My first bathroom project

[Supercoley1]

Hello, I am just setting about doing my first full bathroom DIY job (not pro at all) and have managed to do most things through internet research etc.
The project in question is a bathroom that currently has a shower over bath, W/C, sink and a wall hung radiator. The room is approx 280cm across the breadth (window wall) and 270cm from the door to the window wall. There a dog leg to the room as the airing cupboard is set within this room into a seperate area on the left of the door.
I will be keeping these apart from the wall hung radiator which I want to remove and then put a towel radiator in another place. I don't have a problem with the plumbing and radiator aspect.
We have had the bathroom like this since we moved in 30 months ago and all we did was to change the bath taps for a shower mixer type, tile the shower area on the window and half the bath side wall (It only had a 420mm high splashback around the bath previous to this), put up a shower curtain rail and laminate the floor. Pretty basic 'quick' but ready to use. The picture below shows what this was like:

After planning to redo the bathroom we decided to do it early July and it would take a few months to complete due to the budget (Each month we can afford the 'next step')
So on 10th July we started to plan the bathroom. The W/C and sink will remain in the same place. The Bath will still be on the wall but will be moved so that each end is an equal distance from the wall. A frame will then be built around the bath so that I can tile under the rim and make it look like the bath has been 'sunken'.
The radiator which is currently on the right as you enter the bathroom will be removed and then the plumbing redone to put a towel radiator behind the door as you enter the bathroom.
The area where the bath is will be tiled in black, white and lime green inspired by a picture on Toppstiles here:
Fusion Kiwi Wall Tile | Topps Tiles
however we don't have anywhere near the budget to use those tiles and get the exact design. I have sourced some lime green, black and white tiles that are all a lot cheaper and are 150mm x 150mm. The design of this area is here (These plans are rough guides as they don't allow for grout joints. I will line them up properly when I get the tiles to gauge the number across etc when the tiles come.)
This is the 'fold out' design and what you will see facing the bath. The lime is bit bright in these pictures where the tile I have bought is more subtler more like the ones in the Toppstiles picture:

And this is the plan from above:

The green/black/white combo will only go as far as the bath surround and the rest will be plain white.
This is the lime tile I have bought. 2 boxes:
Tiles, Ceramic Tiles, Wall Tiles, Gloss Lime Green Tile
The floor will also be tiled with white 330x330 tiles. Very crisp very clean, very bright with the single 'feature' area of the bath drawing the focus.
I will update tomorrow on what I have done already.
Regards
AC

 

[Old Mod]

Yep!
We love a nice pic or three!

 

[Supercoley1]

Yep!
We love a nice pic or three!

A teaser first. Decided to do the downstairs loo in 2012 and as with all the other projects it got waylaid. This house was in a mess for several years with unfinished rooms of projects I started and then lost motivation to complete or couldn't afford to complete etc.

So this downstairs loo. A poky little standard WC. Wife wasn't happy there was no sink to wash hands and has a thing about people walking from the toilet and washing their hands in the kitchen sink so had to get thinking. There is no room for a sink in here or is there? These pics are of the toilet in 2012. Where can I put a sink in here? Think about it but as I've hinted I've finished this project bar a few final touches. You can all have a guess though:

 

[Old Mod]

Where can I put a sink in here? Think about it but as I've hinted I've finished this project bar a few final touches. You can all have a guess though:

How about a sink incorporated into the cistern?

 

[Supercoley1]

How about a sink incorporated into the cistern?

Do you mean a lidless cistern and wash your hands in it? Close but no banana. I'll add the nearly finished post / pics later today or tomorrow.

 

[Old Mod]

Do you mean a lidless cistern and wash your hands in it? Close but no banana. I'll add the nearly finished post / pics later today or tomorrow.

 

[Supercoley1]

That looks expensive. Good idea though

 

[Supercoley1]

Total for this job was circa £200 all in. Can't remember exact prices of everything.

Hated the old style toilet pan so ditched that and bought the bottom half a close couple modern style toilet from Wickes. I bought a different waste pipe that had a threaded pipe hole on the top for the sink to go into. So fitted the pipe through the close coupled holes and used the doughnut and the metal press thing to feed the cistern pipe into. It is tight, no leaks and the actual toilet pan (and sink) was put in just after those old pics above in 2012.

I built a frame with a shelf top to put the sink on and to fit a facia panel to the front. the facia has been sprayed white, then lacquered, left a month to cure and then buffed up to a gloss finish. The shelf was wrapped in a walnut fablon, lacquered, left a month to cure and then buffed to a gloss. The sink was about £50 including the tap from ebay and siliconed into position on the shelf and to the back wall.

Plumbing was a little tricky. Cut the water supply pipe just above the isolator valve and then put a t-piece in. one branch goes to the old cistern which is now lower than before. the other t-piece goes to another isolator valve to control flow to the sink. No hot water supply and I decided to add another T and put the hot and cold flexi pipes onto the cold water supply just to make sure I didn't have any water escaping from the unused hot. The isolator for the sink has been adjusted to limit the flow to a gentle stream. If it is fully open you get soaked. lol

Underneath the sink pipework goes horizontally to a HEPVA trap that stops airlocks and backflow. then it goes down the side of the cistern to 4 right angles which make a basic normal water trap and then through the close couple hole. Like I say it is a bodge job but has not leaked in 3 years. The toilet handle require an extender and I cut a slit in the cistern lid for the chain to come through.

