where door frames / architrave make this approach unfeasible.

At this stage, channels are chased in the blockwork to connect the hot & cold pipes to the shower, whilst in the plasterboard to run pipework towards the fresh towel radiator as depicted previously. More drywall adhesive is placed surrounding the new chased channel in the plasterboard to ensure the board edges are reinforced.

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It's always easier to get 100 % level, plumb, square walls before you start chasing out for any pipework as opposed to chasing those out First followed by attempting to level the wall around the pipes.

This is the perfect time to paint the ceiling, since you will not splatter the bath or any other tiles by using your paint roller - you also don't have to cautiously cut in along the edges as you would be likely to if you carried out this process following tiling the walls.

First Fix Plumbing

This particular phase entails running fresh supply pipework to (and waste pipework from) the proposed location of the all new suite pieces.

Supply pipework moves hot and cold water to the thermostatic mixer shower, bath filler, basin mixer tap and (cold water only) for the toilet in this situation.

Water is carried through 15/22mm copper or plastic pipes that are laid underneath the floorboards (in-between and across the joists when essential) to avoid unappealing boxing associated with adding pipework above floor level - view graphic of the initial bathroom at the start of this content.

Supply pipework providing the shower & bath filler are run on top of the floorboards below the bath, to make future access simpler should maintenance be needed.

Conventions are additionally made for the lines to carry the waste water from the bath/shower, basin and toilet (known as waste pipes.) These must haul waste water coming from the toilet (4 inch diameter pipe) into the soil vent pipe (which is normally situated on the outside of the home) & waste water from your bath/shower (1½ inch diameter pipe) and sink (1¼ inch diameter pipe) into either the soil vent pipe or a rainwater hopper depending on drainage options available.

In this instance, another opening was drilled for the bath waste because the new bath had the waste at one end, in contrast to the earlier bath's waste was in the center. This meant that the old opening would have to be plugged up with mortar - this has been performed previous to re-boarding the walls in this particular case.

When the toilet is getting swapped out in the same exact spot, the point where the soil pipe enters the bathroom does not have to get modified, so no additional openings need to be drilled - this preserves a lot of time & cash.

The bath taps are fitted to the bath before installation, as well as the pop-up bath waste & trap.

Baths or shower trays are installed at 1st fix stage as they have to be fitted before the commencement of tiling. This really is important to get professional watertight seals, as water ingress as a result of doing important things in the improper sequence could potentially cause enormous problems in the future.

At that point, the central heating system pipework should also be transferred to allow for this new position of the new towel warmer over the bath. This requires draining down the central heating system in advance of re-filling it when the pipework has been finalized to search for leaks.

Once all of the pipework has been evaluated for leaks can the floorboards return back down and then the following can be carried out:

All pipework that was chased into the wall is anchored in place by using clips and next drywall adhesive or a sand & cement mix, making sure that they are initially wrapped in an impermeable tape to guard the copper from chemical attack. This approach makes certain that the plumbing is going to be locked in the right spot and reinstates a smooth surface area that can later be tiled on.

Wall tiling

First of all, the walls around the bath are tanked (made fully watertight) using a tanking kit to make sure no water can seep through to the surface and cause any conditions connected to water ingress beneath tiles.

Topmost tip
If tiling a bathroom 'floor to ceiling' there's no reason for plastering out the boards prior to tiling. The fact is that, it will lessen the amount of tile weight the plasterboard holds, and it is preferable to leave fresh plaster to dry up for 4 weeks in advance of tiling, guaranteeing you a lengthy wait!

Following that we prepare the tile configuration to make sure that the finished layout feels well balanced and we're not getting any difficult or needlessly small cuts. Please visit my posting marking out for wall tiling for further tips on this particular subject as a little time spent during this period could save you lots of time and hassle later on.

Whenever the vertical and horizontal axes have been resolved, a horizontal baton spanning the whole circumference of the space is attached to the walls.

It truly is important that the baton is completely level and 30 minutes levelling this up precisely can save you half a day of tiling, and make a high quality finish much more plausible. Next tiling starts.

As soon as the tiles are stuck to the plasterboard higher than the baton all the way round the space, the window reveals may then be tiled.

Because the wall tiles ought to finish 'down' onto the floor tiles for a nice looking, watertight result, I leave fixing the wall tiles under the baton until right after the floor tiles have been completely fitted.

Floor tiling

The floor is next prepared for tiling and then also tiled.

When the floor is over-boarded, the underfloor heating wire can be laid out - this basically requires sticking the heating wire and temperature probe down to the tile backer boards.

It is recommended to test the heating cable at this point to ensure it actually operates. The very last thing you want is to fully bury a faulty heating wire underneath the tiles, which will subsequently need to be extracted if you discovered that the heater didn't function.

Right after the tiles are placed (and the adhesive has set up) the rest of the wall tiles can be fitted.

Whenever all the tiling has been done, and the adhesive has totally cured the tiles can be grouted.

Once grouting and tile polishing, all the appropriate corners is sealed along with silicon e.g. all around the bath rim & wall/floor junctions etc.

2nd Fix Electrics

This particular phase involves fitting the items that are to be part of the brand-new bathroom installation:

The underfloor heating thermostat
The ceiling spotlights and linked pull cord
The shaver plug
The extractor fan & isolating control

Joinery

In this bathroom installation, the door was rehung on the other side of the frame to give the clients extra space upon entering the bathroom.

This was thought about from the start and lighting pull-cords were actually positioned appropriately.

The vanity element was also set up and fitted to the wall set for the plumber.

2nd Fix Plumbing

This stage involved the fitting / plumbing for the following elements:

The thermostatic shower on the hot & cold feeds sticking out from the wall
The bath screen
The toilet cistern & back to wall pan & soft close seat
The basin & sink mixer tap

Finishing details

The next elements were then fitted to complete:

Venetian blind
Toilet roll holder
Cabinet

Time taken - 1.5 weeks for ukbathroomguru