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Public

You may remember the election-night flood and subsequent plans to finally get around to doing the bathroom instead of just keep patching it.

It has needed rebuilding for the longest time, but it has become apparent the stop-cock doesn't work, and I was just lucky that there was a second one just for the hot-circuit with the actual leak.

The builder has been asking me what I wanted.

🤷

I dunno.

Doesn't really matter.

But nobody else can decide so I have to have opinions about it. They had me look at some lists of things.

I could only make decisions by making a model so it's a good job I know .

🧵 👇

RE: boing.world/@pre/1127315639000

Public

Given the forced-choices in bathroom design here there's isn't a lot of wiggle room.

The first thing you'd want to do is ditch the enormous built-in cupboard in the corner, but that used to hold a hot water tank and may well contain asbestos and I really don't wanna deal with the whole haz-mat containment suit fiasco.

Plaster it, tile it, paint it, but I can't move it.

Likewise the toilet, it has to stay where the sewer pipe is.

There is currently a bath along the short wall but it's tiny and I don't fit in it. Been standing in it showing since I moved in. No point in a bath since anything actually good or useful won't fit me.

There's not even much room for a shower tray either really. Only the minimum-size trays hey make will fit in the gap.

You could in theory try to move the sink, but the only place you'd move it to isn't that much better and you'd only be swapping it's location for a storage rack.

The dehumidifier in that rack is better near the shower instead.

So the layout is all basically forced moves.

Any room where there should be a mirror, the doors are the obvious places for them.

Mirrors on both doors and also on the over-sink cabinet might challenge some, but I shave the back of my own head so my only worry is they'll be angled wrong even with 3 of them and I'll still need a 4th in-other-hand.

Public

I look through the websites they're suggesting for style, and all the individual items that actually attract my eye and attention turn out to be the black things.

Ugh. Goths. 🙄 🤷

Toilets are all the same. The come in exactly one colour that isn't white. If there was a rainbow toilet or a duck toilet or a tutu toilet or something you might consider it but there's only one choice here that isn't the default.

Then you can't have a goth toilet with a rainbow sink can you?

But oh boy, that's a very dark overall ensemble though.

Public

So, definitely wants a dash of colour there then. I like black and yellow. Waspy. Powerful. Scary. Clashing and bright. How's that look?

Well, I think that looks amazing and if it was someone else's bathroom I'd tell them how amazing I thought it was but, wow, it's a lot eh?

Could I live with it for all the next forty years?

Better try some alternatives.

Public

Alright, so, they do the same tile only not so cool and sci-fi and black and starry but just boring and grey and freckled.

Ugh. No.

It is better and lighter but now the yellow is all washed and pale in comparison.

Public

So the obvious thing is to switch to the other favourite colour of red. It'd match the towels then. Or save me buying yellow towels.

Yeah, the red is all-right.

Not as awsome as the wasp black, but more liveable than the blackness everywhere.

Public

I can see the argument for a brighter floor, maybe try and match the one outside in the hall, but you'd never get it exactly right and I think the lighter floor compromises the effect of the ebony dark facilities.

I prefer it to be obviously a separate room anyway. The kitchen and the hall are basically one and the same but the bathroom isn't part of that little union.

Public

Don't have to do much experimenting to rule out light coloured patterned tiles.

Ew.

Public

So there you go then. That's where I end up when I am called upon to tell a builder how I want the bathroom given the constraints of the existing property and expense of either removing the cupboard or wet-rooming the entire thing and lack of choice of types of toilets.

Ideally the shower-tray would be black too but they didn't seem to offer that in the suggested catalogues at least.

Here's a flythrough video:

dalliance.network/w/8vH7pJFj54

Public

I have submitted the contractor's plans to the corporation, assuming the bureaucracy can move fast enough to approve it then ripping out the old bathroom to build the new showerroom starts the day after the bank holiday.

It's gonna be well hectic here for about three weeks. Wonder how much my own work will suffer trying to do it with people in the flat making lots of noise and limited toilet access.

Goodbye old broken bathroom, you were often annoying and usually dirty but mostly at least worked.

I have dyed my hair in you for the last time.

Things will get worse over the next week or so before they start getting better.

Public

Made worse, and that's all that can be done today apparently. Can't really do most of the work until the stop-cock is replaced coz can't unplumb any plumbing.

At least I get the afternoon with the flat to myself.

Public

I now has no bath, no cistern.

Wall fully removed, many old pipes removed.

The toilet has been removed and the sewer pipe under it dredged. If it had a cistern it might finally flush okay again now! The old pipe there had much much limescale and apparently a trapped flushed plastic bag.

