Cloakroom rebuild

Shaz]sigh[ · 19 Apr 2014 at 12:27

Nearing the end of my house renovation and it's the downstairs cloakroom's turn. It was really poorly fitted (much like the kitchen) and we had been using it for storage mostly which was becoming annoying.

Ripping out...

The previous owner had boxed the pipework, cistern and boiler up with plastic cladding. Reasonable idea but hilariously poor finish - they also drilled in to the boiler cover to hang a cladded piece for a false ceiling - groan.

Once everything was out, I lifted the lino to see this...

It was plasterboard... on top of t&g chipboard. I assume they used the plasterboard to reduce the step down in to the bathroom but ... just wow. Anyway, the plasterboard acted like a sponge and rotted the floor. Joists ok.

Fast forward, noggins added to joists, visqueen down, 18mm ply + 6mm no more ply fitted for tiles and walls battened and boarded and plumbing ready for taps.

Added some 15mm white mfc to the sides of the walls and plan to overlap with 15mm mfc behind the back to wall toilet to provide a fitted unit + boxing in for the pipework.

Ceiling filled ready to be lined (skimped on the skim as it's a downstairs bathroom) and cabling jigged around ready for pull switch.

Still need to work out how to box above the boiler.

Work delayed a bit due to easter working but the next few days I need to line the ceiling, finish the boxing in at floor level and start tiling.

Shaz]sigh[ · 26 Apr 2014 at 23:01

Never tiled before but getting there - I'd imagine a bigger room might have been nicer as due to the size of the room I felt like every tile was a difficult cut. Anyhow - bit of boxing in.

I then boarded the ply as the adhesive I had needed the ply to be primed which I don't have. Boxing in is literally sat on a baton and fixed with silicone with the idea that if access is needed I can just slide a razor blade down the wall/floor and pull away.

All tiled and ready for grouting. Got a silver grey to go on with matching silicone.

Mynight · 27 Apr 2014 at 01:06

Beautiful! Massive improvement.

Its scary what's going on in the walls/floors of a house. Until you rip it up you don't know what cowboys have been at it

Participant · 27 Apr 2014 at 07:06

Looks lovely. You've done a good job there.

Might just be the perspective, but it looks like the boxed in part at the floor gets shorter / narrower as it goes left to right? Looks like it doesn't run perpendicular to the wall / floor tiles?

Shaz]sigh[ · 27 Apr 2014 at 10:32

Participant said:
Looks lovely. You've done a good job there.

Might just be the perspective, but it looks like the boxed in part at the floor gets shorter / narrower as it goes left to right? Looks like it doesn't run perpendicular to the wall / floor tiles?

It doesn't

Goes from about 40mm to 70mm over 1250mm. Due to the limited width on the room near where the toilet is going I decided to follow the pipes and keep it narrower so there isn't a chance of catching feet etc - once the toilet is in the projection of it will mask the change somewhat (it will be more like 55mm to 70mm).

I did rerun the pipes as much as I could but the mains joins the rest of the house at the bottom left and this causes the 70mm projection. I did move it as close to the wall as I could after taking the wall down but it's against a stud now and I didn't want to notch it.

Shaz]sigh[ · 3 May 2014 at 18:09

Grouted and siliconed.

Cistern plumbed in.

False ceiling and pull switch wired in.

To do:

Wire final light
Measure, cut and fit panel behind toilet
Fit and fix toilet pan and test flush
Fit and fix sink
Paint woodwork (later on!)

If it rains tomorrow will probably finish it.

Lopéz · 4 May 2014 at 16:21

Very neat, looks good.

Participant · 4 May 2014 at 18:30

Very good. I particularly like those floor tiles.

Shaz]sigh[ · 5 May 2014 at 18:19

Nice bank holiday weekend so didn't do a lot.

Managed to cut the rear panels, only one shown here but also cut one for pipework. Unsure whether to leave a 3mm gap between both panels or get some trim. Got to iron on the end strip too.

Can't see it from the pic but there is a gap between the panel and the wall. Not as much as I had wanted but the batten and boarding took a chunk of space out.

Also fitted the toilet - everything went swimmingly until the existing isolating valve started leaking through the screw when I turned it back on so had to swap that out.

No leaks so far.

koolpc · 5 May 2014 at 18:26

Awesome job! Well done.

DannyW · 5 May 2014 at 21:16

Excellent quality there, Where did you learn to tile that good? Practice?

Shaz]sigh[ · 6 May 2014 at 08:15

Thanks. I've actually never tiled before so have no idea if I've done that good a job but I had a read of various tile forums which much like decorating focused on the prep and quality of materials so I made sure that the walls were as straight as I could make them when boarding and used a backer board on floor.

Apart from that, lots of patience and double measuring all the cuts.

I did notice that taking my time with the grouting, making sure everything was equally filled and being careful not to drag the joints out (sponge at 45 degrees, waiting till set enough etc) made it all look a lot better than I thought it did pre-grout

Shaz]sigh[ · 10 May 2014 at 18:20

Bit of an update.

Put the sink in on the brackets and as the wall isn't 90 degrees it wasn't fully butting up at the rear and was tilting forward slightly. Bedded it on silicone behind and wedged in place for 24 hours. Solid now!

Finished plumbing the sink and made it look a bit prettier. Bit annoyed (but also happy) as I had flipped from going with rigid pipes to a flexi pipe as I thought the waste wouldn't line up but I managed to fix the sink a touch higher so I think I could do it with a 135 degree bend, need to try.

Also fitted the boxing in and wired the boiler timer through. I need to pick up some trim for the join as my 60 tooth blade wasn't fine enough and the cut isn't that great

Can't see it but I also put the final light in.

There are a few bits to do (such as fitting a toilet roll holder/towel rad/door threshold strip etc) but as the room is 'operational' now and I'm busy for most of May I'll probably double back at the end of the month.

Also need to paint the door frame and door but I detest doing that so I'll likely put it off for a while

Tesla · 11 May 2014 at 08:25

Nice job.

Plasterboard on the floor, have yet to come across that one!

ocmanus · 11 May 2014 at 08:27

Good job!

Columbo · 11 May 2014 at 09:10

Excellent job, I'd be happy to pinch a loaf in there.