Bathroom | Inglehome

Before

Original 1960s bathroom with very large single glazed window. No shower. Carpet & wallpaper. The sink & bath ceramic had been painted (?!). The floorboards were stained & warped (and reeked). Full height cupboard with a poorly insulated hot water cylinder with basic immersion heater.

Changes

New floor. New suite. Window size halved, to allow for a shower on the wall. Sink & toilet locations swapped, to allow for a mirror & light above the sink. Hot water tank replaced with one fully insulated & heat pump powered, and relocated into the loft to save space. Space used for washing machine cupboard, and there’ll be a smaller wall cupboard above for towels and such.

Original sink unit retained, refurbished, & reused! With new worktop, base panel & doors.

A radiator was installed with the heating system, but on the funded scheme it was a basic model, unsuitable for the potentially wet location over the bath. So this was swapped for a towel rail radiator. To work well with the heat pump (low temperature heating) this has to be big (to emit enough heat into the room).

Oh yeah, I also insulated the wall.

Water supply & waste pipes for the basin (centre) and washing machine (right). Cupboard frame on right.

Original 1960’s sink unit refurbished. Stripping the old lead paint didn’t work, so we painted over it in the end.

Sink hole. Washing machine cupboard floor isolated for vibration proofing. (In our current flat, when neighbours run washing machines it feels like the building is being shaken down.)

Crack. Crap.

Sink installed. Looks good. Leak tested. Leaked (slightly) from the underside of the waste fitting. OK. So I tightened the plastic back nut on the metal fitting. Still dripped. This surprised me. So I tightened it some more. Still dripped. Now that’s strange. But only thing to do, I thought tiredly, was to tighten the back nut even more. KERRACK.

Well that was an expensive error. Ouch. The leak was from inside the nut, not around it. What it actually needed was lots of plumber’s tape on the thread to seal the gap.

Fortunately the manufacturer had one (and only one) in UK stock to replace it. So I snapped it up ASAP.

Cork Floor Tiles

Just sizing up the layout before sticking them down.

Adhesive spread. Straight edge fixed on right, to work from.

Set. Then a couple of coats of Osmo oil overall to seal.

After

New tap, shower, screen, & (suitable) radiator.

Almost there. Enough to move in at least. In a couple of week’s time…