Adding a bathroom - sistering joists, new water supply, new boiler + cylinder

LuckyBenski said:
Nice work! Seems you're doing all the jobs I'd like to do in our place. Main bedroom is 4m x 4m and all suspended/full span. Quite bouncy, so I'd like to sister some joists or add noggings or both. Ideally I'd do it without fully taking up the floor though.

Does it feel much more solid now you've sistered up?
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Thanks, yeah it's very solid, especially with the ply. I will overboard it with tileboard + flexible adhesive and try to level it. Then tiles on top.

I did blow some of the ground floor ceiling plasterboard screws, from whacking the noggins in place. Nothing too bad, tighten the screws, bit of filler and paint.

I am going to add some noggins between where the first 2 sheets of ply meet as well, as well as probably put some underneath where the bath will go, just for a bit more strength.
 
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Mason- said:
Bump. Did this all over the weekend. Exposed it all:



Cut all the wires going through the existing joists. Extended them all and temporarily put them ‘over’ the joists so I can sister the new ones:



Raked out mortar. Cleaned out the hole. Fit the joist hangers. Mortared them in. Splodged a load of CT1 on the back of them for good measure.



Sistered the joists as per the engineers directions. Added noggins in the centre.





Now it’s on to getting a new water supply. Current one is shared, 70 years old, and only get 9l/min.

Dug a big hole where I plan to bring it into the house. From this:



To this:




Going to be tricky here. Water pipe has to be 750mm below ground. Where it goes into the house it has to go in 4 inch waste pipe and the pipe has to be insulated.

My footing bricks only go 1 foot below ground level and then there are foundations.

I’m hoping I can core drill in the footing bricks. Then 45 down past the foundations. Down to 750mm and then 45 flat.

Water board guy is coming Wednesday so I’ll run it by him then.

Next step on the bathroom floor is to expose the right hand side. Put noggins all the way across. Then ply the floor. Then build the stud walls for the bathroom and new boiler room.

I’ll keep this thread up to date.
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You could take the new pipe in above ground if you want too, as I didn't want any hole below ground level as we have flooding issues.
All I did was drill a hole about 500mm above the DPC, use an approved plastic insulated cover and use an insulated conduit for the pipe near the house as it had to run close to the surface because of a culvert pipe in the garden.
 
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tonys said:
You could take the new pipe in above ground if you want too, as I didn't want any hole below ground level as we have flooding issues.
All I did was drill a hole about 500mm above the DPC, use an approved plastic insulated cover and use an insulated conduit for the pipe near the house as it had to run close to the surface because of a culvert pipe in the garden.
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Yeah there’s a product called a groundbreaker which can do that: https://groundbreaker.co.uk/products/groundbreaker/. I’m being really sad here… but I want the best flow possible, and they will add 2 elbows. I was hoping to run my pipe to the water softener/cylinder without a single elbow.

But I’m probably being silly, and one of these is probably the simplest solution.
 
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Mason- said:
Yeah there’s a product called a groundbreaker which can do that: https://groundbreaker.co.uk/products/groundbreaker/. I’m being really sad here… but I want the best flow possible, and they will add 2 elbows. I was hoping to run my pipe to the water softener/cylinder without a single elbow.

But I’m probably being silly, and one of these is probably the simplest solution.
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That looks a lot more expensive than the one I put in. I even fitted it myself and just had to get inspection approval from the Anglian Water. With the problem of the culvert pipe the insulated part of the 8m long pipe was only about 200mm from the surface(if that).
 
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Sorry for the lack of updates.

Finished the Studwork:


Electrician fitted fused spur for boiler, fused spur for immersion, a double socket and a light to the boiler cupboard.


Fitted Rockwool Sound Slab to the stud walls and plaster boarded it all.



New megaflo eco slimline 200i in place. Box has Vaillant ecoTEC 620. It’s going to be snug! Also gonna have a water softener on the floor in there.


Time to core drill into the kitchen for new water supply. Measured off of the window… measured 3 times. Put my pilot drill through.


Far too close to the copper pipes!!! Drilling level would have a been a good idea… d’oh!



