I am finishing off my bathroom replacement project and am about to fit a new bath side panel. It is a cheapo white plastic 1.7m panel.
The panel is 3cm too wide (floor to bath lip). Given that I intend to silicone all round the panel after fitting, I am going to trim off the excess width. Is this too much width to trim off neatly? If not, would a hacksaw be OK for trimming? Or a conventional saw. Or a jigsaw?
Bruce
I cannot answer the cutting part but last week I was working in a hotel and the fitter did just what you are proposing to do but then glued the offcut to the back of the panel to add some stability as he said the corners made the strength.
Adam
They are very flimsy, and very difficult to hold firmly enough to use any sort of reciprocating saw. I personally would use a bench-mounted circular saw.
Are you sure that can't raise the bath by 3cm?
No. I've attached the bath to the wall with brackets and tiled over. Also, I've fitted additional timber supports under the bath to give it more stability. The bath is nice and stable. It's just at the wrong height...
I put the bath in at the same height as the old one. That bath had a custom panel made from tongue and groove. maybe I ought to try something similar using internal cladding.
Bruce
Hasa been suggested,whats wrong with raising the panel side of the bath 3cm? its not a lot and saves the aggro of trying to get a clean cut edge on the plastic. If you don't want this? run a fine blade circular saw along the floor to cut a 3cm channel so that panel slots down into it and then be secured via the under rim of the bath fixings.
Tin Snips if its the flimsy thickness panel type?
Almost anything is better than the flimsy plastic panels which seem to be supplied with budget bathroom suites.
Truly dreadful things, those panels. Should be made illegal. I don't think I've ever fitted one where it hasn't ended up being a bit of a dog's breakfast. There's usually a flat region at the bottom edge which can be cut back to suit without buggering up the panel shape and its ribbing, but it's the sides which I find give more grief. Fine if the bath fits neatly into an alcove or something, but otherwise really awkward if you're boxing in alongside.
Last one I did I used vertical T&G boarding, attached to a timber frame, and it extended beyond the bath and looked far neater.
David
I was going to say that you have to fit the bath to suit the panel.
Use a pair of tinsnips.
Agreed 100%. Bloody awful things
Agreed 100% again.
I clamped 2 bits of wood to my panel to add some stiffness and then just planed the excess off. Mine was about 2 cm to large but the plane did it in a matter or minutes and you wouldn't have known it had been reduced in size.
Steven.
I do not recommend that you silicone all round the panel. A professional plumber did that in my son's bathroom, when the bath sank a little, as they do, the panel split, also sooner or later you will need to get under the bath. These panels normally slot under the bath, mine I held on with velcro, my daughters I held on with magnets, with iron pads fixed onto the panel.
Doesn't water get under the bottom of the panel if you don't silicone it? Bruce
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