Laminate floor & Bathrooms

"Jason Pearce" wrote | About to assist sister-in-law refit her bathroom. | They have purchased laminate flooring (suitable for bathrooms). | Would people suggest : | a. remove old toilet & pedastal sink, fit laminate flooring, | fit new toilet & sink over new laminate floor | or | b. remove old toilet & pedastal sink, fit new toilet & sink, | fit new laminate floor by cutting round sink & toilet ?

a. -- especially as you are having new sanitaryware, there is no extra work. The only drawback is the sanitaryware has to come out when the laminate needs replacing.

You also probably want to remove the skirtings, put the floor under them leaving the mandatory gap between the edge and the wall, then replace the skirtings and put a bead of clear silicone between the floor and the skirting.

Owain

A is a *lot* less work. With B you end up scribing as best you can the laminate to the shape of the pedistal then useing a roughly similar coloured filler to fill the gap. It takes hours and is difficult to keep clean and looks amateurish.

On the other hand your supposed to allow floating floors to find their own level on the underfelt, the weight of the pedistals will push the floor down so it wont look flat. Also you will never have access to the floor void beneath the bathroom again without doing all that plumbing again.

"Mary Fisher" wrote | > ... put a bead of clear silicone between the floor and | > the skirting. | Why?

The solicone will be flexible enough to accommodate the floor expanding (and almost invisible), but will help to prevent puddles disappearing under the skirting and getting under the floor.

Owain

Position the pedestal on the join between two strips of laminate, mark it and cut 5mm inside so the edge of the laminate is covered by the pedestal. Measure the thickness of the laminate + underlay, and cut a piece of board a fraction thicker, using the waste laminate that you already cut out as a template. Fit the pedestal on top of this shim and seal the join between pedestal and laminate.

Oh, sorry! The talk had been of WC pedestals and I imagined our set up - of a lavatory separate from the bathroom.

Mind you, even in our bathroom water never gets as far as the walls ... I do wonder what people get up to. When our messy and uncontrolledchildren were at home we never had water on the floor to such a depth as to need preventing from getting under the tiles. And we still don't!

And what do you do about the gap underthe door?

Mary

"Mary Fisher" wrote | Mind you, even in our bathroom water never gets as far | as the walls ... I do wonder what people get up to.

I'm not at all whale-like, but I seem to displace a small tsunami when I lean back in the bath.

| And what do you do about the gap underthe door?

In yours of all houses, don't you have a sausage-dog across the bottom of the door?

Owain

Fit a raised threshold.

...

I'm sure you must be joking! The idea of a raised threshold under avery door in the house to stop water ingress/egress ...?

Mary

Only the bathroom (well, maybe wherever you have appliances that use water).

Okay, I admit it - I wasn't serious.

I've had a couple of times when a washing machine couldn't hold onto its intake but the water didn't hang about and didn't reach the door - 6' away.

We had a lovely clean floor for days afterwards :-)

I see, right.

:-)