Author Topic: Pimp my bathroom  (Read 40513 times)

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #50 on: 05 January, 2017, 12:11:00 pm »
Yikes to more building work.

I would only go for a wet room upstairs if you can guarantee that the floor won't move at all, ever.

If I was making one upstairs, which I wouldn't as I'd have a shower tray to catch the water, I'd lay 2 layers of marine ply laid with staggered joints and add a couple of flitch plates along two joists. These are full length 6mm thick metal plates bolted to the joists, which will stiffen the floor. If you can bed them in the wall, even better, but they will need to go across the full span of the joist. Then you'll have a floor that won't move and compromise the waterproofing of the floor.

Wet rooms are very nice and they can be used where space is tight. I'm going to be installing one downstairs at home with underfloor heating in the summer. It's having a concrete floor which I know is going to be structurally stable, because I'll be making it doubly so. With water in the house, the devil is in the detail, but you know that anyway.

Matki do nice showers and Damixa do nice taps/controls, but they're not cheap.

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #51 on: 05 January, 2017, 12:30:57 pm »
This is the one I bought for upstairs, but it needs a bit of space.

http://www.matki.co.uk/Product/Original-Walk-In-Corner

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #52 on: 05 January, 2017, 01:33:53 pm »
Yeah I'm not entertaining a wet room, that way insanity lies. That's a nice shower enclosure but I suspect it's too deep. Need to measure and make a diagram....
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #53 on: 05 January, 2017, 01:46:45 pm »
Seeings you're going for a full rebuild, could you not pinch a bit of space from the room on the other side of the wall the shower is on and move the shower over a bit ?

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #54 on: 05 January, 2017, 02:02:19 pm »
Heated toilet seat. If we remodel our bathroom or buy a new place, this will be one of first changes to be made.

I don't think I've ever actually encountered such a thing, though I've read about them on the interwebs.  Are there advantages over the low-tech wood solution?

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #55 on: 05 January, 2017, 02:03:05 pm »
Seeings you're going for a full rebuild, could you not pinch a bit of space from the room on the other side of the wall the shower is on and move the shower over a bit ?

Definitely not, being as that room is the kitchen that I just had done at great expense in 2015.  :o
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #56 on: 05 January, 2017, 03:41:12 pm »
We had extensive work done on our place not long after we moved in, over 10 years ago. The kitchen was knocked through into the old bathroom, and the new bathroom installed in the next room along. It was great to be able to create the new bathroom from scratch, gives you a lot of freedom.

We got our fittings from Bathstore and the builders installed them. Only problem was the chap who did the job was actually a carpenter, not a plumber, and he made various cock-ups, so we subsequently had to get the local bathroom specialists in to do the job properly. That said, the bespoke fitted cabinets are excellent, so the carpentry skills didn't go entirely to waste.

A toilet, that isn't 'floating', isn't square, doesn't have any poxy buttons to get jammed and has a decent enough flush to get rid of the occasional big log. No jobbie inspection platform required.

Our toilet is 'floating' with a concealed cistern - at my wife's insistence. Her reasoning being ease of cleaning. I was dubious about it at first but it has been fine. No plumbing problems at all. However, the cistern was one of the jobs that was cocked up and had to be redone, which involved the cabinet being extended upwards. The new cistern has a Geberit flush mechanism, which has performed reliably for something like 10 years now. Highly recommended.

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Our current one has a sliding door, the track of which is just great for collecting grot. Not sure if we have enough room for a pivot door though, will have to measure.

We ended up with a bi-fold shower door - the make is Kudos. Again, seems to be very reliable and sturdy. it folds very neatly to allow entry/exit in limited space (shower is next to bathroom door) and can be incorporated into panels as wide as you like. The shower isn't totally enclosed, so ventilation isn't a problem.

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A shower, thermostatic mixer is a must. Am ambivalent about having a rainfall head or not, there will be a head on a flexible hose whatever happens.

Ours is a Hudson-Reed thermostatic mixer connected to the mains, with a dual output with a 'rainfall' head and secondary head on a flexible hose. The original mixer tap failed after a few years, can't remember why, but I replaced the inner workings - got the parts direct from Hudson-Reed - and it has been fine ever since.

We're lucky in that we have a combi boiler and the shower is quite close to where the water main enters the house, so we have excellent pressure and an unlimited supply of hot water. We stayed at my brother's over Christmas and he was raving about his new shower but it's a desultory dribble compared to ours.

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A decent hand basin. Something that you can use for more than just rinsing the tips of your fingers. Probably one which sits on the top. A good under sink cabinet. None of this floating nonsense again,  that's just wasted space to collect cat hair and other grollies IMO.

Ours is built into the top of a cabinet. While I largely agree with you about wasted space, the only problem with not having that space under the sink is you have to stand slightly further away from it - unless you have stumpy feet.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #57 on: 05 January, 2017, 03:56:39 pm »
Yikes to more building work.

