Bathroom Renovation Project

[juan]

The plumber arrived on time and took 3 hours to install the pipes for the underfloor plumbing. Inspection is tomorrow and he has marked out the walls for me to chase for the hot and cold water ready for him to install tomorrow.

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[juan]

Hot and cold water installed in the bathroom and connected back to old storage HWS to test everything is not leaking and working. Plumber back next week to mount the Rinnai 26 HWS and disconnect the old one. Will also extend the 25mm gas main up into the roof space for future use when the main building renovation takes place (soon I hope).

Ran 20mm hot (insulated) and cold under the floor direct to the kitchen to reduce the length of the 1/2" hot water run that currently exists to the old kitchen. Hope this helps the Rinnai deliver hot water to the kitchen in an efficient manner. Plumber will set the switches in the unit to increase the 55 degree factory preset max to 65 degrees. I will install 2 controllers (bathroom and kitchen).

Have run everywhere in 20mm except at the terminations and valves so hopefully that will not be an issue. Have read quite a few negative threads about water temperature from the Instantaneous HWS not being hot enough to do the greasy dishes and am a bit apprehensive.

20mm Hot and Cold run into the laundry ready for the laundry make over.

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[Dirty Doogie]

I notice you went with 2 floor wastes after all ! how are the tiling issues going?

Doog

[juan]

Hi Doog,

Plumber would not allow me only one floor waste so I am stuck with 2. Now the inspection is complete I have even considered closing one over and hiding it under the tiles.

Spoke to Beaumont tiles expert and he suggested just tile floor flat with a small rise near the door. He also said he would not bother with tiles on the diagonal. My brain is in overload on the floor tiling issue at the moment. Maybe I should tile floor with smaller tiles and use slopes to the waste?

Planning to put a new floor in next week and will keep the level of the concrete 40mm below the finished height at the door with a further step down of about 20mm in the shower area. How does that sound???

Dodging the tiling issue at present and pressing on to get ready for the plastering.

[juan]

I have been thinking a full length stainless steel floor channel / grate placed across the bathroom next to the bath hob may be an answer to making the floor tiling job a bit easier.

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Need to check with the plumber if I can discharge from the floor channel straight into the 80mm riser of the floor trap. If so I will move the floor trap back next to the hob as in the photo in the link above.

I would put one in the shower as well on the wall with the door.

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This way I can just slope the floor to the floor grate in one plane and that should allow me to use any size tile I desire and make the installation of the undertile heating just a little easier as well. I will still be stuck with one other floor grate in the middle of the floor but there would be not fall direct to that.

Anyone got any thoughts on the grates as a solution to floor falls and multiple floor traps.

[zacnelson]

Juan, how did you cut those channels in the bricks for the pipe work? What tool(s) were required? Is it very hard to do?

Thanks,

Zac

[juan]

I believe you can hire a saw with 2 blades and a vacuum cleaner attachment that cuts the slot and avoids the dust. That is what you can do. Or you can be a gumby like me and use a 9" (230mm) Ozito angle grinder with diamond saw to cut the bricks and then use the little Ozito rotary hammer to chisel out the channel. Very easy but the dust is unbelievable. I placed a protable fan in the open window and that sucked the dust directly outside very rapidly but I was still covered in red dust. Wore my daughter's plastic shower cap, an old hat, goggles, mask and old clothes. Had to blow down the walls with my garden blower when finished to get the film of red dust off the walls in the room. Luckily by keeping the door shut very little got into the rest of the house.

[Dirty Doogie]

Hi Juan,

those full length stainless grates are mega bucks but they look very swish! So you going to put the grate right down near the bath - what about the floor waste in the middle of the room? Stop it off and tile over it ?

[juan]

Hi Doogie,

Yeah they are not cheap but I think it is the answer to the tiling problem.

The floor trap in the middle will have no fall to it as the floor will be on one plane. I will either just put it there in the tiling or maybe break the rules and tile over it. Worst case senario is I have to take up a tile to get to it if required.

