Just bought a new bathroom suite where the tap holes are in the middle of one side. I was going to fit it with the taps against the wall, but I'm a bit worried about access to the pipework if there are any problems in the future. I did consider having the taps on the front side, but feel they may look odd, or be in the way. I have seen taps fitted at the back quite often, so any comments? Ed
It comes down to luck really - do you think that, for the life of the system you will never need access? Having the taps in what you consider might be a less pleasing location is the price for not having to rip the bathroom apart if there is a problem.
Probably a bit late now, but my system uses a bath filler fed via a diverter from the thermostatic valve it shares with the shower. it needs a high pressure supply, but there are no taps at all, and you just set the temperature and let the bath fill.
Chris
I have a similar bath that I installed over 5 years ago. I have it so the taps are on the front side just incase of any problems, none so far, it looks OK and nobody has commented otherwise. I have seen these types of baths installed with the taps against the wall and a 'hatch' cut through from the other side of the wall and then covered over with something suitable, so quick (and tidy) access could be made if necessary. Obviously this will be dependant upon your room layouts and structure of your walls, I wouldn't like to do this through a brick wall but a stoothing wall at the back of a built in wardrobe (or behind one), now that's a different kettle of fish...
HTH
John
I have a similar bath that I installed over 5 years ago. I have it so the taps are on the front side just incase of any problems, none so far, it looks OK and nobody has commented otherwise. I have seen these types of baths installed with the taps against the wall and a 'hatch' cut through from the other side of the wall and then covered over with something suitable, so quick (and tidy) access could be made if necessary. Obviously this will be dependant upon your room layouts and structure of your walls, I wouldn't like to do this through a brick wall but a stoothing wall at the back of a built in wardrobe (or behind one), now that's a different kettle of fish...
HTH
John
Ed
Only that there are few things that I can imagine which would be more painful than slipping in the bath and landing legs astride the side, and that's slipping in the bath and landing astride the side when there's a tap fitted there...
Otherwise, no comments!
David
Specially if you do it twice!
It's what I, and many others, have always called a 'stud partition' or plasterboard wall. If you leave the hatch until you may need it, what about if you *NEED* it at 2AM in the morning with water pi**ing through your downstairs ceiling?
HTH
John
snip
Chris; can you provide a little extra info? Diverter,... shares with shower,... no taps ... set temperature and let bath fill . Details, details?
I'd never heard of it either! I just searched the uk.d-i-y archives for it, and come up with only 3 other hits (in what, ~10 years of archives?)
David
Just fitted a bath exactly as you describe - taps in the middle against the wall. I've taken a few precautions - used flexibles to connect the last 12" to the taps, otherwise all end feed joints, and used decent 'O' rings instead of the crap fibre washers (meaning you get a good seal at little more than finger tight), and there's a service valve for the hot & cold where it can be got at fast. Plus, this bath appear to bulge by about 1" - 2" where the taps are - with long arms & determination I reckon I could get there to service any faults, at least to use a long screwdriver to undo the two screws that hold the tap block to the bath allowing it to be pulled upward to access the flex connections.
Phil.
Just fitted a bath exactly as you describe - taps in the middle against the wall. I've taken a few precautions - used flexibles to connect the last 12" to the taps, otherwise all end feed joints, and used decent 'O' rings instead of the crap fibre washers (meaning you get a good seal at little more than finger tight), and there's a service valve for the hot & cold where it can be got at fast. Plus, this bath appear to bulge by about 1" - 2" where the taps are - with long arms & determination I reckon I could get there to service any faults, at least to use a long screwdriver to undo the two screws that hold the tap block to the bath allowing it to be pulled upward to access the flex connections.
Phil.
Right. For completeness I will try to cover the whole system. As we went for a large capacity bath, and water capacity had to be increased, I took the opportunity to have the whole heating system re-vamped.
I have a Worcester Greenstar 28HE condensing boiler and a conventional vented system. The larger hot water cylinder was moved to the garage where we have also fitted a Monsoon twin 4 bar pump.
The outputs from this pump go to a Bristan Prism thermostatic shower valve, mounted in the usual way.
From this the mixed output goes to a Bristan Prism 5-way diverter. (It is hidden on their web site, searches don't turn it up)
(If you will forgive me a quick ramble, this is where we fell foul of Bristan's bizarre nomenclature. Their three-way valve has two inputs (one to be blanked off) and two outputs. To get three outputs needs a five-way valve. Go figure.)
The three outputs go to a wall mounted shower, a bath-side pencil shower and a bath filler.
The Bristan bath filler looks like a slightly bigger pop-up waste, and combines in one device pop-up waste control, overflow and water inlet.
So, for a normal shower, set the diverter and turn on the shower.
We went for the Raindance Unica. This site sold us on it, and we are very pleased with the result
If, having luxuriated in the bath, you want to rinse the shampoo out of your hair, select the pencil shower, withdraw the hose out of the bath side, and away you go. It is also handy for bath cleaning.
It took a bit to convince the installers that what I wanted was feasible, and even then I had to produce a piping diagram and personally supervise every step.
The end result works well, just as we had hoped. If I have any technical gripe, it is that the diverter does not completely seal off the unselected outputs, so they can drip a little when not wanted, but this is not a big problem.
There are equivalents to the parts we used available from a number of other manufacturers, but this is clearly not yet a mainstream solution.
Chris
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