Starting an en-suite conversion to a wetroom.

[mikeg68]

I posted a few years ago when I did a garage to kitchen conversion, see thread here:-
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8568
Previously posted under the name 'Galleyslave'

Anyway, i've just started an en-suite conversion to a wetroom. I didn't even bother getting professional quotes as I know I couldn't afford it. The thing is, adding up all the materials and item costs, i'm still at about the 2k mark so far.

The plan is to strip the room out, it's only a small en-suite anyway, put a new WC(with one of those nice soft closing lids), new corner sink, shower, underfloor heating, floor shower former, re tile with travertine noce tiles.
Anyway, I thought about DIYNOT and have decided to keep a running blog of what i've done. Watch this space.

This may be moved to DIY Disasters depending on how it goes.

 

[mikeg68]

as you can see it's a small room and it's awful at the minute.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 7 Jan 2009
• 1

This came about because being a relative new build, the quality of fitting was really poor. The shower leaked into the kitchen floor below.
There was Tesco food boxes stuffed down around the drain under the shower tray and a take away wrapper too! You get some real cowboys in the building industry who call themselves professionals. Muppets! Mind you, we haven't seen how mine will end up yet, but at least i have an excuse, i'm a DIY'er!!!

 

[mikeg68]

and i've started! Basically having trouble finding a shower former to fit in the space without the drain interfering with the joists!

Everything else now purchased except this item and the plywood to build up the floor level and strengthen for tiling.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 7 Jan 2009
• 1

The reason I haven't removed all of the fittings yet is because I still use the bathroom when i'm on early starts at work. Saves waking the young one up!

 

[mikeg68]

Okay, so today I was on a day off and I thought i'd do a couple more hours. Funny how when you start, you just don't want to stop. So what did I do today?

Removed WC, sink, old shower controls, two parts of the wall to replace with aquaboard, put valves on the sink piping and plugged off the shower piping so I could put the water back on in the house.
Removed remaining tiles and skirting.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 8 Jan 2009
• 1

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 8 Jan 2009
• 1

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 8 Jan 2009
• 1

Then I went out and bought the towel rail, the shower former turned up today along with the waterproofing membrane.

The nice man at B&Q cut my plywood for my floor and probably saved me an hours extra work.

Just got to decide if the underflooor heating is worth buying and the hassle of fitting/wiring in.

Another day off tomorrow so watch this space!

 

[mikeg68]

Today was not a good day!

I only managed to get one piece of board against the wall and sort the plumbing for the new sink. Pity new-build houses are put together so poorly. The water supplies for the sink are jst beyond a joist and virtually impossible to access without ripping the floor up in the other bathroom. Determination prevailed. I'm still short of a shower so you can see that section of the wall isn't touched yet. Don't know where to position the pipes!
The floor will all come up next and new floorboard go down before overboarding with 12mm plywood.
Have also sorted the pipe reducer for the shower drain. Another joke and a half! Why are pipes labelled 34mm when they are in fact 32mm? I know you have nominal sizes etc but it gets confusing for us DIY'ers.

Still got to re-route the plumbing for the towel rail now and put some noggins in the wall to support it.
Do I buy underfloor heating mat or not bother? I'm really wishing i'd never started now.

Anyway, todays progress, what little there is. " steps forward, 10 backward!
Got to go back to work for 3 days but might try to do a few odds and ends over the weekend.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 9 Jan 2009
• 1

 

[mikeg68]

Today, I will mostly be doing sweet FA. !!


Oh, I bought a shower and now i'm off to work. Even more fun!!

 

[Bahco]

Im enjoying your work so keep it coming.

 

[mikeg68]

I'm glad someone is!

Got back in from work and took one look at the carnage that is my ensuite and I got a bad case of runawayitis.

Going to measure up the shower position and get that section of wall sorted in the morning I hope.

Got work again at 1pm so might not get much done but I have to try.

 

[mikeg68]

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 11 Jan 2009
• 1

So this as much as I did today. I removed the plasterboard in way of where the bracket will go and to give me access to the studwall for the sink drain installation and the towel rail.

Hopefully get the drain done tomorrow and then the underfloor heating wiring sorted too. Unfortunately right now i have to go off and spend the next few hours working my ass off. Nearly as hard as being an air traffic controller! Oh Joy.



Just another pic. Take a look at the quality of the builders work. Large nails???

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 11 Jan 2009
• 1

Wonder why they felt the need to put these in here??

 

[mikeg68]

So I went to work, came home and decided to d a little bit more. As you can see i've opted to do a bit of the fun stuff tonight and tomorrow. Probably won't see much progress until later in the week.

Love brazing pipes!

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 11 Jan 2009
• 1

 

[mikeg68]

Ok, so today I started at 6.30am as I had a day off. I've just finished so bringing the project news up to date.
As you will see from the pictures below, i've managed to get the towel rail heating pipework sorted and in place, all of the drains in place, the floor noggin'd (not a real word), the chipboard floor down and the shower former in place. I then also managed to get the wiring started for the underfloor heating and also got the plywood down for strengthening the floor. I feel I made good progress today even though it seems like slow going. I'm off for a lager!

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

As you can see, the gods of level flooring were smiling on me today!

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

exhaust for cooker hood should really be solid pipe. Couldn't be in a more inconvenient place really.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

Hole in the wall is for fitting the switch and thermostat for the underfloor heating.

Untitled

• mikeg68
• 13 Jan 2009
• 1

I really should tidy up but I can't be bothered. 12 hours non stop is enough.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the plaster board finished off as a certain well known building supplier delivered 9.5mm instead of 12.5mm plaster board.


Might get some bits and pieces done tomorrow but there'll be a delay in the proceedings until next week.
Why do I get all these jobs? So much for days off.

 

[curium]

Really enjoying following your progress. Looks pucker so far you've obviously had previous experience.

Count yourself lucky that your new build has wooden studs, mine has metal studs and noone seems to know if it's okay for me to drill them to route the basin waste in the wall.

Did you use a plasterboard knife to cut such neat rectangles in your wall?

Keep up the good work!

 

[mikeg68]

Curium, the only previous experience I have had was on my last project. See first post. That was a couple of years ago now but moved house since. I'd never taken anything like that on before.
Sometimes I enjoy DIY and when i've watched some 'professionals', let's just say i've been less than impressed.
I had a guy in to tile my kitchen floor recently. It's 36m2 and I had bought large tiles. I came in from work on the first day he was working and I asked him to lift 10 up straight away as they weren't even laid straight. Next day 4 tiles were loose! For the money he charged I thought every project in the future i'll do myself.

So no, I have no training. Oh, and I just used a nice stanley knife to cut the plaster board.

I'm aching today though. Not used to all of this physical work.
As for your metal stud, me, i'd drill it if it made my life easier! But hey, what do I know, i'm not a professional,

 

[curium]

I know what you mean about some professionals being less than impressive.

I paid a bloke £2300 to tile and fit my ensuite. While the work wasn't exactly shoddy there were so many little things like a tile slightly above it's neighbours and the pipe work for the towel rad not being straight that I decided it was too much money to hand over again so the main bathroom I'm doing myself.
It'll take me weeks but I know that i'll take the time to give everything a neat finish, at the minimum I'm fairly sure I can match the finish in the ensuite.

 

[mikeg68]

Tell me about it. I've spent about the same on everything I need for this ensuite covnersion to wetroom, but the labour is free. The cost on the body is high though,

Been at it about a week now but i'm doing it between working too so I don't think it's going to badly so far. The hard fiddly stuff is done I think.