Went with it anyway… yolo.

Great success.



Regs say if the water pipe is not 750 below ground it has to be in 4 inch duct and insulated.



Fitting the insuDUCT is gonna be a challenge. 40mm waste is coming from washing machine. As well the gas pipe is in the way…. Have to fix 5 things to move forward 1 step…



And finally had my first go at soldering. Made the diverter section for the water softener. Can’t test if it’s water tight yet. But pretty happy with it.





See you in a few weeks :p
 
Looks good --- did the sparky just runt he fused spur from the ring? Asking because my plumber did basically the same when he relocated to the loft. I wasn't sure if it deserved it's own circuit...
 
Did you have to buy/hire core drill bit(s), or more powerful drill - had the water board confirmed increased flow rate if you had your own pipe ?
( still need to dig into it - I live on a hill flows not brilliant for upstairs combi shower but think I'd really need a pump
anglia water measured static pressure 2.2Bar/22mh , total 40ltrs 10mh apparently )

The pipework for the bathroom bath tub will all be above floor I guess to avoid compromising new joists.
 
dlockers said:
Looks good --- did the sparky just runt he fused spur from the ring? Asking because my plumber did basically the same when he relocated to the loft. I wasn't sure if it deserved it's own circuit...
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Can't remember the exact words he used but it is advisable or preferred, but importantly not mandatory, to have it on its own circuit - it's not really feasible in my case to run a new circuit from the consumer unit (without ripping up recently renovated rooms flooring). So it's just off of the upstairs sockets, which is fine really what other high powered stuff are we going to have upstairs, at most probably a hair dryer. The immersion is a backup as well, it should be being heated by the boiler all the time unless there is a fault with the boiler. The electric power draw of the boiler is negligible.

jpaul said:
Did you have to buy/hire core drill bit(s), or more powerful drill - had the water board confirmed increased flow rate if you had your own pipe ?
( still need to dig into it - I live on a hill flows not brilliant for upstairs combi shower but think I'd really need a pump
anglia water measured static pressure 2.2Bar/22mh , total 40ltrs 10mh apparently )

The pipework for the bathroom bath tub will all be above floor I guess to avoid compromising new joists.
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My brother had a set which I borrowed, when he stopped working for British Gas he was going to start his own company going private so bought some core bits. But he didn't bother doing it in the end, works on national infrastructure gas pipes now.

I just used my Titan SDS, have to say I'm impressed with the clutch, a few times the bit caught (probably something to do with my pilot hole being sloping down!!!) and the clutch was perfect, my wrists and arms are fine.

They haven't advised on flow, said estimated pressure is 3.5-3.8 bar. Considering my current supply is shared, and I don't know what size it is underground but I do know it comes into my house in 15mm copper. By going to 32mm MDPE there should be a big improvement in flow.
 
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Mason- said:
They haven't advised on flow, said estimated pressure is 3.5-3.8 bar. Considering my current supply is shared, and I don't know what size it is underground but I do know it comes into my house in 15mm copper. By going to 32mm MDPE there should be a big improvement in flow.
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yes suppose you will have a system setup so the water in the upstairs hot tank already has some head, was pushed upstairs
Have 32mm mdpe(25int) to house, and from downstairs 30kw (non system) combi 15mm hot copper to the upstairs - I've not found any good site showing sizing calculations
(don't know if dlockers boiler, &tank?, in loft did any calculations )
 
Loving the updates, thank you!

Despite the new bathroom we had installed in June (council property, but we bought the furniture & sanitary ware we wanted), we plan next year to knock the tiny (3.1m x 2.8m) room into the adjacent airing & storage cupboards (containing the combi boiler).

Removing two walls gives us an overall L-shaped space of 4.6m x 4.6m), which means we can fully tank & tile, install electric UFH, fit a proper sized bath (current one is 1800), separate walk-in shower and double vanity, with enough clear wall space to add a giant towel radiator and storage cupboards for potions & towels (currently kept in my PAX wardrobe in our bedroom).

Seeing your work makes our plans feel far less daunting than I initially imagined.
 