[bricks]

If you tile over the floor trap- Im assuming this is the one at the bottom of the photo, Your basin will not drain properly.

The reason for this is the same reason that when you hold your finger on the end of a drinking straw the water does'nt fall out the bottom, it's an air-lock situation.

The basin line is already at what looks like it's maximum un-vented length from the trap, Tile over the trap and IMHO it won't work.

You can buy a fiting called a "smart tile floor drain" they are expensive ($100) but look good and are easy to install because they are square. And depending on your local regs you can probably fall the floor as tho the second trap isn't there and just install it without the tiles falling to it.

Just my 2 cent's.

[juan]

My plumber has confirmed what you said Bricks. He also does a lot of work for the Hilton Hotel chain and said steer clear of the stainless steel channel grates as they are difficult to clean and need very regular cleaning to avoid smells from mould etc.

I think the smartile is a consideration. Waiting for tiler to look at it and advise best way to go. Waiting on plasterer also. Hurry up and wait is the name of the game.

Rinnai 26 Plus installed yesterday but still supplying laundry and kitchen from it via old 1/2" copper line. Really happy as can see great improvement and expect even better when the new direct 20mm line to the kitchen is swapped over. We tuned the unit up to 65 degrees for the kitchen and laundry and there is a tempering valve on the 20mm line to the bathroom.

[juan]

Plasterer has promised me he will come tomorrow morning and hopefully I am all ready for him. I decided to plaster before doing the floor slab to fit in with the plasterer.

The walls of the bathroom have rising damp due to the breaching of the dampcourse. This shows up quite well in the photo attached. House was built in 1914 and suspect the bathroom was done in the 30s.They just loaded soil up against the bricks above the dampcourse and then put concrete on top. No plastic in those days. Luckily there is no other damp in the house apart from the bathroom walls. The house is unusual for the area as the floor level is about 750mm above ground level outside. There is heaps of room to move around under the timber floors. This has been very effective in eliminating damp in all the walls except the bathroom with a concrete floor.

The wall with the hot and cold plumbing is a cavity wall and the cavity was full to about 1metre in height. I had the end open when bricking and managed to clean out the cavity. After the plasterer had gone I will dig down below the dampcourse (old and new) and ensure a plastic film prevents any material from coming in contact with the brickwork or dampcourse. That should isolate the damp undersoil. All the homes in our area have automatic switching sump pumps in the cellars as the water table is quite high and they used to get wet feet in winter. In recent years the water table seems to have dropped and the pump had not run to my knowledge for about 8 years.

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[Dirty Doogie]

Hi Juan,
The lower walls still look a bit damp in the pics. Also the room looks much narrower than before. I'm curious to know what the plasterer uses in there - is he going to glue on gyprock or trowel plaster the walls?

[juan]

Hi Doog,
Yes there is dampness in the walls and I am told that will take months to disappear but should not be an issue as the source of the dampness will be eliminated. Interestingly it was not so noticeable until I took a photo with the flash.
The walls will be solid plaster. The bathroom renovation quote I received was based on sticking plasterboard direct to the walls and I was not really too keen on that idea and decided to brick up and plaster.

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Plasterer finished first coat on only 3 walls today and is back tomorrow. Bit of a pain for him because there is no floor in yet and ceiling is 3.2m above the dirt. He had to do the top of the wall using a ladder as it was too high for his step up.

The room is 4.2m x 1.95m in size and does look narrow. The ceiling once installed may reduce that feel as may the island bath hob. Problem with old homes is that you have to make do with what you have got in most cases as to move brick walls to make a room wider can be dangerous to your financial stability.

[Dirty Doogie]

"to make a room wider is dangerous to your financial stability" LOL so true!

I've never seen brown plaster mixes before - do you know what sort of mix he is using? I was was curious about how plaster would stick to slightly damp walls.

Your project is moving along - but pretty soon you are going to have to come to grips with the tiling .

Doog