But we can't know for sure coz it'll be just flushing by pouring buckets into it till the new one is fitted.

Public

Sink removed, skirt-board removed, the rest of the wall broken down, everything is stripped.

Construction materials have arrived. Mostly wooden boards and beams.

The bath-outlet is pretty high apparently, and the shower-basin will need to be above that height, so some of this wood will build a stage on which to place the shower unit.

The rest will rebuild that wall, only longer to also contain and hide the new toilet cistern and accessible stop-cocks.

And I guess also new skirt and stuff, I dunno.

This is my weekend then: Wobbly toilet with bucket-flush, no shower, no bath, not even a sink in the loo.

Will have to wash my hair and sponge-bath in the kitchen sink at some point in the weekend.

And next week, things should start being built instead of just destroyed. 🤞

Public

Trips to the tile-supply store and the rubbish-dump has changed the character of all the junk filling up my flat. Less of it's rubbish, more of it is tiles still not tiled.

Construction of the panel hiding the pipes and cistern has begun, a frame now exists for it.

Public

A failure day where the trains couldn't deliver the worker to the work site followed by a day in which more of the wall is built, and the tiles start to be attached to the wall.

Those gray tiles are massive, and it turns out also much thicker than the red ones. Didn't think about that at all when picking 'em.

Builders apparently have techniques for compensating for this depth disparity though so I won't have indented red stripes.

Apparently these big thick tiles are too big and thick for the tile-cutter too so special equipment will be needed.

Public

Not really much change from the usual through-the-door shot today, but hidden around around the corner there has been tiled up a third or so of the height of the wall.

When I bought the massive tiles I'd vaguely thought it might be easier to apply fewer large files than a larger number of small ones.

That's wrong. It's more difficult to have to cut the tiles up all the time and try and place these big unwieldy objects.

Presumably there is an optimum somewhere between meter-square slabs and a mosaic of micro-tiles.

Aesthetically I'd sooner it wasn't tiles at all, just one giant slab exactly the same size and shape as the wall with no gaps. So that's also why I picked the big ones.

If I were able to go back in time I'd say to go with the 30cm tiles not the 60cm tiles.

Public

Starting to look more complete now. Most of the room is tiled, just the tricky bits around the plumbing being finished off. He started building the access panel so I can get at the cistern and stop-cock today.

The little hole in the wall there is for the dehumidifier and the one under that is the access panel.

Red stripes looking good.

Starting to believe it could be finished next week.

Public

This technique they have, where they're screwing blocks into the walls to rest the tiles upon while the cement dries, is new to me.

Hadn't seen that kinda thing before.

Not sure how common it is.

Think you'd usually just start from the bottom, and use each lower layer to support the one above. Plastic matchsticks to separate 'em. But not here.

Seems like a useful technique when you have to tile over holes and weird shapes against wood, like here. But I think the massive overuse of it in my bathroom might be because of the stripes pattern.

The stripes are specified as one tile from ceiling and then one more tile below that.

Which makes it awkward to start at the bottom. Would require a lot of careful measurement for sure, to get the right size cut at the bottom to start with.

Working well anyway.

Hadn't thought about it much but reckon I'd previously assumed that the grout goes in first, it kinda looks like it's behind the tiles right? Even seems like it might be the glue that holds them on.

Apparently not. Grouting seems to be last.

Bet they won't want me using the shower till that's done an all.

Public

They reckon it's a good idea to keep some spare tiles around. You know. In case of breakage.

They didn't directly call me a clumsy idiot, but I know what they mean.

So it seems a good plan, but also another disadvantage of picking these enormous tiles.

Don't think there's a cupboard in the place that'd fit even a single one let alone a spare pack.

🤔

Maybe under the bed or something.

Public

Though apparently I don't really have to worry about spare tiles because there aren't even enough of them anyway. We gotta buy more. Glad I picked the most expensive kind 😦

The Dehumidifier Nook is tiled and the wall is complete. Apparently I might even be able to shower by Tuesday evening.

The panel to access the cistern and stop-cock has become contentious.

I was assuming it could be opened by hand any time should an emergency require access to the stop-tap or a poke of the cistern's ball-cock or float-valve.

Let alone the whole thing needing a new button or whatever.

But the builder was planning to use screws and also apply grout and seal the thing. I think mostly so it would try to look like there is no panel. That's why it's in two bits even, to match the grout lines of the tiles. He wants the panel invisible.

