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

 

[Supercoley1]

21st August 2010

The Stage 1 is complete. A couple of finishing touches are the old telescopic shower rail. This will have to suffice until next month when I get a chrome U shaped one. the old mixer/shower tap has been returned and I have mounted the shower to the wall lower down. It will eventually be a 'rinser' and I don't want to drill holes to fit the riser bar when it won't be there at the end.

The shower curtain was cheap from Poundland and will suffice until we find one that suits the decor.

I think it looks really good.especially as the green tiles are slightly larger than the black and whites.

You can see how the right outside 'bows' out half way up from the bath and back in from the ceiling and also the ceiling rises half an inch from the window side to the stud wall side.

Next I will be onto stage 2 which has changed. I was going to continue on tiling the other half. However after using the shower in it's now hand held position rather than on its riser bar I (and the wife) have found that it is pretty darned awkward to use without flooding the whole bathroom. lol

Therefore I am going to make the plumbing, sourcing and fitting of the thermo shower the priority next. As well as the U shaped shower rail.

Hope you guys like it even if only for the colour scheme 🙂 A lot of tiles there for a DIYer. In case you are wondering.....I have done 413 tiles so far 🙂

AC

 

[Supercoley1]

Just a little tip off for you guys.

A bit of my specialist subject this. I am quite well known on aquarium forums on the subject of lighting. Specifically flourescent lighting although I now have a high power LED setup above my aquarium.

If you notice in the pictures taken at nighttime with the light on the colour is a little yellower from daytime. This is due to having enery saving CF lights in every room in this house.

Many people hate the colour of these lights and are always complaining that they don't give out as much light as the old incandescent ones did. Noone believes the '15W = 75W' statements on the packaging.

The bulbs are indeed giving out the same actual amount of light as the the incandescent bulb they are replacing however they are not giving out as much 'brightness' due to their K rating.

K = kelvin and is the colouration the bulb gives out meaning lower K is yellowish, mid K is pinkish, higher K is white to green and very very high K is blue.

I have no idea why in this country all bulbs are sold in 2700K as standard. This means it is warm white.

So why have I put this in the thread? This bathroom is white. It is supposed to look modern, crisp and clean and therefore I am not happy with 'warm white' tones. I want it to look pretty similar at least in colouration as it looks in daytime and therefore I sourced some daylight bulbs. (5500 - 7500K) The ones I got are 6400K and I will take a picture with the different colours tonight to show you.

It is annoying and most people think its the type of lighting that just isn't doing what they want. In relaity its the K rating. Strange because the standard in the USA is the 6500 - 6700 range.

Something the yanks are getting right where we aren't 🙂

Maybe also something you can offer in your 'white' bathrooms to customers 🙂

These bulbs aren't available at Tescos etc. All those bulbs are 2700K. I got this off the net for £3.30 each. You think that it is expensive? You are looking at nearer £10 each in most places as they are just not produced inthe same volume as the crappy warm white ones.

AC

 

[Polishtradesman]

All right, i can`t explain exacly what i mean becouse my language skills are not good enought, thank you that you show me the cammon way in your country. Maybe it is not so bad but i dont like it. In my gallery there is a way i do bath. I dont use any wood and nothing which water can destroy, and it is much solid. On those pictures a can see wide string of Silicon as well, but the size of bath top (?) is diffrent and it looks bad. Propably two ways are correct if you say so and aleweys baths` owner got main decision. Sorry if i was too stubborn.

 

[Pebbs]

What happens when the bath is full of water? it starts to pull the bath down away from the tiles?

Pebbs

 

[Supercoley1]

Sorry guys. can't take those light comparison pics at the mo. Must've worn the camera out. The screen is dead and the lens won't 'pop' out. lol

Will take them at a later date though.

AC

 

[Supercoley1]

however this page (it is an aquarium one) has some comparisons to show what I mean 🙂

James' Planted Tank - T5 Lighting On The Cheap

The light I have is pretty sharp I must say. The colours really good but I think next time I will go for the 20W rather than the 15W. lol

AC

 

[Pebbs]

Why have you changed the colour lay-out? On your original drawings the bands are clearly shown to be running on the three walls, and now they are not. I wish you had carried the bands around the three walls, it would have tied it up very nicely.

Pebbs

 

[Supercoley1]

because when I drew lines on the walls to mark the 'finish point' level with the bath it meant rather than being a ofcal point it was a huge area. Would've looked like I ran out of tiles half way round the room. lol

AC

 

[faithhealer]

Nice job Andrew, good project management all the way

 

[Supercoley1]

Hello guys. Don't worry I haven't abandoned this thread.

Just a measure of how tight we are with budget here. School uniforms, a little overspend on the previous month and a little less income meant that the money I made from shrimp and aquatic plant sales went on survival instead. lol

However a tiny little bit of progress was made.

3rd September 2010

I bought a coupler (male to male) for a couple of quid to link 2 shower hoses together and a couple of metal fluorescent tube clips to hold the existing 'microphone' style shower head we have a temporary ceiling shower.

Also at zero cost as the old broken camera and accessories sold for £23 on ebay I bought a U shaped shower rail for £14.99 off ebay. Its stainless steel not chromed plastic tubes. Quite good quality.

It needed about a foot cutting off the side rails so that it was level with the bath and the ceiling mounts the same. I may well cut another 4" off the side rails as this is the gap between curtain and wall on both sides when it is fully stretched out.

Next month will similarly be delayed because car tax is due and Christmas approaching fast, although I do hope to complete the walls by Christmas.

The 'microphone' style mixer shower head will return to the wall holder eventually as a hand shower when I get the overhead thermo one in. Maybe next year now.

A couple of pictures of the previous 'extendable' white shower rail.

The U shaped shower rail kit spread out.

and mounted

And with Curtain

p.s. These pictures are all taken with the 6400K light in the ceiling. I will do the comparison shots now I have gotten used to this new camera to show you what I meant about UK energy saving 2700K bulbs vs American 6400-6700K ones.

My wife who is Portuguese wants these lights in the whole house now. In Portugal they use 'daylights' too. Its just us 'superior' Brits that have to suffer with these 'warm white' as standard.

Like I said earlier the 2700K is warm white and gives a yellow glow to the room where the 6400K is daylight and gives a crisp white look to the room.

Here's a quick preview although a picture I've pinched. UK 'warm white' on the left, US 'daylight' on the right:

Just a note to admin. Is there a way for pictures to resize to fit into the thread? This is happening on many forums at the moment where they are moving to newer versions of vbulletin 🙁

AC