This thread has made me look back on the bathroom renovations which took place in 2008.
I have been meaning to tell the story ever since, I think now is the time.
We had planned to renovate the bathroom for a number of years but we had a major sticking point.
I wanted to replace the over bath shower with a large shower cubicle and remove the bath all together.
The bath had not been used, as a bath by anyone for several years but opposition to the improvements,
from certain quarters was strong.
It was only when the opponent to progress moved out, to a flat with no bath,
as it happens, that we could go ahead with our plans and finally use the collection of bathroom bits
which had been scattered round the house for some time.
For a couple of years we had shared the dining room with a sliding shower door, it was in a box but was not very pretty.
The garage had housed the shower tray for so long that we had forgotten it was there.
and we had accumalated a fine selection of ceramic tiles under our bed, along with adhesive, grout
and a collection of tiling tools including a diamond wheel tile cutter which had never been opened.
The old electric shower had served us well but it was time to make full use of the combi boiler and connect
it up to the rather posh shower which had been living in the loft for quite some time.
I had thought, planned and planned again in the hope of being able to carry out the work with the
minimum of disruption but with the best will in the world we were going to be without
a bathroom for over a week.
The major work started with the removal of the window and the large (heavy) window sill.
I had obtained a tower scaffold to make the outside work easier. I did contemplate removing enough
of the inside wall to be able to lift the sill inwards but decided to remove it from the outside and pass it
back through the window.
I figured it would be easier to carry it down stairs rather than
try to lower it down from the scaffolding myself.
Another option was to drop it from the scaffold but it is such
a nice piece of stone that it has to be
used somewhere in the garden as a momento.
Out of interest, I put it on the bathroom scales and it weighed in at just short of 90lb. or 45kg in new money.
This part of the work went to plan and it was suddenly much
lighter in the bathroom. At this stage we still
had a working shower although it was a bit public.
The plan was to replace the large existing window with
a small double glazed unit and a home made unit made out of
amber coloured glass blocks. The frame for the glass
blocks would also contain the extraction fan for the shower.
The frame for the glass blocks was made from angled soffit
board and once the frame was fixed, the blocks were
cemented into place using good old sand and cement.
After fitting the windows and bricking up the rest of the hole,
not necessesarily in that order, the new wall layout started to
take shape but after being so open, the whole room looked really dark
The whole area was sand and cement rendered in preparation for the
tiles and then it was time to move on to plumbing matters. Having never
done any plumbing it was time to embark on a steep but enjoyable
learning curve.
The plumbing job was a lot more complicated than it first appears because the
original h + c water feeds ran around the outside of the room and they
had to be re - routed through the adjacent toilet.
The shower had to be plumbed in through the joining wall and h + c feeds had to be run to the
location of the wash basin, even though this would not be fitted until after
the floor had been put down.
The existing radiator had to be moved across the room as it
was to form the back of the towel dryer. We thought about a heated towel rail but
in a bathroom which is only 6ft 10 inches x 4ft 9 inches (that is small in any money)
The more observant of you will notice that despite the absence
of a bath and water supply to the shower, the soap dish remains in place.
The truth is it was fastened to the wall with some very rusty screws and
required the services of a big hammer and chisel which I kept
forgetting to bring up from downstairs.
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The outside view shows a different aspect of the job and
the appearance of a small stone window sill.
This was not the old one cut down but one
taken from the disused small kitchen window.
I must get extra points for recycling that one
Each stage of the job brought it's own challenges and the next stage,
the floor,was a major one. At the back of my mind I was aware that
if this job was not done right, it would be expensive to put
right as it would mean doing most of the job again. I had asked
some 'experts' about flooring bathrooms and they all
came up with something different.
I originally planned on making a wet room as we have seen
these in various establishments and the idea of a shower
in a room rather than a cubicle really appealled to me.
As it turned out, the hardest part of putting the floor down was
getting a big lump of 20mm MDF upstairs.
I cut the hole out before bringing it up but
it didn't make a lot of difference to the weight.
All the advice I was offered agreed on one thing.
Whatever you use must be fully waterproofed, I thought
of varnished marine grade plywood but was advised to
use 20mm MDF and apply lashings of PVA glue.
I didn't kow how big a lash was so I kept applying coats
until the surface was very shiny. I took a couple of litres
then I mixed the final coat with some sand,
so the tile adhesive would key to it.
I tested it by pouring water on it and the water just ran off.
I realised that the slightest movement in a wet room floor could
result in a second shower in the room below so decided not to
risk it and chose instead to wander round the bathroom suppliers
in search of a bargain.
We managed to get a slightly scratched
4ft x 2ft 6inch shower tray for very little money.
It was another challenge getting this slippy beast up stairs
but slowly does it, one step at a time and accuracy of my
measuring could finally be put to the test.
I realised that the outlet for the shower had to be accessable
so decided, at the planning stage, to make it accessable from below.
It so happens that the oven is directly below so the same hole
where the extractor canopy outlets to is used for access to
the shower tray trap. I thought that was pretty darned clever.
Installing the shower was another challenge.
Two flexible hoses connect to the two water feeds and if the
shower is assembled correctly, the wall outlets fit into the
back of the unit and the flexible hoses run round inside it.
If however the shower has been assembled by Danny Dipstick,
as ours clearly had, then there is nowhere near
enough room for the wall feed to fit inside. I had
realised this when we got it so the back of the
shower is accessed from behind a panel in the toilet next door.
Another victory goes to the amateurs!
I was told by the suppliers of this light fitting that it was a surface mount fitting.
It looked stupid on the surface so I sank it into the roof cladding.
The low voltage shower lights were designed to be flush mounted.
The unsightly corner eave is a nuisance, how can it be made to look pretty?
Box it in with cladding
The wiring for the extractor fan is fed from the roof, all the low voltage bathroom
electrics are on the left as you go into the loft hatch. The over run timer on the
fan is fed from the shower lights.
The inside of the shower is lined with 'clip together' marble effect plastic panelling and
after using it I would never tile a shower cublicle again.
No grotty grout in this shower
The shower door was the only 2 man job in the whole project.
I could have got it upstairs on my own but slotting into the guillotine
like stainless steel channeling, I was glad of the help of an assistant.
I love tiling and apart from the actual shower and the section
around the sliding door all the other walls in the bathroom are ceramic.
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The wash basin was another item we had stored, this time in the living room.
Mounted into a wedge shaped work top, this was one of the final things to be installed. The cupboard underneath is removeable to give easy access to the pipework and wiring.
50
The multi functional shower with body jets and a rainshower
head is a fabulous start to the day and the brief but shocking
blast of cold water as you switch to the body jets is not much of a problem
The top of the shower door is filled in with the same kind of cladding as is in the shower.
This keeps the rest of the bathroom steam free.
An right up to date now complete with seat, which started off life
as a duck board, life is good in our bathroom
The hinge that is on what I assume to be the Bathroom door, seems to be lower than the usual 6".
...... I see there is a good example of 'lath and plaster' in your pic. 