All my interior design skills come from game-level-design, so I want the emergency stop button to be obvious to see and operate in ways the plumbers aren't used to perhaps?

Don't think I mind needing a screwdriver, but having to re-apply grout every time it's opened to adjust the ball-cock seems way extreme.

Anyone seen any innovative solutions? I'm inclined to even ask for the screws to be thumb-screws to avoid needing a screwdriver.

Maybe even a flap & hinge?

I have the weekend to think about it.

Public

Oh, a cat-flap style hinge can't work. The flush-button is gonna be embedded in the panel. Pushing it needs to flush the toilet not open the cat-flap style hinge.

Public

The shower exists, and is plumbed in. This exciting news tempered by the fact the grouting still isn't complete and the shower-screen not present so I still can't have a shower.

Maybe Wednesday we reckon.

Also today the old radiator fully removed. Hasn't been used in the whole time I've been here anyway, whenever it was turned on it would drip.

Starts to feel like it might one day be a bathroom.

Public

I have to wait for all the seals to dry, but apparently in the morning I'm allowed to have a shower.

Hurray.

He was puzzling over the parts of this shower-shield for quite a little while. Even trying to get my help to understand the diagrams but I wasn't any use there at all.

In the end the bits he needed were just still in the box not in the layed-out parts. 😆 All worked once he found that.

I wasn't working today so I was just listening to podcasts while reading off a screen and feeling awkward and not really managing to concentrate on either.

Apparently that round drain-cover should be a square drain-cover and nobody knows why the wrong type was shipped but it will be rectified.

Tomorrow is floor-day apparently, and they tell me there'll be two workers if all goes well.

Public

Oh, don't look too closely. You can see me half naked in the reflection there holding the camera. It remains pretty hot in this house even as it's getting cold out.

Public

Oh dear. I'm having expensive thoughts again...

I presume their plan is to use the gray tiles around the base of that stage upon which the shower is built, but I think maybe it should be black instead?

More like the floor will be, and the stone of the shower basin.

They do these tiles in black. They are amazing. Dark with star-pricks.

That's these stupidly expensive tiles that I really should have paid attention to the price-tag on.

🤔

Public

Good progress today. Had a shower in the morning, all seems to work good.

Then they laid the new floor, leaving me with no toilet at lunchtime!

Looking good though, dark and black and wood patterned.

Public

Didn't leave me with no toilet over night though.

After breaking up the old one to throw away they explained that it's exit-pipe had almost blocked up with limescale, so that's why the flush has been terrible for ages.

I have now christened this toilet and can confirm that not only does the water inflow seem more powerful, it also drains without having to poke at it with a brush.

They've agreed it should be black tiles at the shower base and seem to have a plan for that and tiling the sink area tomorrow.

Public

They seem to have signed it there, inside the bits that will be tiled up, with the date and "your welcome, X". I wonder if I should add the apostrophe and extra letter e.

Public

Looks like all of the tiling is done other than at the base of the shower there, and whatever is gonna happen to the pipes on the wall beyond that carrying hot water to and from the bedroom radiator.

Not all the grouting done yet, but starting to look fairly complete.

Still to do:
* Complete the grouting
* Plumb in the slink
* Wire up the new lights
* Wire up the new shaver/toothbrush socket.
* Wire in dehumidifer
* Complete cistern-access-panel
* Paint ceiling
* Paint doors and door frames
* Plaster inside airing cupboard
* Plaster to repair damage to hall walls
* Tile base of shower / exposed pipes
* replace the door handles
* attach mirrors to doors
* Replace light-switch.

Back down to one man at a time next week, and they seemed to be resigned to it not being done on Tuesday, I suspect it won't be done Wednesday either but I am hopeful for this week unless they have to leave me unstaffed on Thursday onwards.

Public

Another couple of day's work and we are *this close* to being finished now 🤏 .

Just need the paint on the doors to dry so the door-handles and the mirrors can be attached to them.

Should be finished tomorrow! Almost surely!

Public

Bathroom fully finished then! I have door-handles and mirrors and sealed floor/wall/ceiling joins. Builders on his way home and not planning to come back.

But. We agreed these mirrors need more attaching. Dangerously wobbly. So I'll have to buy some more clips and figure that out myself. And some of the paint might need some touch-up / extra coats depending how it dries and that's up to me too.

Now I'm gonna have a week off work to relax and get back into owl sleeping schedules.

Public

The stop-cock replacement was made more complex with the realization that we can't disconnect the water for the whole block after all, because that stop-cock is also broken.

😬

Turns out there are two water-inputs into my flat. The mains connection plus also a tank in the roof.

