Bathroom Renovation Project

[juan]

I have almost finished the hob ready to tile the top. Think I will do the hob in the crappy chocolate tiles the women chose for the floor. I will waterproof the hob top and surrounding wall, then tile just the top before dropping in the bath.
Will not be able to look at it until end of next week unfortunately as am flat out working at moment.
No rush as the young one is heading off on holiday for 6 weeks and we have the en-suite.
At least if fits very snuggly in the cut out hebel top and I am surprised how solid it seems even before bedding in mortar. Really strong rim on the bath to support and add stability.

Attachment 61305

cheers

[Sugam]

Hi Juan,
Read your bathroom reno psts with interest. How does your bathroom look like now... any new pics???

May I ask what you did about waterproofing the bathroom floor and walls.
Thanks in Advance

[juan]

I have just got back onto the beast today and went and bought some tiles and waterproofing kit. Been working flat out and not had time to look at it.

Primed the walls and the hebel hob with an acrylic primer. Applied silicon to the wall joints and hebel hob to wall joints. Will water proof the hob, shower walls (down to about 150mm above the floor) and around where the vanity unit will mount tomorrow with 2 coats of DriBond Liquid Flash.

I have yet to screed the floor so will complete waterproofing the bottom of the shower wall and floor after the floor is screeded. My current plan is to tile the walls and the bath hob first(leaving the bottom row of tiles off of course) then screed the floor and tile it.

[juan]

Hi Sugam
Here is a photo just taken. I have just got back on the job again.

Attachment 62643

I am not a tiler and what I know about waterproofing is dangerous.

As mentioned earlier, I have primed all the walls to be tiled and the bath hob top and side. That sealed the Hebel block hob quite nicely. I then applied a 1.2mm thick coat of DriBond Liquid Flash and while still liquid I embedded in it 200mm wide bond breaker tape allong the wall to hob joins. After a couple of hours I gave it another liberal coat of Liquid Flash waterproof membrane to completely cover the tape and ensure all the top surface of the hob is well waterproofed. I went up the wall 150mm with the waterproofing.

I will start tiling the top of the hob as soon as the waterproofing membrane cures (about 3 days I think). We are tiling the hob with the floor tiles. I can then put in the lower run of tiles on the end wall.

Am tossing up wether to take of the architrave around the window and router it a bit so the tiles cuts can hide under it. I have a little 75mm frieze to install on top of the existing tile height and then one full tile on top of that. Do not blame me for the colour scheme there are women involved in the decision making around here.

I bought a little tile saw from Bunnies for $86 and it seems to be the bees knees provided the diamond blade lasts. Gee I love tiling.

[juan]

Attachment 62728

Only did about 2 hours today so only laid about 20 tiles. Gee it's fun.

Have been mixing small quantities (1kg) of adhesive by hand and it has small lumps in it which are a bugger to get rid of completely until I trowel the adhesive on the wall. Might try the mixmaster tomorrow.

[Dirty Doogie]

LOL Juan ! I would tend to do the router job on the window trims. That way you are left with the impression that the trim goes over the tiles and makes for a hidden tile edge.

Grouting is lots of fun too LOL.

[Dirty Doogie]

Re Glue mixing - go and buy a paddle mixer attachment for an electric drill - they cost about $12 - it makes it so easy to mix tile glue and grout. You'll need at least a 550 watt drill though.

[juan]

I mixed two 1kg batches today using the old kitchen mixer. Brilliant job - just like cake mix - smooth as a babies bottom.

[juan]

Well 5 hours on day 3 of the tiling and starting to see a dent in the wall tiling part.

Took Doogies advice and removed the architraves on the window and cut the tiles to go underneath. Just hope I can router it ok. Have an old router but have not used it for 20 years.

Unfortunately Beaumont Tiles is out temorarily of stock on the mosaics the women picked for the horizontal frieze so will be waiting probably until mid Jan to finish the walls at the earliest.

