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A tired bathroom can bring down the whole tone of a property without even having to try too hard and yet by the same token just applying a little bit of elbow grease and some relatively inexpensive products and you can lift the ambience to another level. If you have old style patterns on your tiles then there are ways you can improve the look of them without having to got to all the trouble and expense of removing them.

Over time bathrooms take a bit of a battering. We take long hot showers and baths that submit the fabric of the room to heat and damp and invariably the amount of ventilation falls short of that which would be required to keep the walls mould free. Having the occurrence of mould is not ideal as at high enough concentrations it can be detrimental to health. Consider upgrading an existing extraction fan to a more powerful version if you are battling mould. There are number of different manufacturers who produce innovative designs which can help to remove steam from the room. Advances in technology mean that more power does not have to equal more noise as there are quiet versions available. Be careful to get the correct diameter aperture or be prepared to open up the existing hole in the ceiling to accept the new fan. Reducers can be used to connect the fan to the ducting if a step down in size is required. Also there are versions which can be set to activate when a certain level of humidity is detected or with PIR sensors to activate when someone enters the room.

Now we need to set about getting rid of the mould from the surface of the tiles and the grout. By it’s nature mould can be very difficult to get rid of. For tile grout try rubbing the grout vigorously with a neat solution of bleach. If the grout is very ingrained then try leaving the bleach on the surface over night before rubbing again the next day. Strip out any caulking using a sharp knife and clean the joints out with more bleach. For the surface of the tiles try a solution of white wine vinegar and lemon and rub them vigorously with a scouring pad.

Once the tiles are all cleaned up then rub them down with some 180 grit sand paper. You don’t have be too fastidious when doing this but just enough to make sure all the tiles have been sanded to some extent. Wash the tiles off with some sugar soap. Now the tiles are ready to be painted. Tile paints come in a variety of colours. Try to pick a manufacturer that produces a low VOC paint that does not give off high levels of toxic vapours while you are applying it. Keep as many windows open as possible while painting and wear a mask. Use a roller to apply the paint to give a smooth finish. You will probably need at least two coats maybe three depending on what sort of colour and patterns you are attempting to cover. Leave the paint to dry for at least 24 hours and then use a fine tipped grout pen to put the grout lines back. Apply 2 coats to the grout lines especially inside shower cubicles. You will probably use a multiple number of grout pens depending on tile size and area to be covered. Leave the grout lines to dry for 24 hours and then seal them in the wet areas with a clear grout sealer solution.

Make sure you get any mould off the ceiling by scrubbing well with an anti mould solution and allow to dry for a few hours. Then re-paint with an anti mould and a stain blocking paint. You will probably need to apply at least two coats and maybe three in problem areas.

Now you have your bright new painted tiles you want to make sure the rest pf the bathroom looks gleaming too. Shower screens in hard water areas usually become ingrained with mineral deposits like limescale that are really tough to get off. Try soaking the glass in a solution of white wine vinegar and lemon mixed with water. Be liberal with the white wine vinegar. Wear gloves and scrub well with a non scratch scouring sponge. This process will have to be repeated several times in order to achieve a gleaming finish. If the residue proves to be really tough then there are some chemical cleaners on the market that can tackle really bad limescale deposits but be careful when handling these and wear gloves, a mask and eye protection. If all else fails then you can sometimes source replacement parts for shower enclosures. Curved doors for quadrant shower enclosures can sometimes be interchanged but make sure the door height is correct and the side lengths match. Common heights are 1850mm, 1900mm, and 2000m with some common side depth sizes being 800mm, 900mm or 1000mm. You can also buy replacement shower door rollers. These usually become frozen up over time with limescale that stops the dolly wheels from turning. Some have needle roller bearings which seize up as well. You can replace a single wheel with a double wheel as long as the fixing holes that go through the glass are the right size and placement. Make sure the dolly wheel is the correct size for the track as well usually 20mm or 25mm diameter but other sizes are used as well. Normally the top set of wheels are fixed and the bottom set are spring loaded to allow the doors to be removed and replaced easily in the tracks.

The other area of the shower that discolours over time is the plastic seals on the doors and side glass. This can be purchased separately. Make sure you get the right profile for the seal being replaced and enough length to replace all the seals. Re-do any mastic seal caulking that has been removed and replace with an anti-mould caulk. Sometimes it can be useful to mask either side of the caulk line and use a smoothing tool to get a good finish. Remove the masking tape before the caulk has set.

Some of the the last areas to address are missing cover caps on screw fixings and making sure all chrome surfaces are limescale free and gleaming. Now you have achieved a bright and fresh bathroom on a relatively small budget.

Project details

Developer – Managed project
Property detail – Residential
Project detail – Conversion of En-Suite into a Wet Room
Location – Hertfordshire
Duration – 6 Weeks

Overview

Here are the details for a wetroom we have just completed. The old ensuite was in need of a makeover. The shower cubicle was falling apart and there was water ingress between the tile and the dry lining causing mould issues. The thermostatic shower valve had started to give up the ghost and the shower head had split both because of calcium build up and corrosion.

