Starting an en-suite conversion to a wetroom.

[mikeg68]

Well, I now officially hate grouting natural stone tiles.

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• mikeg68
• 7 Feb 2009
• 1

One wall done, took nearly two hours to do one small wall!!! wtf?

Anyway, comparing the two, grouted and ungrouted:-

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• mikeg68
• 7 Feb 2009
• 1

Think I do prefer it grouted actually.

Just 3 more to do so it's going to take longer again than expected. I'm off for a take away now and a couple of shandies.

 

[ifatfirst]

Well that didn't sound like much fun.

 

[mikeg68]

Today I managed to get another wall and a half done, but, I had to go to the shop to get some more grout. I purchased my goods, went home, used the first bag of grout and all went well, using my new grout float, then I opened the second larger bag, it being a 10kg over the smaller 3.5kg (cheaper way of buying the required amount) I started to mix it and hey presto, I noticed it's green tinge. It's limestone, NOT IVORY!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!
What a waste of my day!

Going to take it back tomorrow and see if they'll swap it, so instead of being fully grouted today, I have a wall and a bit to do yet. can't start my floor!!

Just not what I need.



Monday: Grout changed, walls finished! Starting on the floor tomorrow!
Final stretch??

 

[mikeg68]

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• mikeg68
• 10 Feb 2009
• 1

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• mikeg68
• 10 Feb 2009
• 1

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• mikeg68
• 10 Feb 2009
• 1

Walls done! Just need to be sealed but going to do this once the floor tiles are all down and grouted, ready to seal at the same time.

As you can see i've just laid the floor tiles out where the shower area is to get some idea about what tiles need cutting.
The room isn't square so I can't do anything about the tiles not matching up on one wall. I'm doing my best though.
Hoping to get shower area tiled tomorrow and underfloor heating in place.

Never enough hours in the day!!

 

[derek2032]

Looks good Mike - liked your tiling round the radiator fittings.
I had to chain drilled and and then filed a cirlce for a shower control talk about patience. Also learnt how to throw half tiles down the garden quite well that day!!!!
Bit late now - also curious how you are going to isloate your shower fitting, as your isolation valves are [or were] facing the small wet room rather than the other bathroom.
Am looking foward to the finished pictures. As its giving me some ideas for our bathroom.

 

[mikeg68]

Talk about throwing half tiles! My garage looks like a greek wedding took place in it.

I have to admit I have a new found admiration for the guys who do this day in-day out. It's bl&&dy hard work. My arms are killing me. Probably because i'm not used to it and also working full time too.
I've fallen behind schedule a bit, not where I want be by now with my 'mini' project, but just haven't had the time.

Isolating the shower fitting is a doddle. I turn off the main house stop cock. Open the downstairs taps and hey presto, I can take the shower fitting off. As the isolating valves were going to be enclosed in the stud wall anyway, I wasn't too bothered about access and isolation, as our main bathroom is on the other side of that wall and I intend doing a similar project in there too, when I can be bothered. I can adjust, re-jig the pipework once I start that side.
I'll take some close up pics of the shower fitting pipes once I tidy that area up. Haven't quite got that done yet but I have small chrome covers to cover any mistakes.
I'm just hoping I get the gradients right and it all works in the end. I'd be gutted if I have to fit a standard shower enclosure after all of this!

 

[mikeg68]

Friday morning. I've managed to get the underfloor heating down all of the floor tiles down so far this week. Today I plan to get the floor grouted, the shower mixer fitted neatly and grout finished off around the window surround. Also plan on giving the whole room another coat of impregnator and then attempting drilling some of these tiles, hoping to fit the towel rail and possibly even the sink and shower head. Doubt i'll get that much done but i'll try.

Pics will follow. I'll do a short video too I think as you cant see the whole room from one picture as it's too small.

 

[mikeg68]

Well today was a long and busy day!!

Here's a before pic of the shower pipes poking their little noses out of the wall.

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

and finished:-

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

And the holes marked for the towel rail:-

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

Do you realise how easy it was to drill all of the holes today??

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

And a couple of virtually finished pics. The sink leaks at the drain (don't they all??)

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

The sink and towel rail:-

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

and shower:-

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

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• mikeg68
• 13 Feb 2009
• 1

Ok, so nearly finished. The sink needs a bit of attention along with the water pipes connecting up to the towel rail.

The soft closing toilet seat has arrived with the wrong fittings!
The toilet is still to plumb in. The floor still needs cleaning and sealing a couple of times.

There is still the corner mirror cabinet to fit above the sink but that's about it.
I'll post one more link next week of a video of the completed room, hopefully all in working order.
Hope I didn't bore you all to death.
It's come a long way since this:-

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• mikeg68
• 7 Jan 2009
• 1

All the best with your projects, just have a go, look what I managed with no previous knowledge of wetrooms! Thanks for looking in.
Regards
Mike


Watch this space. I may be back again in the future!

 

[ifatfirst]

All's well that ends well. What next?

 

[cabby]

Mike,
As part of an extension, am turning a bedroom into an en-suite, and wanted to create a wetroom. the runoff from a wet room needs to be under the floor boards and mine unfortunately run the wrong way Current regs will prevent me cutting the floor joists to accomodate the waste runoff.

grateful for any help...

How did you seal your membrane and how high did you take it?


keep up the good work...

 

[mikeg68]

Cabby,
Not sure I understand about your run-off. You dont need a run off if you are using floor former which sits on the joists, as it runs to the drain anyway? Or am I misunderstanding you?

Anyway, I used the WP1 tanking membrane on the floor and the walls but went up two metres around the shower area, and only used it to 1 metre elsewhere. There are a few different ways of doing it. I looked at a few before making my decision.
Just used the tiling adhesive to fix it as per the instructions.

Any questions, just ask.

 

[cabby]

My fault for not explaining..

The new drain for the shower has to feed into the soil stack of the existing toilet which is positioned in a corner. To connect these two I will need a gradient fall.

As the floor of the new shower will be flush with the floor the drain will have to go underneath the floorboards, and the joists run the wrong way. The other alternative is to put in a new raised floor to allow for the pipe to drain ....

Am i making this very complicated or missing something very obvious.....(probably)

 

[mikeg68]

Is there any way you could run the drain parallel with the joists to an outside wall and just reposition a new drain. It doesn't necessarily need to join the soil pipe in-house does it? You can drill through joists at a push.

I'm picturing you have a soil pipe in one corner of a room, attached to a toilet, but instead of the joists running with the pipe direction, they cross at 90 degrees. What sort of distance is between the pipe and where the drain is? There is a required fall but maybe you could just make it?

I just know that my drain was a complete pain even though I joined it to the original drain line. No idea if it'll work in anger as I haven't run the shower yet.

There are pumped systems available which you could look into, which basically allow you to put the drain wherever you want and pump it to wherever.
Where there's a will there's a way. No such word as 'can't' etc. etc

Let me know what you come up with. That's what this site is all about. Just ask on the plumbing forum etc and an expert will no doubt point you in the right direction. I've always found great help here and people have come up with all sorts of solutions to problems.

 

[derek2032]

Looks good now it's all there.
All that's missing is the tons of shampoo bottles and contioner! and shower gel etc. - Glad you've not built shelves for those - best not to either they only get filled! - Oh no the window shelf !!!

 

[butterscotch]

Wow looks really good! I wish I was as ambitious!

I'm looking to put an en-suite in our bedroom but want to do as much as we can ourselves first like the stud wall! So finding this very interesting to read! Thank you for sharing.