I would only go for a wet room upstairs if you can guarantee that the floor won't move at all, ever.

If I was making one upstairs, which I wouldn't as I'd have a shower tray to catch the water, I'd lay 2 layers of marine ply laid with staggered joints and add a couple of flitch plates along two joists. These are full length 6mm thick metal plates bolted to the joists, which will stiffen the floor. If you can bed them in the wall, even better, but they will need to go across the full span of the joist. Then you'll have a floor that won't move and compromise the waterproofing of the floor.

Wet rooms are very nice and they can be used where space is tight. I'm going to be installing one downstairs at home with underfloor heating in the summer. It's having a concrete floor which I know is going to be structurally stable, because I'll be making it doubly so. With water in the house, the devil is in the detail, but you know that anyway.

Matki do nice showers and Damixa do nice taps/controls, but they're not cheap.
The shower trays we use are rated for up to 42 stone, so unlikely to move. How are you going to do the fall and drainage on a concrete floor? Screed the floor? Pumped waste?
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #58 on: 05 January, 2017, 03:58:05 pm »
This is an excellent suggestion, because overrun timers are a work of Stan, and nobody needs the shock of walking in on someone pooing in the dark because hearing people don't like extractor fans.

 ;D

I am that hearing person.

I did fit a lock to the bathroom door for the purpose of preventing interruptions but I'm the only one who actually uses it.  ::-)

Our extractor fan was reasonably quiet at first (at least, I don't remember the noise being a problem) but it has got increasingly noisy over the years, presumably as the bearings have worn out. It's especially annoying because the bathroom is next to my home office, and certain people have a habit of leaving the sodding light on so I have to sit and listen to its monotonous drone until I get up and turn it off myself, and then wait another ten minutes for the timer to run out.

Finally, just before Christmas, it died and is now mercifully silent. Which I'm loving. Although I guess it would be a good idea to replace it if we don't want to end up with a mouldy bathroom.

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I suspect this isn't quite enough for penis people to achieve proper aim

Midnight micturition mishaps can be avoided by the simple expedient of sitting down.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #59 on: 05 January, 2017, 04:13:28 pm »
How's this for storage, Mrs P?



The carpenter wasn't entirely hopeless. Piano hinges and magnetic door catches meant we could do away with handles for added neatness.

Because we no longer have a hot water cylinder, there's a small radiator in the tall cupboard and the shelves are slatted, so it functions as an airing cupboard. There's also a shaver socket in the under-sink cupboard - that was my wife's idea, I would rather have had it above the counter. And the shaving mirror has a built-in light, which is handy at night when you don't want the extractor fan to come on but don't want to poo in the dark.

We have even more storage built into the divider between the bath and shower:


I really should get around to finishing off the edges one day...

The mirror over the bath (custom made by a local glazier, not as expensive as you might imagine) actually extends all the way down to the edge of the bath, but the bath was another thing that was cocked up at initial installation and had to be replaced. The replacement fitter suggested the tiles to make a more flexible join between bath edge and mirror. We also had the taps replaced with an Aqualisa electronic bath filler - just press the button to start the hot water running. Only trouble is it's very slow so it takes about half an hour to fill the bath to an acceptable level. Not that I care because I hate baths and only use the shower.



Here's the floating bog, with a partition between it and the sink for a modest degree of modesty...



CBA to tidy the bathroom to jo's standards just for taking a few pictures.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

JennyB

  • Old enough to know better
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #60 on: 05 January, 2017, 04:37:39 pm »
I don't have any experience with self-contained shower enclosures,  but there is an interesting article here that makes it seem like a Very Nice Idea. Having something like that made would also mean you wouldn't have that awkward corner of the screen sticking into the dormer space, but you'd need more of a corner entrance to the shower (which might be better use of the space).

Put some storage over the cistern so you aren't cluttering up the window, and a continuous counter/cabinet from basin to shower with a heated towel rail above so you can easily grab a warm towel from either.  :thumbsup:
Jennifer - Walker of hills

Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #61 on: 05 January, 2017, 04:50:08 pm »
Yikes to more building work.

I would only go for a wet room upstairs if you can guarantee that the floor won't move at all, ever.

If I was making one upstairs, which I wouldn't as I'd have a shower tray to catch the water, I'd lay 2 layers of marine ply laid with staggered joints and add a couple of flitch plates along two joists. These are full length 6mm thick metal plates bolted to the joists, which will stiffen the floor. If you can bed them in the wall, even better, but they will need to go across the full span of the joist. Then you'll have a floor that won't move and compromise the waterproofing of the floor.

Wet rooms are very nice and they can be used where space is tight. I'm going to be installing one downstairs at home with underfloor heating in the summer. It's having a concrete floor which I know is going to be structurally stable, because I'll be making it doubly so. With water in the house, the devil is in the detail, but you know that anyway.

