Hi Guy's
Haven't done any work to the boat as usual but done lots of work to the house. I have two weeks holiday where we plan to sort the bathroom out. This was going to be a quick three day job just strip off the old tiles and retile and paint right, no wrong.
Just scratching the surface just turns up problems, one of the previous owners had just just stuck tiles onto the window board which had a beveled edge it just looked naff. So I removed the tiles, splash back and window board. This took a chunk of plaster and a couple of bricks with it. I had to mix up some mortar and cement them back in.
Once the bricks had set I bonded the window board back in with construction adhesive. I have cut the bevel edge off flush with the wall so we can tile the entire wall and window surround. One problem I found when I removed the splash back was that the skim coat of plaster was not bonded to the wall. I didn't want to tile onto this as I could see the whole lot falling off the wall. So I removed the plaster down to the scratch coat this shouldn't be a problem as I'm going to tile the whole wall.
The shower pipework and wiring runs under a piece of conduit that turned out to be a piece of plastic guttering another bodge. Using a diamond cutting disk for my angle grinder I cut a slot 2" wide and 1 1/2" deep to chase the services to the shower into the wall. I fitted an 18mm piece of heavy duty conduit for the electrical supply and made up a new copper pipe for the water supply. Once this was done I cemented it in flush to the wall.
Ran out of mortar had to get some more.
I stripped the rest of the tiles off around the bath only to find that the plaster only went down to the level of the bath. Below this it was just bare plaster board which was damp because the tiles and the bath seal was leaking another bodge. I didn't want to remove the bath but I might need to replace the plaster board so I had to take it out.
I left it overnight to dry out and luckily it did. It didn't look too bad so I gave it a coat of PVA and a scratch coat of plaster.
It dried quite nicely.
Right the bath's back in and tiling battens are up. I have fitted the border but can you spot the deliberate mistake, well not deliberate I didn't notice it until Karen pointed it out. It should go dark, light then white but I put dark to dark a couple of times but its too late to change it now. I'll put that down to inexperience.
Sorry guy's I was so intent on making a bit of progress I forgot to take some pictures but basically I tiled around the window, this was a bit time consuming as it required a lot of measuring and cutting. Once I had that done I tiled around the bath surround, it was a bit fiddly around the shower supply pipe and cable but I still got quite a bit done.
Now the awkward bit I have to tile behind the toilet and wash basin. I need to measure down from the existing tiling batten and set a new batten. Once the new batten fixed I removed the toilet and sink to tile there.
As you can see there is an awkward bit around the soil pipe. This was another bodge it had been framed out with pieces of 2" by 1" timber nailed together to make 2" by 2". Why didn't he just go and by 2" by 2", he when boarded this out with pieces of plaster board which he tiled. All of this was damp because the tiles leaked. So I ripped it out and made a new box to cover this area from exterior
grade plywood and 2" by 2" timber. I coated it with PVA before tiling it. Job done I grouted this area before refitting the toilet and sink.
The I grouted the rest of the area around the window and the bath, then fitted the shower. Sorted I now have a toilet and shower again. Karen and Georgie will be so pleased they can come home. Yes they decamped to Nannies and left me to it.
I finished tiling around the window ledge, surround and grouted. Sorry forgot to take pictures again. I had to strip the paint off off the stud wall around the door it came of in big sheets and didn't seam to be bonded to the wall at all. I found this out when I took down the coving just after I had replastered the bath surround. The coving was that nasty polystyrene stuff, when I pulled it down it took the paint with it. They can't have used PVA before they painted, another bodge, I'm starting to see a theme here.
On the main external wall in the picture the paint was coming off easily until three feet from the floor where it suddenly became almost impossible to scrape off. So I just sanded the whole area and took care to feather in the edge of the paint. There were lots holes with plastic wall plugs that had been badly filled all over the wall. I drilled out the plugs filled and sanded down until smooth.
Once the walls were sanded I fitted the skirting boards using 140mm softwood skirting with a torus moulding. This gives a nice deep shirting with a tradition feel which will suit this old cottage. I would have used 200mm but this was the deepest I could get and it still looks quite good.
Jobs to do:
Paint the ceiling and new coving.
Paint the walls.
Make and fit a bath panel.
Move and replumb the toilet. ( It uses the pipe work from and older toilet and doesn't fit well)
Fit new lino.
Fit new taps and toilet seat.
That's about it guy's this entry has just seamed like a long list of jobs. This is because I did it in a short two week window when I was home on leave. I have taken photo's when I could and have written this up in one go to get something on here.
Hopefully we will get this squared away over the bank holiday weekend.
That's about it folks
KBO
I also painted the door surround and skirting in this colour as I matt finish on the woodwork and it looks simple and unfussy.