Sorted the first obstacle for the INSUduct today. Getting the 40mm washing machine waste running across to the existing gully out of the way. Had to add a new gully and chop out some of the clay pipe to put some plastic fittings in.

Grinding the clay pipe out was a pain as there wasn’t enough space to get the grinder around it all. So had to cut chunks out bit by bit and then tidy up the ends when the middle section was out.



There was quite a lot of water in the pipe itself. I guess the fall isn’t so great.

Next mistake was after I was halfway home from tool station I realised I didn’t buy any lubricant for the pipes. “It’ll be fine” I thought, that was a mistake.



Biggest issue was the adjustable bend where it went into the tee. The middle part moved fine but it wasn’t rotating in the tee at all so couldn’t get it where I wanted. Tried some fairy liquid on all the joints and then everything moved nicely and I could manipulate it all the way I wanted.

Relieved that’s done. Just need to get the gas pipe moved by someone gas safe registered then I can chop a bit of the weather bead off, and fit the INSUduct.
 
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Sorry for the lack of updates. Anyway… before I had moved the washing machine waste out of the way. Next thing to move out of the way was the gas pipe.

The lower part is going to the existing boiler. The upper part is going to the new one. It’s just capped under the floorboards for now.


After that I was clear to fit the insuduct. I grinded some of the render off so it would sit relatively flat.

Fit the back half and the elbow. Had to notch the insulation out to make the elbow fit in nicely.

Above 75cm the pipe has to run in waste pipe and be insulated.

So it’s 2 135s to get it over the foundations, and then in to a large swept 90.



Then had to get this pipe through….


Was a massive pain in the arse. 32mm MDPE is so rigid. Lots of swearing later…



Connected up


And done…


On to the inside. - should have left myself more pipe. Was a pain in the arse but from this:



To this:







Now got to wait for the Moling company and the water company. So on to the inside now. Working on the boiler room and bathroom.
 
Mason- said:
Sorry for the lack of updates. Anyway… before I had moved the washing machine waste out of the way. Next thing to move out of the way was the gas pipe.

The lower part is going to the existing boiler. The upper part is going to the new one. It’s just capped under the floorboards for now.


After that I was clear to fit the insuduct. I grinded some of the render off so it would sit relatively flat.

Fit the back half and the elbow. Had to notch the insulation out to make the elbow fit in nicely.

Above 75cm the pipe has to run in waste pipe and be insulated.

So it’s 2 135s to get it over the foundations, and then in to a large swept 90.



Then had to get this pipe through….


Was a massive pain in the arse. 32mm MDPE is so rigid. Lots of swearing later…



Connected up


And done…


On to the inside. - should have left myself more pipe. Was a pain in the arse but from this:



To this:







Now got to wait for the Moling company and the water company. So on to the inside now. Working on the boiler room and bathroom.
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Nice job, I basically did the same but dug a 7m trench and put the pipe in 63mm conduit with about 3m in insulation as it had to go over a culvert pipe.
 
Moling company came on Friday. And moled from my boundary to where it goes into the house. About 20m or so. And also as I have a 1m retaining wall. Means digging a trench would have been a nightmare. Would need a 1.75m hole on the other side of the retaining wall.

So they dug on the street side and moled from there.




They did a great job. He was very complimentary of my work. Asked me if I was a plumber lol. Probably just buttering me up.

Just need affinity water to connect up to the main now.

Anyway, on to the internals.

The plan:


The reality:



First time doing some proper soldering. Fairly happy with it. Can’t test it though until the water company connects up.

For the outside tap: because the cupboard is small. Aiming to drill from the outside in, I didn’t want to risk it. So my plan was to drill an 8mm pilot hole from inside to outside, hoping for minimal breakout with an 8mm bit. Then use my 22mm bit from the outside in.

Well that plan went to ****, look at the blowout from the 8mm bit…



Anyway, drilled it out with 22mm and put 22mm copper pipe through as a sleeve for the 15mm water carrying pipe.

Patched up the render:



Will paint it tomorrow and hopefully fit the outside tap.
 
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