Installing a bathroom myself.

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 09:18

Hi all i took a plunge last saturday and ordered a new bathroom sink, toillet bath and shower, its arriving this thursday.

I am planning on doing it all myself ripping the old one out, taking the old tiles off the walls and putting 6mm plywood down on the floor to lay tiles on the floor instead of carpet.

Now heres the thing, i have pretty much no DIY experience at all other then putting a fence up in the garden and building a wall and laying a patio.

Im keeping myself up at night worrying that im not going to be able to cope and make a mess of it, the question is, is it really that hard to fit a bathroom yourself? looked at guides on youtube and they make it look so easy! I have a plumber friend that is coming to sort out the plumbing to make sure it all lines up before i put the floor down.

Should i just get a profesional to do it all for me and spend another £500+ or attempt it all myself? Money is very tight!

P.s The bathroom is very very small, so its not like its a huge room to be doing, bath sink and toilet only just fit in with a walk way between the bath and wall

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 09:34

very excited to try and do it, just a worry i will bodge it and be without a bathroom for a long time, only got saturday 5am - 12am, and sunday 5am-12am to do the majority of the work, and then cant get to do it until after 7pm mon-friday

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 09:42

Nightglow said:
That is 6mm laid over existing floor to provide decent surface for floor tiles.

It isn't hard to do a bathroom, plan it in stages & take you time.

Yep it has floor boards down at the moment, googled it and said i need to lay 6mm plywood down on top, i have seen some in b&q called external 6mm plywood, looked to be the only one they had, is this the right stuff?

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 09:42

bitslice said:
I know some plumbing is different abroad, but I would have gone for a separate toilet and bath myself

Lmao, its all good just have to make sure you flush before you have a wash

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 10:35

Orifice said:
Generally a tiler would recommend cement boards, along the lines of Hardiebacker, rather than ply. Thats what I laid when I turned a bedroom into a a bathroom, either that or Marmox if you want waterproof and insulation.

Fitting a bathroom is not that hard, you just need to be methodical. I did everything in mine myself, including plumbing, tiling, making good walls, etc. It was probably easier as I could take my time, with no pressure to get the bathroom back up and running. End result is quite satisfying.

That bathroom looks excellent, very professional Finnish! Do you have much experience doing DIY before undertaking this?

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 10:39

Nightglow said:
Depends, if bath is being fitted in a recess, nothing worse than struggling to lift a bath over a bog, even more so if it's a steel one.

Hardiebacker thanks Orifice, the name had eluded me earlier.

Think i am going to get the new bath installed first, as that does not need to be removed again to tile the floor like the toilet and sink, and then get the plumbing sorted on the sink and and toilet and trial fit them in place, and then get the floor tiled, fit back the sink and toilet and then following weekend start on tiling the walls removing the sink and toilet again.

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 10:47

Gilly said:
Will you be able to get to the workings/innards of the bath if you do it that way around?

Yes, im only putting ply down around 2-3 inch's under the bath and tiling up to their, so under the bath it will be just floorboards so shouldn't be a problem getting to the plumbing under the bath

brightside229 · 23 Apr 2013 at 10:54

Gilly said:
Are you fitting a panel later then?

My mate had to rip his bathroom apart that he'd done himself so a plumber could fix a problem with his pipe that his tap had caused as they'd tiled the bath in.

Im planning on sitting the panel edges onto the tiles themselves so the panel should slide off and on over the tiles, as far as i am aware the bath will sit on adjustable legs so it does not matter if one side is raised higher then the other on the floor as the legs can just be made higher on the other side.

Unless im completely wrong and this is not possible, i am a complete noob lol

brightside229 · 26 Apr 2013 at 10:10

Thanks for all the tips and information everyone has given, started ripping out some of the bathroom last night, going to be doing more after work tonight, ready to get on with the new install saturday morning! Heres a few pics!

As you can see the bathroom looks pretty ghastly! really old and horrible!

These are the current tiles, just tiled around the bath and sink area, i plan on re-tiling all walls and floor.

screen shot capture

Carpet removed and just started on removing the nasty skirting boards, surprisingly easy to remove with minimal damage to plaster underneath.

brightside229 · 26 Apr 2013 at 10:48

First issue i have come across, well not really a issue but more of an annoyance, their has been a leak around the sink and bath area, which went through to the ceiling bellow causing a brown mark which is one of the reasons for the new bathroom, upon removing the carpet i was greeted with wet floorboards that absolutely stank from wet, mold or whatever, stank out the house. Washed the area with disinfectant and left the window open to to try and dry it out as much as i can. The boards dont seem to have rotted at all just got damp and stinky.