Fitted the heated towel rail just to see it would mount ok (it will eventually be on the door hinge side as I have to fit a new door and hang it from the other side). Drilled the tiles before putting them up. Cut holes for the underfloor heater controller and the power point for the towel rail.

The other side will be more complicated to tile with the WC, vanity, bath and shower mixers, hot and cold outlers, power, lights and temperature controller for the HWS. Also think I have stuffed up slightly with the height of the cold water outler for the WC so may have to cut the line and adjust the height(plumber will love me). Left the pipe exposed of render as anticipated it was not going to be right height. Damn hidden plumbing in close coupled suite is more trouble than it is worth.

Plan to mount a vertical vanity fluoro light fitting on either side of the vanity mirror so will just put 2 wall boxes in the render before tiling it to hold the fitting and terminate the cable. Then if I change my mind I can just tile over them and put a single fluoro above the mirror. Have already run the cables.

I may tile the top of the hob with the floor tiles before tiling the other 2 walls. After much deliberation and opinion collection I have decided not to bevel the tiles on the front edge of the hob nor to use a metal or plastic edge trim. I will sort through the tiles and find 10 tiles with the most overspray on the sides and just butt them up. The trims stand out like dogs appendages and every display I have seen with the bevel cut tiles looks like rougher than just butting them up.

Attachment 62947


Cheers

[juan]

Well I have finally got back on the project again. Removed the door, removed all the 15 or so layers of paint with my metabo heat gun and some paint stripper. Surprised how easy it was. I filled the old hinge holes and latch holes in door and jamb with Fuller Building Filler (2 pack). It was 42degrees and it went off in about 1minute flat. Luckily I mixed only very small quantities and did one hole at a time. Great stuff to work with. I sanded the door lightly after filling the small dents and screw holes then painted the door with water based primer.
I then rehung the door on the opposite side or the jamb. It was quite a pain because the door jamb is about 6mm out of plumb and the top of the door jamb is about 8mm out of level in 820mm. The door had been cut previously to fit the dodgy opening. I had to do the same trick but it worked out fine. I set the bottom hinge in by 3mm and the top one out by 3mm to allow the door to line up nicely at the latch side. Once the architrave is on it will never be noticeable. Gave the outside of the bathroom door a light coat of some left over horrible pink paint just to disguise it a bit until we redecorate the whole house.

Attachment 63751

Attachment 63748

I have tiled quite a bit of the wall . As shown in the photos, I have allowed for 2 x double GPOs (one on each side of the vanity unit), Wall mounted switching for the fan, and heat lamps. I have also prepared the mounting and wiring for the Rinnai 26 Plus remote temperature controller. There is wiring for 2 vertical fluoro lights to go on either side of the mirror. I collected the rest of the mosaic glass tiles for the frieze today so now hope to finish all the wall tiling tomorrow (bar the bottom run of tiles)

My plan is then to tile the bath hob top and fit the bath. I have been promising to do thehob for a month. Anyway slowly getting there.



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[Dirty Doogie]

Hey Juan, it is beginning to look good in there. I'm just wondering how you went with the tile edges on top of the hob - another trick to finish the edge is to use supafine grout to make a corner bead.

[juan]

Hi Doog,

Have still not done the hob tiling but have decided dead set that I will just butt the tiles and not bevel them or use edge strip. Cannot decide where to start the floor tiling. I had thought of using the centre line of the bathroom floor(and hob) as a start point. but that will mean a bit of odd cutting around the door jamb where the tiles will be most noticeable. It would make tiling the hob (i am going to use floor tiles on it) easier if I centred them and I would get almost a full tile on either side of the room. If I try to use the centre of the door as the start line them I get some odd sizes at the shower set down and near the walls.
I have put the decision on hold until I finish the walls so as not to overload my brain. I can wait until after I screed the floor to make the decision anyway.

