Not Sure How You Guys Do This Every Day

[Marvo]

Day 4. A little more productive than day 3....which isn't saying much.

• Switch off water to house and drain pipework.
• Get sidetracked by a previously undiscovered back-syphoning issue between the split water supplies feeding the house. (Most of the house is fed by borehole water, the kitchen only is fed by municipal water....or so I thought until I accidentally discovered otherwise this morning.)
• Dry-fit basin and install 40mm drain pipework.
• Make lightly seared sesame tuna steaks for lunch.
  
• Reroute 22mm main plumbing feed to a more convenient route and tee in for basin and shower.
• Install 15mm hot and cold pipes to below basin fit angle valves.
• Install 15mm pipework for shower taps and cap-off for now.
• Cement pipework chases where possible.

Lessons learned;

1. I'm a painfully slow plumber.
2. Anytime you really need some time without interuptions a customer is guaranteed to phone with an emergency that means you have to drop everything.

 

[Marvo]

Basin pipework with shower pipes above and the re-routed main supply pipe to the right.

Plastered.

 

[Marvo]

I have a couple of questions if I may.

Firstly I can't decide if I should tile the floor first or the walls...

Second, where is the best place to start tiling for both the walls and the floor?

Lastly, and I realise this is probably a plumbing question rather than a tiling one, the new basin has knockouts for the taps. Do you just give them a whack with something to break them out or is there a more scientific way to ensure they fracture smoothly?

 

[J Sid]

I nearly always do the floor first....others may not.
setting out....what size tiles are you using and how do you want them, portrait or landscape, straight or staggered?

 

[WetSaw]

Knock out for tap not taps unless you like waving your hands under the hot then cold taps... I tap them out then tidy up with a diamond core drill.

I usually do floor first then I have a ( relatively..) level point to tile the walls from. Where to start depends on quite a lot of things!

 

[Marvo]

The walls are white bevel-edged metros laid landscape orientation in brick formation. Can't remember the exact size off-hand but they look the normal size if that helps.

The floor is 50x50 porcelain mosaics which come as 6x6 sheets.

There's no borders or fancy schmansy dado rails, just stainless trims to go into the external corners around the door and window.

 

[Boggs]

I tend to tile floors first then walls.

And knock out tap holes in ceramic with a thin nail punch and hammer, mine is around 2.5mm and start in centre to break through and work outwards to required size.

 

[Sintra]

@Marvo you’ve just spoilt my Christmas. I’ve a new bathroom suite sitting in my summer house patiently waiting to be installed. I’ve been putting it off for months now but the evil dragon indoors has made me promise to get the bathroom done over the Christmas break. After reading this thread I’m realising what I’m in for. Think the worst bit might be the arguments over 1 bathroom being out of use. Even when both are in use I still seem to have to wait patiently whilst banging doors and pleading to get in before I make a mess.

 

[Marvo]

Lol, evening Stevie.

Yeah, I don't have the problem with fighting for bathroom time, there's 5 bathrooms in total so even with 2 of them out of action at the moment there's still enough to go around.

I've been getting it in the neck from wifey about the dust though. I started telling her on Tuesday evening that the worst was over, knowing damn well it was going to get ten times worse. Then I spent the next couple of days trying to convince her it was just her imagination and it wasn't getting worse but the static reached a crescendo on Thursday so I just jacked and went fishing for the day instead.

Sounds to me like you might need to learn to fish 😀

 

[Marvo]

Day 5...or is it 6? Can't remember and I guess it depends if you include the day I went fishing.

I'm now wishing I'd never started, it's taking too long.... probably because I'm doing things I don't do very often so I'm painfully slow. Most of my cuts from day 1 have healed but now my knees and back are sore. I'm really not having fun anymore and I want it to be over.

Is it just me or do you guys also go through this emotional rollercoaster as you progress through your jobs?

Anyway, enough self-pity for now.

I finished the plumbing.
Plastering finished.
Waterproofing of shower area finished.
Tiling has started.

Photos below for everything excluding the tiling because it looks rubbish at the moment and I'm a bit embarrassed.


Plumbing for the shower;

Plastered up;

Waterproofing done;