Stage 1 – Demolish old Ensuite

The initial part of the project was to demolish the old shower cubicle and remove all the of other sanitary ware. Some tiles were chipped-off to allow the tiled dry lining to be cut away. We wanted to save as much of the dry lining as possible (where it had not been subject to any attack by mould). The water was turned off and the feed pipes into the sink and toilet were cut. The pipes were also capped and taped up to the waste outlets, once the sanitary ware was removed. A scraper hammered in behind the coving allowed it to be prized away from the ceiling without too much damage.

Having pulled the carpet up, a square was cut out of the floor – from joist to joist oncentres in front of the radiator – using a circular saw set to the depth of the floorboards. This allowed access to the plastic 10mm microbore inlet and outlet pipes for the radiator. Having turned off the heating to let the pipes cool down, they were then frozen using an Arctic Spray pipe freezing kit. These pipes were then cut and capped off. The radiator was then removed and tidied-up with ‘dot and dab’ between the dry lining andthermolite blocks – ready to cut the channels for 15mm chrome pipes accommodating the new towel radiator.

Some remedial work was still required on the noggins, which were slapped in by the original builders using one nail bent (and only half way in most cases). Also, a lot of the floorboard screws they had put in had missed the composite joists completely – no wonder the floor used to creak a lot!

Sink and radiator preparation

Channels were cut in the Thermolite blocks to enclose the radiator pipes. Battening was then screwed into the blockwork to take the radiator supports and the new dry lining which was applied, taped and filled.

The hot and cold pipes and the waste pipe were re-routed through the joist using a hole cutter. John Guest Braided 15mm flexible push fit hoses were run-off the old copper pipe and into a plastic pipe with push fit elbows into plastic and out through the wall. The pipes were run up the stud wall using holes cut through the stud wall bottom plate to accommodate them. The waste was run in 32mm solvent weld. The old holes for the pipes were filled and the was floor strengthened by adding ‘glued and screwed’ noggins around the floorboards that were cut. Battening was added to the inside of the stud wall with threaded inserts screwed into the batten. Threaded studs were also screwed into the inserts ready to take the plinth hanging off the wall to carry the glass sink bowl.

WC and Shower pipes

A circular saw was used to cut the floor to allow access to the supply pipes for the shower, and to create the opening for the deck former. Battening was added for securing the pipework and to allow the Pioneer twin Concealed thermostatic shower valve to be fixed securely. The existing hot and cold pipes have been cut off below the floor and re-routed in John Guest push-fit and plastic up to the shower valve. Double check valves (Non-return valves) were inserted to prevent crossflow. The valves chosen were rated to 65 degrees Celsius – normal temperature for a hot water tap in the UK is between 45 and 50 °C, though it can be higher if you wish.

The wall plate elbow for the shower head was then fixed to battening. Some strengthening was also added behind the 15mm plasterboard, in order to allow the shower arm cover plate to be tightened when the shower arm was permanently fitted. This was because there was no room for the shower arm back plate nut to be used in between the wall plate elbow and the dry lining. We knew this wouldn’t be an issue, as the 15mm plasterboard and the strengthening plate we were adding later, would be more than adequate to support the shower head. The arm and head were temporarily fitted, with around 15 turns of PTFE tape on the shower arm thread into the wall-plate elbow, allowing the pipework to be tested and the adjustment of the thermostatic range of the shower valve.

The WC soil pipe was adjusted to repair a fault left over from the original builders where the pipe was under pressure. The cold water supply pipe was also moved to allow placement of the new WC.

The dry lining for the sink wall was cut to size with holes inserted for the supply pipes, waste and support studs. Everything was screwed to the wall studs.

Shower and waste trap

The shower waste has been installed. The original solvent weld waste was cut back to the 50mm pipe which has a ‘reducer’ down to 40mm. This was then teed off into the shower trap and then continued on via a ‘reducer’ to the sink in 32mm pipe, maintaining the fall back to the 50mm pipe.

Shower deck construction

The shower deck needed to fall towards the Acco linear channel drain at something like 6mm per metre. Pre-formed decks such as Impey and Milano etc. are available to create a ready made shower deck. Pre-formed decks simply slot into a cutout in the floorboards on ply inserts across the joists. On this occasion, the homeowner opted to make their own deck using tapered noggins, plywood, and Hardiebacker board. The fall on the deck constructed is a little higher and was achieved by inserting tapered noggins across the joists giving the fall angle required. As the house was been built using composite joists, modified joist hangers were used to get a good fix for the noggins. The noggins were screwed and glued, for ‘belt and braces’, using Evo-Stik Resin W Polyurethane Wood Adhesive which sets in around five minutes – it’s very strong, but don’t get the stuff on your skin and use in a well-ventilated area as it contains isocyanates. Extra strengthening was also added around the exterior deck area.

The compression fit waste for the drain was connected to a 40mm solvent weld pipe before putting the final ply infill piece down.

