cornish, out of intrest how do you go about putting a bath in with tiling around? is the frame just buil round the bath or is it actually supporting the bath??? Looks nice work by the way!
Ah, that would be telling
😉
This is the first time I've done anything like this, so I had to think.
The whole suite excluding the shower is actually salvaged out of another house, where the chap was wanting it all changed. I was missing at least one leg for the bath so I had to make sure it was adequately supported all round. IIRC there was at least one leg to support an end under the rim, but I didn't have this.
The bath was fitted then I tiled around it. The bath was fitted high enough to just clear the tiles, meaning that I didn't have to cut each tile that met the bath, I could just slide it underneath, so only part of the tile was visible.
To properly support the bath I built the basic framework then postioned and levelled the bath, and then used a 22 inch saw (blunt edge in contact with the bath) at 45° at each 'corner' to mark where I needed the 45° corner supports to go.
I then completed the framework managing to build in as much support for the bath around its perimiter as possible, fitted and cut the aquapanel to allow for the bath, then trial fitted the bath to eliminate interference.
Once I was happy with the position of the bath, I screwed the feet down, connected it up, checked for leaks etc, supported it in the middle, then foamed around the perimiter where I could. Because I managed to get a few inches overlap on the corners I could get good contact area and the bath is solid. I used the gun grade window fixing foam.
As said earlier I just tiled around the bath, and slid partly exposed tiles underneath the rim rather than cut them.
I was extremely grateful for the suite. It's an Ideal Standard Sottini Reprise, current design, I priced it up recently, would have set me back nearly £3k! Those taps are worth over £400.
The bath originally had a profiled bath panel, but on closer inspection it was quite badly damaged, so we binned it. We prefer the 'tissue box' it sits in, and we didn't have to find £200 to replace the bath panel!