Got sidetracked today and did not do much tiling but getting there slowly.

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Attachment 63882

[Pusser]

It is looking really good. Thanks Jaun for taking the time to keep us posted. The problems and comments by the forum members has been most interesting and instructive. Thanks again - great thread.

[juan]

Thanks Pusser.
The help I have received on this forum has been invaluable to me and if the discussions on various problems I have along the way helps others then the thread will be justified.
I have learned that no matter how well you think you have planned, bathroom renovations are a real worry. My estimate of time to complete the job given the scope of the work was totally unrealistic. My budget surprisingly is better than expected to date(touch wood) - as I had made allowances for anticipated issues on tasks already performed that fortunately I managed to solve cheaply. For example I had allowed $400 for a new door and possible replacement of the door jamb which was knocked about and out of plumb. I managed to clean up the door ok and rehang it on the other side for the cost of 2 hinges, some paint stripper, sand paper and primer (total $45). No doubt something will come out of left field and skittle me if I ever get into the home straight as that is Murphy's Law but in the mean time I shall keep plodding along.

Some of the problems that are worrying me and yet to be solved are:

1 Floor tiling layout to fit in with the bath hob if I am to keep the joins aligned. Perhaps I should not worry about lining up the joins on the hob and floor?

2 Finding a wall hung vanity unit which is 1200mm wide, reasonable narrow depth (do not want it fouling the shower angle door), china top possible with a jutting bowl, non-white preferable wood grain look veneer cabinet ( need some more colour to avoid hospital look)

3 Deciding on lighting. I have the IXL tastic installed just outside the proposed shower door and have allowed for 2 vertical flouros on either side of the mirror above vanity. Need to either put in a chandelier type fitting above bath or maybe a couple of downlights. Have not pursued this area yet and had thought of a couple of CFL downlights above bath and in front of vanity in the centre line of the room?

4 Screeding the floor. This one is a real worry.

5 Underfloor heating to install in the screed.

6 Getting a frameless shower screen at a reasonable price that looks classy and is good quality without blowing the budget.

[Dirty Doogie]

HI Juan,

Its those little decisions like lights, shower screens, where tiles line up, getting the right vanity that usually drive me crazy - oh and things like matching taps, towel rails, color of grout. In fact pretty much everything about getting a good looking bathroom is annoying LOL.

As for floor tiling - keep your full tiles for just inside the door, cut tiles at the room entrance looks crappy IMO.

Unless your floor tiles are the same size as your wall tiles - the wall and floor groutlines arent ever going to line up properly. In your situation I think I would tend to put the cut floor tiles under the vanity wall where they would hardly be noticed. Are you still doing diagonal tiles??

Have you considered the idea of a full tile (300 x 300 or something like that) border with the remainder infill done as smaller mosiac type tiles? Mosiacs are much easier to get fall with.

The vanity will needs lots of shopping around but I have seen some 1200 long in a dark timber finish (Can't remember if it was real timber though). I never plan a bathroom until I know what is available these days.

The frameless shower screen as depicted in your original plan - I'd be surprised if you get out of that purchase for under $2000. Fully frameless uses 10 mm glass and wall brackets and hinged door - it looks very classy. There will also be a bit of chrome bar over the door for stability.

However after much shopping around I have discovered that Stegbar make a SEMI FRAMELESS screen in 6mm glass (which come in around 50% of the price of fully frameless 10 mm) These screens have a metal channel running down the walls and across the top. It still has hinged doors and clear glass edges around the door.

The reason I mention Stegbar is that they are (as far as I know) the only mob to use a low profile metal channel that isnt chunky or obtrusive like a lot of the aluminium channel a lot of places try and sell for a 6mm semiframeless. It might be worth going into a stegbar show room and having a look.

Chandeliers ?? HMM dunno about that LOL. I think some downlight type would give a nicer light

Screeding - sorry your on your own heh heh!

Doog