The Aco linear channel drain is 700mm long and allows a flat deck to fall into the drain, facilitating the use of large format tiles on the deck surface, as opposed to centre drains, which either use mosaic tiles or angle cut large tiles. 12mm Hardiebacker board was placed over the noggins to create the deck. The noggins were placed at 200mm centres, with 15mm marine ply set in between on battens glued and screwed to the noggins. The noggins were only tapered up to the linear channel drain. From the drain onwards the noggins were level back to the joist. A piece of Hardiebacker was been cut to size with a cutout for the drain and placed at the back. The drain was then screwed into the Hardiebacker. 2 peices of Hardiebacker used to create the fall were glued to the noggins and ply using Bal rapidset flexible and screwed at 300mm intervals using Hardiebacker screws. To cut the Hardiebacker, a P3 mask was used and a Malco Siding Shear attachment for an electric drill which can be found on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014E9WN2/ref=…s_sce_dp_1. These prevent excessive dust being created when cutting the boards which contains silicates.

Adhesive was run around the edge of the drain and over the drain screw heads, as well as in-between the Hardiebacker boards, where they join and butt up to the floorboards.

Stud wall and towel radiator

A stud wall was built to separate the shower and the toilet. The stud wall was chosen because the house is likely to be let and a large glass screen would be impractical, not just because of the safety aspect, but because the water is exceptionally hard and calcifies glass surfaces on contact. A shelf was been built into the stud wall to keep shampoo bottles etc. The wall was built out of 44mm x 75mm studding and dry walled in 15mm acoustic plasterboard, like the rest of the wet room. The remaining dry-wall was put up around the room.

Tiling around the towel radiator was completed so the radiator could be fixed into position, plumbed in, and tested before the floor was over-boarded and tiled. Fernox LS-X was used when making the compression joints for the Lock Valve and Radiator Valve, with the chrome pipe and for the threaded joints into the radiator itself. This gives the joints the best chance if the radiator is knocked, or if the joints don’t quite seal properly. The chrome was removed from the pipe where it goes into a 90 degree push-fit elbow. This process was because the chrome was too hard for the teeth of the pushfit joints to bite into, and is likely to pop off, if not removed to reveal the softer copper underneath.

Tanking

The whole room was then over-boarded with Hardiebacker board and the walls partly tiled. The shower area was tanked using the Mapei wetroom kit. This involves first applying a coat of the Primer G after making sure any gaps are filled, and then applying a coat of the Mapei WPS gum. The joints were then taped with Mapei tape – internal and external corners as well as the pipe collors over any pipes, by applying another coat of the gum. As recommended, 24 hours were then left before tiling.

Tiling walls and floors

The floor was tiled with a black slate effect ceramic tile from http://WallsandFloors.co.uk using Bal Rapidset Flexible. At this stage, the walls have nearly been fully tiled with a stone effect tile from http://TileSupermarket.com using a couple of bags of adhesive (Mapei Keraquick, leftover from another property). The Keraquick was mixed with Latex Plus, not water. There is a mozaic being run through the middle of the tiles which was sourced from Wickes.

Down lights and tiling

The ceiling was skimmed and painted with a moisture resistant paint and four down lights were installed. The tiles were grouted with epoxy grout in an Ivory colour. The Granfix epoxy grout was supplied by Horncastle Tiles Ltd and was a two part epoxy. The pot life of the grout, when mixed is about 30 minutes. The tiles were masked with tape to limit the amount of epoxy that had to be removed once applied with a finishing knife. Epoxy grout has been used to limit maintenance and maximize water resistance.

Installing the toilet and the sink

The toilet (Ceramica Genoa Close Coupled Toilet) which was sourced from http://www.plumbworld.co.uk and the sink (Savona Glass Wall Mounted Basin) which was sourced from http://www.clickbasin.co.uk have now been installed. The non-standard 30mm chrome waste pipe on the sink was fitted to the 32mm plastic waste pipe in the wall with some Fernox LSX around the joint. Some caulking was also put over the top to hold the chrome pipe collar in place, where the pipe goes into the wall.

Finished wetroom

The epoxy grout has now been applied. The grout used was a two part epoxy in Ivory made by Granfix and supplied by Horncastle Tiles http://www.tile-dealerhq.co.uk. Using epoxy means the grout needs less maintenance over a longer period of time than conventional grout.

The grout is more workable when stored and mixed at room temperature with a pot open time of about 30 minutes – although, it starts to get a slight rubber-like texture at around 20 minutes. Always mask the tiles with masking tape when applying epoxy. This involves a lot of masking tape, but means that larger areas can be grouted with one mix. The epoxy is worked well into the gaps and then once the masking tape is removed, is wiped over with emulsifying pads and rinsed in warm soapy water. Work on all the vertical lines first and then the horizontals. Because the epoxy sets very hard and has very strong adherence, use it to seal the floor and wall joints around the shower area. For the rest of the floor and wall joints use Mapei’s Mapesil in Vanilla.

To clean and protect the tiles, the two products used were from LTP called Grimex and Glaze Protector which you can source from Tile Giant http://www.tilegiant.co.uk.

Making over a tired bathroom without busting the bank.

Refurbishment Case Study – Ensuite makeover, creating a Wet Room