Bathroom project - Work in progress

[davemul]

Apologies mods of this needs to go elsewhere.. please feel free to move it or bin it!

Riiiight.. here goes....

We've been in our first house nearly 2 years now. We've (well ... more like I'VE!) done everything else bar the bathroom. It's an old 1800's cottage so the bathroom was in a pretty bad way. Solidly built but nasty and OLD!

I decided a few weeks ago to RIP it out and start from the beginning.

First task was to move the hot water cylinder from in the bathroom to a new cupboard outside the room (thanks to Scruff from ultimatehandyman.co.uk for the advice!)

Now you see it...

Now you dont!

Ive taken quite a lot out..

CARNAGE

Well, I picked up a load of bits today..

Marmox goods and tiles!

New shower pump for the house too

Also have taken delivery of a taptile wireless light switch system Taptile - Ditch the switch one-touch mood lighting and dimming solutions for the bathroom and kitchen

6 astro glass downlights

an airflow icon15 extractor fan

and some Polk RC60i ceiling speakers

and a couple of remote water isolation switches about surestop

More bits arrive tomorrow.. i'll update this thread as I go along... im taking next week off to start the plumbing and install!

 

[davemul]

Layed some tiles...

Only joking.. just setting out, being a bit curious.

All seems ok from what I can see... anyone see any pitfalls? I set out from the doorway. First thing you see I guess.. made sense

I do have one question right now.... Now the SLC is down, I have a 5mm or so step down to the shower tray.

Would I be ok to use some tile adhesive to smooth from the SLC surface down to the shower tray? kind of like a gradual slope? I dont mind the slope, could be worse, the tray could be higher! :lol:

Im using mosaics for the tray so they should follow the slope ok...?

excuse dust/slc shavings

cheers

 

[Stewart]

Feather the edge of shower tray with adhesive and allow to set....


Created on iPhone.....

 

[davemul]

Cool, thanks Stewart

Whats the best way to cut mosaics? has anyone done it with a big clinker (hate that name!)

Should I cut by the drain? or should I cut where the mosaic meets the floor tiles?

 

[Qwerty]

Looking good mate

I would personally cut where it meets the floor tiles. Is there any way of keeping full tiles at both areas? Do what is right for the wet area, then work out from there. It is the feature area of the floor after all. It looks pretty good to me though, may need the floor tiles shifting a few mm here or there to get the required look of no cuts in the mosaics.....hope that all made sense :lol:

 

[davemul]

Looking good mate

I would personally cut where it meets the floor tiles. Is there any way of keeping full tiles at both areas? Do what is right for the wet area, then work out from there. It is the feature area of the floor after all. It looks pretty good to me though, may need the floor tiles shifting a few mm here or there to get the required look of no cuts in the mosaics.....hope that all made sense :lol:

Perfect sense mate, Thank you I think I will cut the tiles down on the doorway row, this will enable me to bring a full tile to the mosaic where the screen will end.

 

[davemul]

Feather the edge of shower tray with adhesive and allow to set....


Created on iPhone.....

Just going back to this point... can I use tubbed adhesive to make this feathered join?

Not that im being stingy as I have 6 blimin bags of keraflex maxi... but rather than open a bag and mix a small lot... I do have a tub of mapegrip that I used for the kitchen.... still some left so would be great if I could use that?

 

[doug boardley]

Just going back to this point... can I use tubbed adhesive to make this feathered join?

Not that im being stingy as I have 6 blimin bags of keraflex maxi... but rather than open a bag and mix a small lot... I do have a tub of mapegrip that I used for the kitchen.... still some left so would be great if I could use that?

No Dave, use the keraflex.

 

[Qwerty]

Nooooo! Use the maxi mate

 

[davemul]

Haha, will do.. cheers

 

[davemul]

Guys, a bit of help/opinion required please

Setting out the wall tiles.

Tiles are 330x500 and I will be tiling in a brick bond pattern. I'm a bit stumped on how I should set out, basically what areas to focus on.

I have the shower mixer control on one wall
Then a niche and TV on the wall next
Then 2 niches on the wall next to that

Im thinking I should set out from the TV as thats pretty much what everyone will look at really!

Should Niches generally have tile joins slap bang in the middle?

If I set out from the shower mixer control, I can get it in the middle of one tile, but this will leave non central cuts for the first niche next to it

Want to get it right first time. Im thinking that it will be impossible to get central cuts on all so best to focus on one main feature

Shower control
Niche(s)
TV

couple of pics below showing. (there will be a screen on the left of shower)

 

[Time's Ran Out]

With square mosaic and square floor tiles - I'am just surprised you've gone for a rectangular shaped wall tile and 'brick bond'.
Although one would try to follow the whole tile pattern around the corners in the 'brick bond' design, I'd have a look first at centring the walls to make all your features equal to the eye and following the bulk of the cut around the corners.

 

[davemul]

Hmmm. Now i'm wondering should I go straight bond

aarrghghgh

 

[Tomtiler]

imo i would just center the full wall think that looks best

 

[davemul]

Right, floor set out. Just need to lift tiles on the right of box section and I can kick off!

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Good Luck.