What order to tackle bathroom?

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

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Easy all.

Thinking about getting our bathroom done in the next 6 months and i'm just wondering what is the best order to tackle things in?

After you've got rid of everything and you're back to basically a shell of a room with some pipes sticking out in various places whats the best order to crack on with stuff? I want to make it a painless process as poss and get things done in the right order. So don't want to get the tiler in at the start if he's better coming in after the plumber has been and done things with pipes etc etc.

This is the order I've got in my head once the room has been taken back to a shell...
  • Electrician in to run cables for LED ceiling lights, shaver socket and power for Sonos speaker
  • Replaster ceiling
  • Reboarding walls (if required)
  • Laying 18mm marine ply down on the floor
  • Rerouting pipes for new sink location
  • Routing pipes for new mixer shower (cold feed is already in the area as it fed the electric shower - will just need a hot feed too)
  • Tiler come in and do all wall tiling that we want doing
  • Lay down new flooring (not sure if going with thick vinyl/lino, good laminate or to tile yet
  • Get new bathroom suite fit (bath, sink, toilet and shower) and plumbed in
  • Get electrician back to final fix

Does that sound like a sensible order or have I over completely overthunk it!? haha.
 
Whtever you do, check the instructions on the shower mixer and ensure that the cold/hot water feeds are the right way around. Thermostatic mixers will not work if they're incorrect.
 
Have you a toilet that is separate? Just in case you need to go and bathroom has been stripped!
 
Participant said:
The correct order is:

  • Call a proper company that's prepared to project manage it
  • Put on slippers and light up pipe
Click to expand...

I could do that but i'd rather not fork out the extra wedge for the privilege. I've a friend who is a sparky, a tiler who is a family friend, a plasterer again who is a friend and has done work for me before and a good plumber who I've used countless times before so should have all bases covered, hopefully.

I know it will undoubtedly take longer to finish but should save me a fair bit on getting an all in one company in to sort it.

koolpc said:
Have you a toilet that is separate? Just in case you need to go and bathroom has been stripped!
Click to expand...

No we don't. I was going to look at keeping the toilet in situ until the very last minute and then get it removed so we could still use it whilst the rest of the bathroom is out of action - however i'm not sure how feasible this is yet.

We tend to shower after the gym (at the gym) every morning before work so that shouldn't be an issue and we could go to our parents houses at the weekend to do the same if necessary.
 
Assuming you are doing all to room stripping back and clearing yourself then the following:

First Fix plumbing - routing pipes/fixing shower valves/radiator pipe relocations, fitting bath etc.)
First fix electrics - running of cabling for new lights/shaver sockets/power shower??/extractor fans/light switches
Lay pre floor (marine ply as you have it)
Plasterer
Tiler - tiling and grouting - walls and ceiling - if you are getting the floor tiled make sure that anti crack matting is prelaid by the tiler.

If not having tiles on the floor then get flooring done at this point.

Second Fix plumbing (fitting sink + peds, toilet etc stuff that doesn't need tiling around but sits on top of tiling for better quality finish) including full sealant runs around furniture and the entire room along all corners (internal corners, bath panel to floor joins if the panel is a fixed tiled jobbie, along fixed shower screen edges etc.)

second fix electrics - lights, extractor fan etc
 
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Get a general builder in to do it and let them deal with the headaches :) for a project the size of the average bathroom you won't save money getting separate plumbers plasterers tillers etc. and when there are inevitable disagreement assigning responsibility will be much harder than just saying to the builder sort that it's wrong.
 
I would switch the order around a bit. Do the works that involve any chasing of walls, damaging floors etc before you start doing the reboarding/plastering/marine ply.

  • Electrician in to run cables for LED ceiling lights, shaver socket and power for Sonos speaker
  • Routing pipes for new mixer shower (cold feed is already in the area as it fed the electric shower - will just need a hot feed too)
  • Rerouting pipes for new sink location
  • Reboarding walls (if required) and making good from plumbing works
  • Replaster ceiling and walls if required
  • Laying 18mm marine ply down on the floor
  • Tiler come in and do all wall tiling that we want doing
  • Lay down new flooring (not sure if going with thick vinyl/lino, good laminate or to tile yet
  • Get new bathroom suite fit (bath, sink, toilet and shower) and plumbed in
  • Get electrician back to final fix
 
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R.O.S.S.I said:
No we don't. I was going to look at keeping the toilet in situ until the very last minute and then get it removed so we could still use it whilst the rest of the bathroom is out of action - however i'm not sure how feasible this is yet.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be an issue, we are having our bathroom completely stripped out and redone by a chap at the moment and we asked him to leave the toilet plumbed in as it is our only one (and the other half is 6 months pregnant too :p).

It's not been any issue for him, there has been one day so far where he had to take it out to do some work and then put it back in before he left at the end of the day but he said it was no bother. Just ask whoever you have doing the work to keep it plumbed in and I'm sure they won't mind, it's most likely quite a common request for them working in properties with one bathroom/toilet.
 
Abyss said:
I would switch the order around a bit. Do the works that involve any chasing of walls, damaging floors etc before you start doing the reboarding/plastering/marine ply.

  • Electrician in to run cables for LED ceiling lights, shaver socket and power for Sonos speaker
  • Routing pipes for new mixer shower (cold feed is already in the area as it fed the electric shower - will just need a hot feed too)
  • Rerouting pipes for new sink location
  • Reboarding walls (if required) and making good from plumbing works
  • Replaster ceiling and walls if required
  • Laying 18mm marine ply down on the floor
  • Tiler come in and do all wall tiling that we want doing
  • Lay down new flooring (not sure if going with thick vinyl/lino, good laminate or to tile yet
  • Get new bathroom suite fit (bath, sink, toilet and shower) and plumbed in
  • Get electrician back to final fix
Click to expand...

Again, complete oversight on my part about the rerouting of pipes. Makes a million times more sense for that to be done and then boarded over!

In all honesty I may take on the task of re-boarding the walls myself (if it needs it) - I've heard that you shouldn't tile over a skimmed wall too as it wont hold the weight so need to decide if we are having the entire wall tiled or going like half way. The bathroom is only small anyway at 2.2m x 1.7m so shouldn't be too much of a task.

One thing I need to get sorted though is a good quality extractor as at the moment there isn't one and we get mould on the ceiling (particularly in winter). Can extractor fans vent on an external wall or do they have to go into the loft and out?
 
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You can vent on to an external wall, but this limits you to complete units as apposed to inline extractors which are more powerful but require space to sit and wont fit in to a bore hole in the wall.
 
Syla5 said:
You can vent on to an external wall, but this limits you to complete units as apposed to inline extractors which are more powerful but require space to sit and wont fit in to a bore hole in the wall.
Click to expand...

Will try and work one into the loft then somehow!
 
I'm curious, if you have an inline extractor, what would you typically have for the external vent in the roof - do people lift up some slates, cut a hole in the roof and fix it in or is there something else?
 
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