Bath to Shower conversion

[Roger Mills]

It's a valid point. If your mother were to stumble into them, she could do herself some damage. If you *really* want taps there, maybe you could box them in, with a hinged lid for when you need to use them.

I would support the ply as much a possible - probably with 4 pieces of timber - one immediately either side of the pipes and another at each outer edge of the ply. If you do that, 3 x 3's should be ok rather than

3 x 6.

Part of the problem is that if your expectation is that it will leak, it probably *will*! You need to show it who's the boss! As others have said, push-fit is easy to work with and fairly idiot proof. And if you do keep the taps, and decide to re-pipe them, it's worth considering braided flexible pipes for the last bit up to the taps. You can get those with a tap connector one end and a push-fit connector the other end - some with built-in service valves. Assuming they're 3/4" taps (which bath taps usually are) the push fit is likely to be for 22mm pipe. The only possible problem would be if the existing pipes are 3/4" imperial rather than 22mm metric - which would depend on when they were installed. If that were the case, you'd be better off with a compression fitting at the other end. Imperial 3/4" is only slightly smaller than

22mm, and you can use 22mm compression fitting with special olives. The difference - although only a gnats - is too much for push-fit to seal reliably.

[John Rumm]

Also worth noting that if the shower head is demountable, you can fill a bucket from that.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I replaced two pairs of kitchen taps (different houses) last week. In neither case were the tap connectors reusable, as both had been bodged (no washers in one case, had leaked in the other case, and both assembled with some type of setting gunk which was never going to come off or reseal).

It was *much* easier to cut them off and fit new parts than it would have been to try and reuse anything.

[alan_m]

Cut the bath! You are going to scrap it so a jig saw, a bosch/aldi/lidl multitool, or dare I say it and angle grinder, cut around the tap area will leave the taps in situ. When you take out the rest of the bath you will have easy access to the underside of the taps.

The frame of bath may be screwed to the wall with angle brackets behind any exiting tiles.

Consider also the use of flexible tap connectors for your new installation

[Chris French]

The cylindrical pipe cutters can be used at arm's length - but if the pipe is close to the wall there might not be space.

Or a multitool to cut the pipes?

Re the shower tray, I put in a low profile tray, it is fine. As long as you put in a suitable waste with enough flow. Mine came with one, but I had to replace it with a different one, that was a bit narrower to fit in the space I had next to the joist.

I have fitted a raised tray on ply, and my last one was flush with the floor. If I was fitting a raised tray again I'd consider one of the ones that comes with adjustable legs.

[Martin Brown]

My worry with the easy plumb kit is that with all the miscellaneous pipework that has been hidden under the old bath footprint there is bound to be something in the way of one of the legs. A hand crafted wooden support with 18mm marine ply on top is harder to do but at least has the merit of being able to choose where I put the supports.

I take your point that adjusting it for true level might prove a PITA.