Bathroom from scratch

[mark]

I've just embarked on the complete renovation of my bathroom. It has been sitting there filled with suitcases, boxes and other cr*p since we moved in one year ago.

So far I have:

removed the stud lathe and plaster between the bathroom and toilet (first floor) to make one large room.

ripped up old lino to expose the floorboards (in great shape)

ripped out bath (no sink)

taken down the crooked false ceiling to expose the horror that is the original ceiling, cracked/bits missing lathe and plaster. I'm planning to rip this down.

I'm pretty much OK with getting the walls into shape for floor to ceiling tiles, as well as builing the stud wall to block up the old toilet door. Plumbing in the new bath sink (well old reclaimed units) should be no problem either.

Where I'm faltering is the ceiling. From my searches on this group, it seems that screwing plasterboad to the existing joists is normal. But what about a moisture barrier? Do I need one? The loft if directly above. If I do, what do I use and where do I get it? Presumably this goes on before the PB? What do I cover the PB with. Is it ok to paint straight onto it with suitable paint. Will the moisture barrier trap moisture and make the PB soggy?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer my q's.

Mark

ps: house built in 1896. pps: any other tips about bathrooms in general would be much appreciated too.

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 16:09:39 GMT, mark wrote

-snip-

This will be a fairly obvious one, but speaking from experience -- plan your pipe runs *after* you've *definitely* decided on the final position for the fixtures.

I ran the pipes on what I thought were logical routes to the shower and bath connections, but then made a relatively minor change in the position of the shower tray.

Which wound up sitting over the supply pipes. Which were the very pipes -- of course -- which had a slow leak that didn't become apparent for a couple of weeks. ("Honey -- is there supposed to be a wet stain on the kitchen ceiling like that?")

Getting to the pipes to fix the leak was a right pain -- I actually wound up cutting them out and re-routing them entirely.

[Andy Evans]

Mark,

Wickes sell a green roll of plastic for use as a vapour barrier - about 2m wide by 20m, cost about 12 quid IIRC. Can't you get plasterboard with an inbuilt barrier? As to if you need it or not, there is no harm in including it, is there? At least you cut the risk of condensation in the colder loft space. I wouldn't have thought the barrier would make the PB soggy since the barrier is on the warm side of any loft insulation.

Another tip: Don't use silicon to seal taps, wastes etc - use plumbers mait. You get a much better, longer lasting seal. My experience of silicon is that it works fine for a while and then leaks.

Just my opinions.

Andy.

PLEASE remove spam_off to reply

[Simon]

Vapourshield plaster board for the ceiling ..... and generally ... don't rush at anything before thinking it through ... sometimes, messes happen from taking a route, out of haste, that isn't going to work, coming to a dead end and instead of going back to where it went wrong, some people can be stubborn and not accept that they went wrong and that is where unfinished projects come from ;-) ...... have you checked the ceiling is ok where the stud was removed? ..... sometimes even studs can be supporting ... it happens. Does the floor go through under the stud? you mentioned that the floor boards are ok so are you going to go with bare floorboards? for a bathroom you will probably need to caulk the gaps, as any overflows or water spillage may go straight in to electrics under the floor. I had a situation recently where a friend of mine complained about getting shocks off the taps and pipework when they were renovating a bathroom ..... when the floorboards had originally gone down, someone had managed to drive a nail through the lighting circuit, hitting the live only, not a problem until the floor got wet, it became live and they were earthing themselves on the taps.

[mark]

snip!

Wow...cheers for the replies chaps.

I think I'm going to have to take the old ceiling down as the plaster is in really bad shape. The house suffered from subsidence a few years ago (cowboy builder routed a drainpipe into the ground instead of a drain and washed the foundations away!), so the plaster has some enormous cracks across it, and is completely missing in places.

I think I will put up a vapour barrier...better safe that sorry....

"plumbers mate"....you mean PFTE tape? Use that all the time....

I finished removing the lath and plaster from the stud wall last night....tonight is the breaking down of the actual supporting frame. Hop ethe house doesn't fall down (only joking..).

I'll let you all know how it progresses..

Thanks again...

Mark

[Ben Edgington]

Plumber's Mait. It's a non-setting mastic for sanitary-ware. Bit like plasticine in consistency. I used some last night to seal underneath the new basin plughole.

[Mark S.]

The bits and bobs of instructions for my new suite said specifically not to use plumbers mate for some bits (read after using it as usual of course.) ;-)

Mark S.

[BillP]

HI Mark,

I was taught that oil based products should not be allowed to come into contact with plastic. I believe that plumbers mait is oil based and over time will degrade some plastic and make it brittle. Things like storage cisterns, plastic inlet valves, overflow, back nuts and washers on wastes, etc. If there's no plastic around plumbers mait's fine.

Bill

[mark]

snip!

on the taps.

Thanks for the tips. I got quite a bit done this w/e. The wall is completely down. I've blocked up teh old toilet door with a stud partition of plasterboard. My first one, very satisfying.

The ceiling has been taken down, but I've decided to leave the laths in place, put a vapour barrier then pb.

Walls....christ! I've resorted to striping two of the walls completely back to the brick as the plaster was in pretty bad shape in places, and the plaster/cement up to waist height was a different depth to the rest. I'm now considering cleaning, repointing and sealing one of the walls and leaving the brickwork exposed as a "feature".

Quick question, I presume that you can tile straight onto brick? After having thoroughly cleaned and sealed (I bought a 10litre bottle of brick & masonry sealer...bargain at £4.98!).

Cheers

Mark

[Simon]

Plaster is much cheaper than tile adhesive ..... you'll use 4 times as much tile adhesive, the brickwork will not be a nice even level surface to tile on and make levelling and laying your tiles a bit of a PITA ... and I am sure there are other reasons ... I just wouldn't do it, i'd prefer a level surface ...... leaving one of the walls as a feature is fine, give it a good sealer though ... i am not sure if the one you have in mind will be adequate ..... I'd use G4, it's made for sealing concrete ponds among other things Available from;

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