Matki do nice showers and Damixa do nice taps/controls, but they're not cheap.
The shower trays we use are rated for up to 42 stone, so unlikely to move. How are you going to do the fall and drainage on a concrete floor? Screed the floor? Pumped waste?

With a tray, you wouldn't need all the stiffening, but I'd still pull up the floorboards and put a piece of marine ply under it, because it will then be flat.

In the concrete floor it will be leca, insulation, slab, underfloor heating in insulated modules, screed then tiles. The whole screed would be laid to a fall towards the drain in the floor.

Lots of insulation, as it can get to -20ºC in the winter and stay there for a couple of months.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #62 on: 05 January, 2017, 05:49:51 pm »
Our extractor fan was reasonably quiet at first (at least, I don't remember the noise being a problem) but it has got increasingly noisy over the years, presumably as the bearings have worn out.

Experience of computer fans suggests that crud accumulation on the blades/grille is a significant source of noise.  Not that I'd relish cleaning one.

Actually, given the choice, if I were fitting a bathroom extractor fan, I'd go for one of those ducted ones that fits inline in the roof space.  Means you don't need to faff about or obtain the exact same fan years later when it's knackered, and probably makes the wiring easier.  They do seem to run quieter too, unless the builders cock up the anti-vibration mounting.


Quote
Midnight micturition mishaps can be avoided by the simple expedient of sitting down.

Works for me.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #63 on: 05 January, 2017, 05:52:37 pm »
if I were fitting a bathroom extractor fan, I'd go for one of those ducted ones that fits inline in the roof space.

That's what we have. Still a noisy bastard though. (Well, it was until it died.)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #64 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:12:23 pm »
Our extractor is ducted – the motor and noisy parts are in the loft – hence it's pretty much just the sound of the air being extracted through the combo light fitting-hole and a distant barely audible buzz somewhere above.

I am a little horrified about the bath-shy nature of some of you. Surely there is no greater pleasure than soaking with a beer and good book, like a very urbane hippopotamus, in a giant bath brimming with hot, sudsy water?

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #65 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:13:29 pm »
Nahh, I've seen what hippopotamuses like to do in water.

ian

Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #66 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:20:43 pm »
An urbane hippopotamus wouldn't do that.

Any green colouration is the Badedas, bubble bath of the gods.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #67 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:29:45 pm »
I like the idea but the reality never lives up to it. Baths are not designed for comfort, especially when holding a book, and the water never stays hot enough for long, even if you've spent a fortune on a bath made of resin with supposed heat-retaining properties.

Besides which, you're essentially stewing in a broth of your own grime.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #68 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:32:08 pm »
Besides which, you're essentially stewing in a broth of your own grime.

This is what puts me off.  And the general faff of rinsing long hair in a bath compared to under a shower.  If you're going to use the shower to rinse yourself off anyway, why not save all that extra water and do your reading in bed?

What a bath *is* good for is rebooting the circulation in your feet.

ian

Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #69 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:53:33 pm »
I'm never that grimy. I wash off in the swimming pool.

I use hot water, about the temperature of magma, and my bath delivers on that thermal inertia. That gives me a good hour of soak before I even have to contemplate getting out. With a good cold beer and a Kindle, I'm in hippo-heaven.

There's nothing better, to be honest, than cycling home on a cold, cold night and diving into a hot bath. All those aches and cold simply evaporate.

My wife views my bathing habits with disgust though. So I think it's a marmite thing. But good god, don't bathe in warm marmite, that's a kink too far.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #70 on: 05 January, 2017, 06:58:16 pm »
But good god, don't bathe in warm marmite, that's a kink too far.

I think we can all agree on that.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #71 on: 05 January, 2017, 07:10:16 pm »
Experience of computer fans suggests that crud accumulation on the blades/grille is a significant source of noise.

Spurred into action by talking about it, I've just been into the loft space to investigate. It does look quite plausible that dust/crud is the culprit - never occurred to me that this would be a problem with an extractor fan.

It's unbranded and labelled in German - what I initially thought was the name of the manufacturer turned out to be German for 'this way up'. I've no idea if it's any good or just some cheap generic crap that builders buy in bulk, nor is there any indication of the power/extraction rate etc. I'm now trying to work out what we need by way of a replacement and how much it's worth spending...
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #72 on: 05 January, 2017, 07:11:12 pm »
But good god, don't bathe in warm marmite, that's a kink too far.

I think we can all agree on that.

Indeed, we all know that Marmite should be spread very thinly, whether that is on toast or over the body.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #73 on: 05 January, 2017, 08:41:25 pm »
Back of a fag packet measurements here
2017-01-05_08-37-00 by The Pingus, on Flickr
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Pimp my bathroom
« Reply #74 on: 05 January, 2017, 09:02:34 pm »
How about flippiny your loo and shower so that the shower cubicle runs the entire width and you loo has full headroom above for a shelf or cabinet?   You could have a single glass screen with a gap at what is currently the loo end.