I'm boxing-in some pipework and a cistern in a shower room, once boxed-in it'll be tiled. I need to provide access to the cistern and pipework but I can't think how to do it neatly. One idea is to hinge the top, another is to use mirror screws and some sort of soft grout, and another alternative is to use square tile edging to edge the hole and edge the panel; these all have drawbacks - what have other people done successfully?
Dave
In article , Dave writes
How often do you think you will want the access?
I have done a ply cut-out lined up with the tile boundary and used silicone sealant to do the joints around id - scrape out and then lever out the "trap".
Yes, I'd wondered about silicone; is it very obvious next to the grout?
How often? whenever the cistern needs attention I guess.
One idea was to use some of the spare space for storage (loo rolls, etc) so that would need a hinged panel.
Dave
Bought an extra box of tiles and put it in the loft so that if I ever need to remove some and jigsaw out a hole, I have replacements.
In the end, it was the cheapest and neatest alternative.
Cisterns though are another matter. I can nly suggest mirror screws and a panel bedded dwon on ilicone..if you nead selaing.
(cover panel with clingfilm: apply silicone to seal area, screw down lightly, let silicone cure, remove and remove clingfilm. result one cast-in-place gasket.
Totally. Make a feature to cover it.
Once every ten years..a long story about a cistern ..OK what happened is that the flush broke, It was a 70's Bakelite sort of item. The flush mechanism I bought didn't fit the seized flush mechanism hole which now was huge. So I got a new cheap cistern. That didn't really fit and I had to modify the wall and some bricks fell out, but that made the overflow easier to arrange. The means the whole wall had to be rebuilt and filled, and by that time it looked horrible, so I ended up repainting the bathroom.
My conclusion? Buy quality units especially flush mechanisms, and box it in permanebly. Chances are you will be wanting to do a makeover anyway by the tine it breaks.
I'm trying to achieve something along these lines in my bathroom. i.e. Box in something but allow access to pipework without wrecking.
I have a thermo bar shower that requires the boxing in up to the 2 flanges covering the inlets. The most practical idea I can think of is 1/2" hardibacker board on 2" square timbers. This framework will be split along the horizontal centre line of the bar shower. Then I will cement the tiles onto the hardibacker with suitable holes to the accommodate the shower inlets. Both halves of the section will be screwed to the wall with long screws. I'll have to drill all the way through the tiles, hardibacker and timber. Then countersunk screw heads will be hidden beneath grout or filler.
If a plumber or myself wants to get at the rear of the bar shower, I'll just scrape out the filler over the screw heads and unscrew it from the wall and both sections will lift off/away.
Arthur
Depends entirely on whether the tiled surface needs to be watertight (as in, within the shower cubicle) or just look OK. In the *latter* case, it's very simple to do by making a plywood trapdoor, organised so that the edges of the hole coincide exactly with the position of the tiles, which is tricky but not impossible to get right (eg start tiling at the edge of the hole and work away from it). The trap door needs to have supports behind in all 4 corners (at least) to take fitting screws)
Tile over the trapdoor, then drill holes through the corners and into the supporting timber behind; domed mirror screws will hold the panel in place. When you do the grouting, don't go round the edges of the trap door - it won't be particularly obvious.
David
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