Nobody seemed to want to explain why. Something to do with pressure maybe. But if mains-pressure can fill the tank in the roof can't it also blast my shower?

Anyway, both inputs to the flat have broken stop-cocks, plus the one that feeds the whole block is broken. How do you deal with that?

The mains-input stock-cock does actually just-about work if you get enough leverage on it that you nearly break the pipe. So they can close that one, add a new tap after it, turn turn it back on. Now I have two stop-cocks there and only one is broken.

I think with the other one they drained the entire tank then replaced the tap live when it was down to a drip, something like that. I was mostly working. Dunno what was going on. Splashing and swearing.

Heroes frankly, I was suspecting there'd be months of delays while the bankrupt Thames Water postponed replacing the block's stop-cock.

Public

Turns out there are two water-inputs into my flat.

I guess this is probably why I can safely shower while the washing machine is running. I've lived places where the shower would stutter or boil if someone made a cup of tea, but that don't happen here.

Public

@pre Is this for the main stop cock for the mains water supply to the whole flat? If so, you know already that it's standard and obvious that it should have easy access. FWIW here's an example of the bog standard white plastic solution for that sort of thing: toolstation.com/access-panel/p
Dunno if fancier bespoke solutins are available.
(If it's just for a concealed cistern that's perhaps less of an issue)

ToolstationAccess PanelEnable easy access to plumbing, valves, electrical equipment, fuse boxes or vents with this hinged access panel. With its picture frame-style door, you can set up this panel in ceilings or walls to inspect, repair and maintain installations extremely easily.The access hatch is injection-moulded, which...
Public

@rooftopjaxx As far as I understand it, there are two water-inlets to the flat.

The big one connecting to the mains is in the kitchen.

This one is only for the secondary input, which comes in from a tank in the roof.

It's not clear to me how that tank gets filled. Maybe turning off the kitchen one stops that tank being filled too? Not sure.

None of the things in that link look like they'd be better than just screwing a tiled wooden plank into place as planned. Maybe with thumb-screws.

Public

@pre Maybe mirror screws would work for you?
And do thumbscrews really exist outside of 'torture dungeons'?
(And if it's a flat in a multi-occupancy block then the header tank in the roofspace is likely shared? {{Depending on how that supply is or isn't metered}})

Public

@rooftopjaxx There used to be a hot water tank, and that was fed from a tank in the shared-roof too. I think there were separate tanks up there for each flat but I never looked myself.

Water isn't metered.

From an image-search, mirror-screws look like it's some sort of cap on a screw to hide it's appearance, which is still driven by a screwdriver once the cap it removed?

Might be prettier, but I'd ideally want no-screwdriver-required can-operate-with-thumbs screws, even if they turn out to have a different name than the torture implement.

Public

@pre Yep that's what mirror screws are and do, a cosmetic enhancement to a simple screw.
Back to first principles:
If your entire bathroom is fed from the header tank then you realise that the water from the handbasin CW tap isn't technically 'drinking water' because it's been sitting around in the header tank for an indeterminate length of time anf the chlorination/fluouridation will have gassed off? Unless there's a separate supply from the mains to the handbasin CW tap? Good to know for toothbrushing and so on.
In the event of a catastrophic leak somewhere in the bathroom fed from the header tank causing flooding, would turning off the stop cock in the kitchen stop the supply to your header tank and the flooding stop only when that had drained?

Public

@rooftopjaxx Yes, bathroom is not drinking water I think.

In the event of a catastrophic leak somewhere in the bathroom fed from the header tank causing flooding, would turning off the stop cock in the kitchen stop the supply to your header tank and the flooding stop only when that had drained?

Dunno. Not sure the plumber knows. Not even sure if the block managers know. Heh.

Public

@pre There's only one way to find out, once the shower tray or washbasin are connected up! It'd be handy to know.
Obv undoing 4 or so 'thumbscrews' (aka wingnuts/wingscrews {{knurled wingscrews engaging with a captive nut might be an elegant solution}}) might stop that flooding quicker though.

Quiet public

@pre this really looks rgeat

Quiet public

@pre there are freeze kits for pipes. Plumbers and water utility operators can chill pipes from. the outside. Not sure what the secret sauce is to prevent cracking from expansion, maybe just having the ice build up slowly from outside of pipe to the middle, or the fact that you have an open system on either end of the ice plug. Freeze it, remove old valve, install new valve

Quiet public

@marvin Yes, apparently they do own one of those but it wasn't in the van 😆

They also had some reason it would be difficult or wouldn't work.