Friends, My wife wants me to fit the B&Q flooring panels in the bathroom.
Is there a simple way of transferring the shape or contours of the toilet pedestal to an uncut flooring panel so that I can then use a jigsaw to remove the section to fit.
Regards, Peter.
The usual recommendation is to remove the loo and board under it. Of course you need to fiddle a bit when replacing since it is higher. Otherwise, you should be able to get a large piece of paper under the pedestal and trace the shape. Seal with silicone afterwards. But IMHO the job will never look perfect that way. Simon.
Remove the two screws securing the lav and lift a few mm and shove the flooring under. A few mm's wont harm the waste pipe.
Thankyou for your suggestion.
As usual I do not include ALL the information in my original posting, I always forget something!
The toilet cannot be raised, it fits under a window in a specially designed alcove. Taking it out and replacing it would be a major operation and would require considerable reconstruction. it is already on a concrete plinth which raises it about an inch from the concrete floor into which I assume it is bolted with ragbolts, because only the nuts show.
I tremble at the thought of removing it!!!
Peter.
Ok,so the only solution is to do some marking out a guess work...use a wire coathanger and for it around the base of the toilet, it'll unspring when you let it go but when you pull it together it'll still retain its shape of the toilet base.
Damn keyboard.
Ok,so the only solution is to do some marking out and guess work...use a wire coathanger and form it around the base of the toilet, it'll unspring when you let it go but when you pull it together it'll still retain its shape of the toilet base.
Might a profile gauge help?
Failing that, use heavy duty lining paper to do a template
get some thick card and cut out a pattern. Measure several times. Cut once.
I take it that the toilet is in a corner. Is so, get an A2 or A1 piece of card from the local arts and craft shop. Depending on the gap between the wall and toilet. Lay it on a flat surface that can take a few stanley knife cuts and imagine where you think that the curve of the pan will lay. Now you have done this, make several radial cuts from where you think that the centre of the pan will be until you get beyond where the pan edge will be. Leave several inches from the edge of the card, so that the card can not flex. All cuts must end up at one point under the expected pan base, so as to create an area that can be pulled up outside the pan base In other words, you will end up with a piece of card with several radial cuts from the pan centre towards the edges that end up as points, but leave plenty of distance from the card edges to the cuts. After doing this, divide the wider strips again, but don't go too far out of the area of the pedestal. The idea is, is to end up with lots of narrow strips, about 20 mm wide max, that can be cut to show the contour of the bowl. The more radial cuts you make, the better the template will be. I wish that I could have a picture of this, but if every cut ends up as a point at the edge of the toilet, you could not make a better template
Now decide which wall the flooring has to match up to. Remember, no room is square. Neither is a wall parallel to the door threshold. If in doubt, use a piece of flooring to align the card edge. Then use anything to anchor the card to the floor.
You should now be able to trim all the strips to the pan base, cutting deeper any of the secondary cuts that do not go outside of the pan base.
Using the piece of flooring that you checked the wall and door with, make up a section of floor that will be wide enough to span the toilet bowl and transfer the outline to it, after leaving the template for at least 24 hours. If you want a very tight fit (not a good idea) then mark the floor very tight to the template. I would go for about a 2 to 3 mm gap and fill with a suitable coloured filler to allow for expansion.
Dave
Its a piece of piss..well you know.....
You simply lay a plank alongside the loo and using a fixed length bit of something at right angles to the wood, draw a line offset from the shape you want onto the board.
Cut to that , move in by the offset and its a perfect fit..and off you go.
I cannot believe that I am the only person to whom this is a perfectly standard piece of marking out and cutting. God you make rods for your backs.
Lay your board down, and use something to project outwards at a constant fixed angle onto the board by a fixed distance. That is your cut line. That is ALL THERE IS TO IT.
In theory. In practice you need to keep the "something" 100% square on to the WC, which isn't always that easy. I use lining paper for such things.
You don't have to. You keep it square to the board your tracing the outline onto. A combination square will do the job.
MBQ
PS. The instructions for B&Q flooring show you how to do similar (or used to) for scribing the last row of planks to fit against the wall which may not be parallel. It's not a huge jump to see how it works for irregular shapes.
MBQ
My thanks to everyone for their advice.
I have tried both the old coathanger and the marker on a rigid strip.
The floor is now down but I am NOT very pleased with the result, my cutting was not very good and I broke 2 jigsaw blades in the process!
The gap between the plinth and the flooring board is not huge and in places actually touches the pedestal but it is too much trouble in a confined space to take it out and replace more than a few times.
I have used silicone from Dow Corning to seal the floor joints and it looks ok.
Thankyou again for your ideas, I really appreciate the replies, Regards, Peter.
PS The best of the season to you all, no matter your persuasions.
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