Just having a poke around before starting our bathroom refit we have a radiator that I am changing for a chrome towel rail looking at how to get access to pipes and it seemed the floor is blockboard - bad enough but start cutting to gain access and after the 18mm blockboard is a 2 inch layer of blue foam then beneath that it is solid concrete - arghhhh a simple job has got a whole load harder. How do I get access to pipes to change over to chrome and how the hell am I going to fit a shower tray onto this floor as nice as it is that its solid and going nowhere how do I get a trap in this? we need the tray to fit straight to the floor not up on stilts.
Have a look at: http://www.impeyshowers.com/luxury-...ed-gravity-drainage/slimline-waste-dss7h.aspx - there are some very shallow traps around. Consider the towel rail carefully - a radiator pushes out heat to warm the room a towel rail normally does just enough to dry the towels. You can get towel rails that are really radiators that hold towels so you get both heating and drying. A can send you a link to one company that makes some very nice "towel rails".
Trouble is we have bought 90% of the gear we need already, nice shallow 25mm shower tray, last thing I want is put it on stilts. Did some research on the rad and it showed we need 1200 btu for the bathroom so have gone to 1600 to compensate but again it is already bought and awaiting fitting. The pipes are at the perfect distance apart and I was intending to put in chrome pipe but am tempted now to put just the chrome covers on, would save having to cut out floor but the pipes are not far enough from skirting so still need moving out away from wall. What is this set up, some kind of heat insulation thing going on here, I,ve worked in many different houses and never seen this, I know it's made a relatively eay job much harder. Am I breaking out the sds breaker ?
You could try putting a shallow trap on the shower base. As it is, you have almost 3 inches to play with. Surely that's enough to route the pipework to outside? If you tiled the whole bathroom floor (including under the shower tray) you'd gain almost another half inch too.
Yep true I can dig it out and I'm sure could make it fit but all the waste pipes are run in the bathroom and in boxing along one wall - all above the floor level. So if I cut into concrete floor I will be asking my shower waste to travel up hill. Can't get to anything as once it disappears under the concrete it's gone forever.
We also don't have normal drains here, nothing shows on the outside of the house must all be underground, all the drainpipes come off the roof and disappear into ground- no drain that's visible. So even though I'm close to an outside wall if I take the waste out of that wall there's no drain to point it at.
So, go for an Impey DSS2 which is very shallow at a total thickness of 33mm http://www.impeyshowers.com/luxury-.../tiled-floor-gully-for-pumped-waste-dss2.aspx and then fit an Impey DryDeck pump http://www.impeyshowers.com/luxury-wetrooms/drainage/pumped-drainage/dry-deck-20.aspx
Hmmm that is a solution but £1000 to take the place of £3 waste pipe is a bit of an expensive option, there has to be others, doesn't there ?
Buy a riser kit...will raise tray 100mm, end of problem. Makes it easy to acces trap too. Regarding chrome pipe, you could use snap on chrome covers like you say, or chase pipes into wall and use corner trv's. Much neater and you'll only have a couple of inches of exposed copper which I'd def use snap on chrome. Finish off with a chrome pipe cover on the wall. Just take out a small section of floor and inulation, couple of elbows and pipe into the chases.
Ahh, just had a thought. You may find the floor flexes a bit due to the insulation which may cause leaks around the tray over time. I fitted a shower tray on a riser on a similar floor a couple of weeks back. This floor had a fair bit of movement. I marked on the floor where the legs went, hole sawed through to the concrete and filled with concrete. Job done!
NOoooooo your giving me more problems, really? I had thought about the floor possibly moving but it feels so solid under foot I had dismissed that, it is almost like polystyrene sitting on concrete and then 18mm block board on top of that. I thought this morning I was just gonna fit hardibacker and away I would go with my floor tiles. Now I have heating pipework I can't get to to change, a waste that won't drain if I fit it and now the possibility of a springy floor, what **** thought this was a good idea.
Having just done another bathroom that involved both towel rail and shower tray, here's my 2p. Put it on stilts/riser. I'd also go with CGN's idea if there is any flex. You could put another 18/25mm ply layer down on top to stiffen the floor, but if you can get back to concrete it sounds best. A modern shower needs a decent sized drain and a fall and water is never going to flow uphill no matter what. To have good access and enough space seems to me more important than having the tray lifted off the floor by 90-100mm. Again, following CGN's advice, If the radiator tails are coming out the concrete at the wrong centres, but you have a 2" foam layer to play with, you could turn 90 degrees using elbows to horizontal, and either use a small offset or loop round under the blockboard to get to the point where another 90 brings the tail end upwards at the correct centre. A multitool is a great way of cutting open access.
Well the centres on the pipework are bang on - no problem there the only problem is the pipe is painted copper and also butted right up against the skirting so the new rad will have no clearance from the wall and her indoors will only moan that you can't get a towel on the thing. Haven't measured how much sweep they would need but probably need to come out about 3 inches. As for the shower tray I really don't want to go with the stilts have been ages sourcing a slimline tray at just 25mm and want it to look nice and sleek, raising it up 4/5 inches isn't an option, if that's the only way to do this it can stay as is with a knackered old shower over a knackered old bath.
Rather than ply, use Hardie Floor - T&G which can be tiled straight onto. Available in 19 and 22 thick.
That's what we had, and believe me a 1200 x 760 shower (or whatever), even if raised up (and ours is), with a good flow is a joy, and SO much better than a shower over a bath...............
well missus reckons to raise it up - surprised me - I on the other hand cant bring myself to do it. Have the picture in my head now and it has to go flat to floor. So with that in mind I think I am going to have to pull up the block board, remove the 2 inches of blue foam down to concrete then build it back up. But while I'm down there will have to find a way to run a new waste into the stack at a lower level. Sounds easy if you say it fast.
Surely there must be something to empty a shower into though? Where does the bathroom sink empty into? There has to be a downpipe somewhere in/ outside the house? Could the waste pipework run in a channel cut into the 2" insulation so it reaches the outside?
You would think so - but no, if I get to the outside the nearest drainpipe is 5/6 metres away and that's uphill the other direction it's about 7/8 metres to the downpipe and it's around a corner on the other side of the house. at the moment the bath and basin waste both join onto one pipe which runs in boxing until it reaches the stack also in boxing but from what I can tell the stack turns straight down into the floor and out. Have had the manhole cover up and all drains run into that one chamber about 3/4 feet below ground.
Also as mentioned in an earlier post on closer inspection the floor being laid onto this foam insulation has quite a bit of bounce in it, I can't think of laying tiles onto it, or the tray for that matter. It will have to be removed and built back up. Anyone got ideas on best approach ? Thinking of getting back to concrete then laying 50mm timber at 16inch centres then ply, then hardibacker. Not sure if I would need a sealer of some kind on concrete.
Forums
Facebook
Twitter
You Tube
Instagram
Shop