Advice needed for tiling small cloakroom

[cooa99]

Hi,

I have completely stripped my cloakroom and about to put in new wall & floor tiles, radiator wc, basin....

Unfortunately I have surface running water pipes, which cannot be buried within the plasterboard walls.... I probably would not even want to do that because that will be way outside my DIY skills to be cutting pipes and walls!

So I am trying to get consensus on what should be done with the pipes in relation to how I am going to lay the wall tiles. The existing pipe work runs almost at floor level on two walls to feed radiator and toilet cistern. My Original Cloakroom had the pipes boxed and there were no previous wall/floor tiles either ... just painted pasterboard walls

Please see attached pictures to have an idea what I am talking about.

pic1

pic1

• cooa99
• 12 Dec 2011
• 1

hand basin hot+cold water pipes, radiator pipes, pipe for cistern<br>

pic2

pic3

• cooa99
• 12 Dec 2011
• 1

radiator pipes, pipe for cistern, hole in the ground<br>

pic3

pic4

• cooa99
• 12 Dec 2011
• 1

So should I (if possible): -

(1) Tile all the way down from floor level behind the pipes shown in the picture.

Then Skirting to box the pipe in. I guess advantage to this method is I can tile quicker and worry about boxing later on...

ps. do I need to leave some gap between the floor and the wall tiles? I am going to be laying floor tiles as well

OR

(2) Box the pipes in again with skirting board size box (similar to previous) and the Start Tilling on top of the skirting board


Other Questions: -
1) What size wall & tiles are advisable for this space? colour?
2) What where should I start laying wall tiles from to minimise the cuts? ... I don’t know if that question makes sense
3) If I was to give this job to someone to do, any idea what the average labour cost will be to do the whole job?

Please other ideas and suggestions appreciated

Thanks

cooa99

 

[gcol]

I'm assuming you're putting in a new loo so my first thought is where is you loo going to finish in relation to the back wall? You don't want to have to build it out to support the cistern if you can help it. If it's going to want building out, best bet is to bring the whole wall forward and lose the pipe behind it.
If you're going to do that, then it's not a big job to drop the radiator wall (or at least the bottom half) and get those pipes moved back into it. That way you can do away with boxing in.
This is all easy stuff to do.

 

[cooa99]

the loo will be going in exactly the same space.

moving the whole side wall forward will make the cloakroom more crap bearing in mind that the tiles, grout, radiator still has to go on the wall.....

 

[gcol]

If you read the post properly you'll see I was asking if you were having a 'new' loo not whether it was going in the same place. I can clearly see the loo is going in the same place by the waste in the floor. You'd only bring the loo wall forward to do away with the need to build the lower section of wall out should that be required to support the toilet cistern (if fitting a new loo). They're sometimes required when the toilet waste goes through the floor due to lack of play on the soil pipe.

I wasn't suggesting moving the radiator wall forward, I was suggesting moving the pipes back into it.

Don't mention it.

 

[Symptoms]

coo - consider cutting the copper pipes where they come out the wall and fit chrome inspection valves and chrome pipe collars. Tile the room as appropriate (remember you now have no pipes in the way) all the way to the floor. Then re-pipe all in chrome supported by chrome 'hospital brackets', also known as munsen brackets ... in other words make a FEATURE of the chrome pipes over the tiles. It'll look great! Oh, and use small white tiles.

 

[Richard C]

Coo; to be blunt I would advise a complete rethink & get someone in who can re-plumb as necessary so it can be done properly. Believe me, it’s going to look total crap & be prone to early failure!

 

[Jasonb]

I'm with Gcol and would go as far as fitting a back to wall or wall hung pan, that will loose all pipework and the pan connector on the short wall

The other wall you say the pipes cannot be lost into the wall, why? if its plasterboard you can gain 12mm by just removing the bottom strip of plasterboard, if you then overboard the wall down to the pipes with another sheet of plasterboard thats another 12mm gain giving you a 25mm gap to run the pipe in then let the tiles run over the top of the pipes, just don't get adhesive onto the pipes.

I used these methods in this WC, the wall below the basin shelf is actually 20mm out from teh wall above but you don't notice it.

J

 

[cooa99]

Again, shamefully finally getting round to installing the cloakroom after almost 3yrs. Mind you the space has served as storage for all sorts and will be a shame to let it go for its main use.

