__kali__'s adventures in DIY
April 15th, 2010 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalihaFor the past few weeks I've been having a new bathroom fitted and I actually did some of it myself!
First off I decided to have a go at tiling the floor myself. Mainly because there was very little chance of them falling off the floor (unless the world turns sideways - then I could have a problem).
I did the easy bit first, 9 full tiles. Turns out my bathroom isn't perfectly square, which is a bit annoying, but hopefully not that noticeable once all the tiles are down.
Then the family plumber came round to change the bathroom suite from the horrible mushroomy colour suite to a swanky new white suite I'd sourced from the interwebs and my second home - IKEA.
The bathroom looked a whole lot bigger without the bath in it. The cat is desperate the ge down the hole in the floor and go exploring. Little tinker.
Then we encountered our first problem: When the plumber was taking the tiles off the wall it was taking the cheap n nasty plasterboard with it and I was left with fist sized holes.
We made the executive decision to leave the tiles on and tile over them. Hopefully it wouldn't look too bad, but the only other thing I could do would be to replace the plasterboard (which is within my DIY skills) (just about) and then get it reskimmed (which really isn't. I have had a go at skimming, but I wasn't very good it at (I was 8 months pregnant at the time mind.)).
Getting the bath up the stairs was a bit of game too, it's an extra deep bath so it's about 10cm deeper than a normal bath. We nearly had to take off the bannisters to get it up the stairs. The the plumber had to knock out some more tiles to get the bath to fit (which it did with 1mm clearance.)
End of day 2 - one bath fitted (and full of water so that the mastic sets in the right position and doesn't pull off the wall the first time you use the bath.
His Lordship and ex-Cheddar christened the baththat evening and both gave it the thumbs up. Ex-Cheddar in particular appears to like the fact she can swim in it and kicks about happily.
Day 3 - the toilet and the sink were due to go in. Me and His Lordship had spent time the evening before building the flatpack sink cabinet ready.
The old sink was ripped out (taking another chunk of crap wall with it) and the plumber spent ages sorting out the cabinet and getting all the pipework to fit. He unpacked the toilet, took one glance at it and went; "Nah, that won't fit."
So no more work could be done until I got a new loo bought. How very annoying. A new one was ordered to arrive the following Monday and last Thursday I travelled up to Warrington (with a very unhappy ex-Cheddar in tow) to take the old loo back and get a refund (which still isn't showing up in my account. grr).
No sink in the bathroom, so we've been brushing our teeth in the sink in the kitchen. Woes. I used the chance to tile under where the sink goes, so that was quite helpful.
On Tuesday my sister's friend, the tiler, came round to make a start on tiling the bathroom.
He's done a very good job so far:
Unfortunately the bath is in the wrong place and when that second layer of tiles went up on the wall the taps wouldn't turn so we've had to cut out the mastic and shuffle the bath forward a centimetre to sort that out.
On Wednesday the plumber came again, thankfully the new toilet was going to fit, so he smashed out the old toilet and I got to work tiling the rest of the bathroom.
The plumber was dead impressed that I did the floor tiling myself and without help. it's like cutting glass for fusing but on a much bigger scale.
The tiler was in again last night and finished the long wall by the bath and most of the wall by the door and reckons tonight he'll get that back wall done.
And here is the bathroom so far:
It looks alright doesn't it. I'm sad I couldn't have my angular toilet but a girl can't have everything.
First off I decided to have a go at tiling the floor myself. Mainly because there was very little chance of them falling off the floor (unless the world turns sideways - then I could have a problem).
I did the easy bit first, 9 full tiles. Turns out my bathroom isn't perfectly square, which is a bit annoying, but hopefully not that noticeable once all the tiles are down.
Then the family plumber came round to change the bathroom suite from the horrible mushroomy colour suite to a swanky new white suite I'd sourced from the interwebs and my second home - IKEA.
The bathroom looked a whole lot bigger without the bath in it. The cat is desperate the ge down the hole in the floor and go exploring. Little tinker.
Then we encountered our first problem: When the plumber was taking the tiles off the wall it was taking the cheap n nasty plasterboard with it and I was left with fist sized holes.
We made the executive decision to leave the tiles on and tile over them. Hopefully it wouldn't look too bad, but the only other thing I could do would be to replace the plasterboard (which is within my DIY skills) (just about) and then get it reskimmed (which really isn't. I have had a go at skimming, but I wasn't very good it at (I was 8 months pregnant at the time mind.)).
Getting the bath up the stairs was a bit of game too, it's an extra deep bath so it's about 10cm deeper than a normal bath. We nearly had to take off the bannisters to get it up the stairs. The the plumber had to knock out some more tiles to get the bath to fit (which it did with 1mm clearance.)
End of day 2 - one bath fitted (and full of water so that the mastic sets in the right position and doesn't pull off the wall the first time you use the bath.
His Lordship and ex-Cheddar christened the baththat evening and both gave it the thumbs up. Ex-Cheddar in particular appears to like the fact she can swim in it and kicks about happily.
Day 3 - the toilet and the sink were due to go in. Me and His Lordship had spent time the evening before building the flatpack sink cabinet ready.
The old sink was ripped out (taking another chunk of crap wall with it) and the plumber spent ages sorting out the cabinet and getting all the pipework to fit. He unpacked the toilet, took one glance at it and went; "Nah, that won't fit."
So no more work could be done until I got a new loo bought. How very annoying. A new one was ordered to arrive the following Monday and last Thursday I travelled up to Warrington (with a very unhappy ex-Cheddar in tow) to take the old loo back and get a refund (which still isn't showing up in my account. grr).
No sink in the bathroom, so we've been brushing our teeth in the sink in the kitchen. Woes. I used the chance to tile under where the sink goes, so that was quite helpful.
On Tuesday my sister's friend, the tiler, came round to make a start on tiling the bathroom.
He's done a very good job so far:
Unfortunately the bath is in the wrong place and when that second layer of tiles went up on the wall the taps wouldn't turn so we've had to cut out the mastic and shuffle the bath forward a centimetre to sort that out.
On Wednesday the plumber came again, thankfully the new toilet was going to fit, so he smashed out the old toilet and I got to work tiling the rest of the bathroom.
The plumber was dead impressed that I did the floor tiling myself and without help. it's like cutting glass for fusing but on a much bigger scale.
The tiler was in again last night and finished the long wall by the bath and most of the wall by the door and reckons tonight he'll get that back wall done.
And here is the bathroom so far:
It looks alright doesn't it. I'm sad I couldn't have my angular toilet but a girl can't have everything.
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(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 08:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 08:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 08:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 08:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, April 15th, 2010 09:07 pm (UTC)Have you had lots of spiders?When we last ripped the bathroom up,we had lots.:(
(no subject)
Date: Saturday, April 17th, 2010 11:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, April 16th, 2010 02:28 am (UTC)You don't mean ex-cheddar, you mean WELSH RAREBIT
(I'm standing firm on that ;))
(no subject)
Date: Saturday, April 17th, 2010 11:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Friday, April 16th, 2010 10:15 am (UTC)Love the new bath. And your floor tiling skillz.
(no subject)
Date: Saturday, April 17th, 2010 11:31 am (UTC)