The side and window wall were tiled in Wickes cheapo white tiles as was the window section and cheapo white corner edging used. The sink wall I used a wine coloured tile and fixed a bathroom cabinet on there. The top of the wall will have you all disgusted. I was too lazy to go and get a few extra tiles and used halves in that area. Will colour up the joins when I finish

The floor was done this year when I did the bathroom, hall, kitchen, toilet and the adjoining corridor. I had to use latex leveller to level out the kitchen/corridor/bathroom area as it was very unlevel at the kitchen/corridor area. I don't think the corridor/kitchen wall was there before and the floor dipped at the door entry about 2cm. So all level (I'll move onto the corridor and kitchen tiling post after this WC one.) So floors were SBR's then the leveller poured on, then tiled on. Grey in the WC same as the bathroom project. Cheapo Wickes ones again.

So the picture below show the nearly finished WC. I have some mdf panels that are cut and waiting for good weather for me to spray wine red, then lacquered and then buffed to gloss which will cover the holes you see in the fascia of the toilet. I'll colour those half tile joins with that paint too as I matched the colour.

 

[Supercoley1]

Oh I took that horrible old style sliding door off and replaced it with a folding door. Takes less room and means that the wall in the corridor doesn't have to be clear of anything. Adds another 10cm width to the corridor too.

 

[p4ulo]

Wow, that's an ingenious solution, much the same as the purpose built units but much cheaper I'd guess. Good for you!
shame on you ref those half tiles, but needs must eh?!

 

[Supercoley1]

On with the build up to the bathroom, We've done the downstairs loo albeit with the front panels left to put on. I'll show that at the end once I've finished it.

This is the corridor from the back door to the kitchen. The downstairs loo is behind the back door on the left and a cloakroom (cupboard) is at the end on the left. The Kitchen is the door on the right at the end of the corridor.

The floor tiles are Wickes; cheapest beige ones. Lots of floor cleaning needed in this house with 3 kids and a greyhound.

Remember I talked earlier in the thread about light bulb K ratings. Warm white 2700K is the normal colouration of the energy saving lights that you buy in the shops. The reason is that they attempt to match the glow of an incandescent. I hate that yellow colour. I like daylight colouration so I use lights that are in the 5500-6500K region which is a more natural 'day white'. It just gives a much fresher, clean and crisp look rather than cosy and it looks much better if you are want a modern look with minimalist designs.

However that was years ago and things have moved on from energy saving compact flourescent lighting. The Corridor has a 6400K daywhite 8W LED globe. Its an old fashioned shape. Yes I did say 8W. Its about as bright as an old fashioned 60W or a 15W compact 'energy saving light'.

The Kitchen has 5 x 3W GU10 5500K daywhite LED lamps. This light originally came with 5 x 25W halogens. It is about the same brightness as it was with its original bulbs. Considering that lighting accounts for a fair amount of you electricity bill these save an awful lot of money.

Then turning into the kitchen with the same floor tiles.

Tomorrow I'll show some daylight pics of the kitchen and move onto the upstairs bathroom

 

[Supercoley1]

Not waiting I'll finish off the kitchen pics tonight. These are daylight from a few weeks ago hence the leftovers from the stairs carpet propped up in the corridor there. Louis the greyhound says Hello. He pretends to hate the camera but is always getting in my photos.

 

[Supercoley1]

After 5 years of this project being a work in progress I finally completed it in July last year. It took me another 7 months to actually take some photographs of it but at least it is done.

So what has been completed since the last update? Quite a lot is the answer.

Firstly in 2014 the council insisted that the toilet and basin were updated so they installed a pedestal basin and a close coupled toilet. At the same time they fitted a ceiling extractor linked into the light. Very nice of them. I point blank refused their offer of a new bath which would have wrecked my tiling and tanking.

The floor was then tiled in July 2015. I lifted the toilet out and tiled properly there but I couldn't do that with the pedestal so I cut the tiles flush to the base of it. These are the cheap grey tiles from Wickes. About a tenner for a box of 6. I used the floor tiles for "skirting" as well.

In 2014 I made the 2 access panels for the front of the bath. They now match the wall behind and the "bath panel" which have both been in place since the very early days so in these pictures the green/white/black combo and the window tiles have been there for just short of 5 years.

Just after the floor had set I tiled the rest of the walls so the whole bathroom is now white walls with one feature wall.

My wife hasn't chosen a shower curtain that really goes with the bathroom in this picture but after putting up with a WIP bathroom for so long I dare not complain.

I also changed the bath tap / shower combo all the way up to the showe head. I bought a really nice stainless steel sleek shower head and then properly plumbed it along the ceiling, down the wall into another of the push/pull t-pieces similar to the ones on the bath tap so that the wife could also use the shower hand held. Women like handhelds I gather. It has a Heineken effect for them.

From the t-piece to the bath tap there is a standard showe hose. I suppose I could get a shorter one so it is tidier but at the moment we still have this.

I also got rid of the old taps and replaced them with a thermostatic one.

All in all the bathroom looks great, the shower works really well and the 5 year old tiling is holding up nicely.

Grey silicon was used to seal the floor/skirting with my usual thick bead using a 2p coin. It is about 1cm from the angle to the edge of the silicon, same as the bath seal bead.

So there is the end of the project. I have included some gratuitous pictures of the window "frame" tiling as people seemed quite interested to see how tidy that would be.