This is a job above my skill so I have called someone who has agreed to do the work for labour cost of £850. I don't know if thats too much considering the room is bare as in the pics.

He said he will bury the pipework in the wall. I asked him about a back to wall pan instead of close coupled and he said that will result in moving the pan forward to build a partition to enclose the cistern bits ......


The previous installation had 300wide X 700High Radiator and no wall/floor tiles, The floor had a cold bite to it, so would usually go to 1st floor bathroom than use it in winter!. I am assuming ( but could be wrong) that addition of tiles would give some additional level of insulation. Should I use same size radiator again (and live with the cold floor, its not like I am join in naked!) or swap to a similar size heated tower rail + underfloor heating ?

I was going to check out B&Q, Topps Tiles and Tile Giant for Tiles. I hope they are all good quality?
Which manufacturer product do I need for the the tile Adhesives and grout?


cheers

 

[ree]

The labor price of £850 for fitting out a full cloakroom is astonishingly cheap, to me anyway. But what exactly is he or she committed to for that price?

Pans as in the pic look terrific but when maintenance is needed, as it sometime will be, there's extra costs involved.

If you have C/H then Towel Rads are the way to go.

 

[cooa99]

The labor price of £850 for fitting out a full cloakroom is astonishingly cheap, to me anyway. But what exactly is he or she committed to for that price?

The Labour price is for
1) Cutting the plasterboard and brickwork back to bury the pipe work
2) Tiling on all walls and floor
3) Run a cable from the upstairs bathroom (above) through to the Electric consumer unit (in the cloakroom) before tiling. This was so that a power cable is in place for when I upgrade the bathroom and install an electric/power shower ...
4) Install radiator/towel rail
5) install the corner basin and WC

If you have C/H then Towel Rads are the way to go.

I have C/H but I don't understand your statement? Do you mean that the heating in the rest of the house will filter though to the bathroom?

 

[ree]

I'm giving you a guesstimate on something that i've not seen. For what you've mentioned i'd say £1200.

There's no mention of painting or cloakroom electrics, and such WC's can come with various time consuming fixing difficulties, not least if the soil pipe has to be altered.

Plus it should be made clear about how much room it will take up.

Towel rail Rads are of, course, radiators just like any other radiator in a C/H system. The hot water will be pumped through. There are other T/R rads but they dont connect to a C/H system.

 

[cooa99]

Thankfully/Hopefully the only electrics are the ceiling light & Consumer unit.

he said he was going to re-plaster the ceiling to smooth .... as it is currently artex. I asked if he needs to scrap off the artex to which he said no ... so not so sure if that is right or not...

He is also going to replace existing lighting with 1 or 2 spotlights ....


I did a bit of search on the (C/H) towel radiators and it appears that the heating on them is a lot less that the normal radiators is same size. e.g. I will have to go to a 450wide size on the towel radiator to get comparable heat (.. i think)

 

[cooa99]

Hi again,

Things moving forward.

Fitter came round on the weekend and did the plumbing, hiding pipework and even moved the waste pipe as at no extra cost. So expecting the tiler this week to do his bits ...

Some parts of the plasterboard walls have one or two layers of paint over the last couple of years and the replaced plasterboard sections are just bare as in the pics.

I have a couple more questions :
1) Do the walls need to be primed/covered in anything before tiling?
2) Tiles I bought seem to have some candle wax on towards the corners which I am assuming is to protect the tiles. do these need to be cleaned off before or after tiling?
3) Which manufacturer adhesive & grouts are best?

Thanks

 

[carl3381]

I'm with Gcol and would go as far as fitting a back to wall or wall hung pan, that will loose all pipework and the pan connector on the short wall

The other wall you say the pipes cannot be lost into the wall, why? if its plasterboard you can gain 12mm by just removing the bottom strip of plasterboard, if you then overboard the wall down to the pipes with another sheet of plasterboard thats another 12mm gain giving you a 25mm gap to run the pipe in then let the tiles run over the top of the pipes, just don't get adhesive onto the pipes.

I used these methods in this WC, the wall below the basin shelf is actually 20mm out from teh wall above but you don't notice it.

I was just admiring your tilling in the picture you please tell me where you got
The tiles from for around the window area and the shelf ive search ed everywhere thanks.

 

[jennywren2015]

J[/quote]

The image fo the cloakroom shows a free standing basin ans tap on a wooden shelf , can you tell me how you have fixed the shelf to the wall?