Its being covered by 6mm plywood and tiled so i am hoping any remaining smell from them wont be present after they have dried out and been covered!

brightside229 · 27 Apr 2013 at 16:54

Just a little update while i have a quick aero and tea break, been up since 6am ripping all of the bathroom out, managed to get all the plumbing re-done to hide all the pipes and wastes under the floor boards, got the bath installed in place have cut into the wall a few inch to set a good seal around the bath and at the moment have siliconed one side of the bath and i am filling in the corner of the bath with morter to get it up to the bath edge and then silicone up to it to get a nice seal.

going to skim over the walls before i tile to get a good level surface.

Plans for tomorrow are to go buy some 6mm ply and lay it in place and look into skimming the wall.

brightside229 · 27 Apr 2013 at 17:17

Yep pretty much everyone i talked to told me to fill the bath up when doing the silicone, so i guess 5-6 people all cant be wrong so i did

only hickup i have had today was when my evil next door neighbour came round moaning that i was banging at 7 am, in her words "its 7 in the *****G morning give it a rest" my girlfriend just said sorry no, and she called her a Barstool

Once i finish the seal and morter it in, going to finish cutting and laying the new floorboards i replaced and then leave it at that today, pretty productive day i think!

brightside229 · 27 Apr 2013 at 18:06

Just a quick question im filling in on the wall end of the bath and i have laid down some paper to protect the bath a little, but in places this has torn will it be ok to leave the morter on the bare bath while it is setting? or will it stain/damage the acrylic bath? or will it just be a matter of cleaning it off when its dry and be ok?

brightside229 · 27 Apr 2013 at 18:35

Nightglow said:
Might scratch acrylic when dry, so best to remove it while wet, then wipe with a damp rag.

I always stick masking tape along edges of bath first, then cover that with paper or a strip of plastic sheet taped in place.

Yea i was being a ***** as i didnt have any masking tape, just been out and bought some, and removed the paper without disturbing the morter and layed out some tape! just waiting for the silicone to go off along the edge of the bath and then im going to morter that side in!

Really enjoying doing it, learning as i go along! just hope it all comes together in the end, even if it does take a month to be fully sorted i have a working toilet and a bath so theirs no rush

brightside229 · 27 Apr 2013 at 19:30

Simon said:
How heavy are the tiles? Do you mean skimming with plaster ? I'd just put a layer of tile adhesive (cement based) as a skim

Not that heavy really, yea i meant skimming with plaster, my plumber friend said he would cover all the walls with a bonding thing, and then skim the walls, at the minute i dont think the tiles would stick too well to the crumbly walls, not sure what the stuff bellow the skim is called? unless a bonding agent can be applied and then the tiles would just stick to it?

brightside229 · 30 Apr 2013 at 19:12

Got all my stuff from my local plumb center.

brightside229 · 5 May 2013 at 13:50

Hi just a quick update to let you all know how its going on.

Jobs i had done since last update

1. I have skimmed the wall that was a little uneven from removing the tiles, pleased with result for my first go, not perfect but its being tiled over so who cares.
2 Laid down all my 6mm ply wood on the floor and screwed it into place, again pleased with result, seems solid and good fit around edges and pipes.
3. Have started tiling the walls, nearly completed 1 full wall, and very pleased with results, took it slow and for the 1 wall it has taken me around 1 days work in between doing other stuff around the house.
4. Cut out a hole all the way through my house to install an extractor fan, straight forward and happy with result

Only problem i have had is when getting the ladders from my dads house, put them in my girlfriends car and because of the length they had to go up against the front windscreen, i have done this twice before with no problems, this time when over a very small bump and its cracked the windscreen, been quoted £120 inc vat for a new one

Apart from the cracked windscreen everything is going well, cant put any pictures up as at the moment i don't have a phone due to selling my s2, and my s4 being over a week late on delivery

quick question, i put a long baton down on the wall for a straight edge to start tiling from, when i remove this how to i tile under the tiles that were held up by the baton without them falling down again? put the wood back on the wall lower down and measure position so it match's up with the tiles as i tile down?

brightside229 · 8 May 2013 at 09:38

At a bit of a roadblock at the moment, i cant tile anymore until my plumber comes to sort out the plumb fixings on the old shower and cap them off so i can tile around them, will hopefully get a picture up of my progress tonight after i have had a little tidy up. He cant come until thursday/friday so no more progress to be made until saturday!

brightside229 · 8 May 2013 at 20:15

As promised for those interested/following this here is a update pic of the current state of the bathroom!

As you can see it does not look too bad for a first time tiler/bathroom install. In places a tile or two is a few mm raised outwards, and slightly smaller gap/larger gap for grout line but thats due to the wall being crap and not straight, plus my inexperience

brightside229 · 9 May 2013 at 09:45

Simon said:
Looks good to me

Thanks! Really pleased with it so far! Plumber arrived this morning and sorted out my shower pipes, so now saturday/sunday i expect to make some good progress and get the majority of the tiling finished! and then next weekend start on the floor tiles, and hopefully week after get the sink and toilet in and will be finished!