Ground floor toilet refurb - mk 2... I now have a proper 110mm drainage pipe for the downstairs toilet, so I can do away with the macerator. However, rather than just another lick of paint and a bit of boxing in, I decided to do the room properly. The first stage was to take the room back to brick and take out the old stud wall. Before I took the plaster off, I opened the chases for the old wiring. Run in safe zones of course! Then back to brick: Found a redundant lead pipe running down the corner of the wall, as well as the main stopcock. Discovered the old porthole window too: Took out the old stud wall, toilet got a lot bigger then! Left with quite a pile of mess: Then I cut out the stopcock and threw some push fit in below, as a temporary measure.
This was the temporary main water feed, so I could remove the stopcock. Really like Screwfix's copper push fits, they are perfect for this kind of bodge work. This was what came out after some persuasion. Interesting design... It was buried in the plaster, with just the handle on show.
I put up the stud wall, and boarded it with 18mm plywood. The reason for this will be clear later. The wall against the hallway required quite a bit of work. I needed to install an extractor, but the once external wall now faces into the new dining room. Don't fancy eating dinner with those fumes... I took the plasterboard off the inside face, and cut out two noggins. I then installed some spare 12mm plasterboard against the other side, to 'pack out' the wall. Cut a light switch in - dry lining box and used 3C&E cable. Then was onto the ducting. I installed 54 by 110 flat duct, using a round adaptor to face into the room. There's a 45 angle so the duct wouldn't interfere with the light switch placement. There's some more spare timber installed, a batten to keep the plasterboard flat, as it can't be fixed in the corner. It drops out through the floor, into the cellar, where I will deal with it later on.
Unfortunately it doesn't. When the house was built, it was an external window, which is now part of the extension. Nothing worth smashing through! However useful it may be that you can eat your dinner while looking at someone on the toilet, it didn't appeal to me...
The more I look at it, the more I'd be tempted to make it a feature. Block off the back of it - for reasons of modesty - but remove the filling from the bathroom side to leave a circular recess. Leave the immediately surrounding bricks exposed, and apply plaster to the rest of the wall. It's, like, part of the house, man. Yer bleedin' 'istory, innit? Or not.
I'd clean the wedge bricks up, board the wall bar the circle, paint the bricks a contrasting colour to the rest of the room, and get a glass manufacturer to make a mirror to fit the inner circle.
Erm, while that might be quite a nice idea, the room is already finished and in use... The idea of leaving the brick exposed didn't even cross my mind.
'First Fix' Electric: One 1mm cable chased up the wall. Pushed the cable though the capping from below, and left the drum in the cellar, so I could take as much as I need later on. The wiring will all be terminated on the back of the stud wall, in a Wiska box. Plumbing: Made four chases, one deep one for the solvent weld 32mm waste pipe. The waste pipe has two 45's on the bottom to make the run less noisy and reduce the chance of anything collecting there. The second chase has the hot and cold feed for the basin. I used Buteline's 'tap connector' fittings so I could attach the mixer tap flexi's straight on.Isolation is handled elsewhere. The last two chases are for the rad, I'm using the one that was in there before. This rad will follow the style of hidden pipework too. I wanted the rad to be tight to the wall, and because of the chases, it made finding fixings difficult. I installed the rad brackets here. Then I boarded the lower part of this wall. My thinking was that if I needed some adjustment in the pipework, I would be able to do so with minimal damage, and not have to rip the chases open again. I also patched up some old holes with sand and cement, to make it easier when plastering. The rest of the brick will have bonding applied directly to it, and then multifinish over the whole lot.
That's somthing I regret about the kitchen build. I was so set on speeding through everything, I didn't get a chance to stop and consider what would help the next job. It's slowed the time to finish the build.
Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents **** Poor Performance All looks good Joe, some hours of work has gone into this.
Onto the plastering. Boarding: Threw in some sound insulation I had left over from another job, Then rough cut the vent hole out of the top of this wall, Then the plywood door, Bonding on the brick: Used 2 bags of bonding, left a smooth finish to make it easier to apply multifinish.
Multifinish Used my new Refina Superflex trowel, lovely trowel, makes it much easier to get a smooth finish. The day after I plastered, I went back over the wall with easi-fill. I used two 25KG bags of multifinish, and two 1KG bags of easi-fill. There were quite a few inperfections on the brick side, but after filling and sanding, the wall was completely flat and smooth. Mist Coat And Snow! It covers the bald patch on the lawn! Very little grass has grown back since I stopped working outside.
Too cold for grass to grow, won't start until March onwards, might need to reseed. And that mist coat will show any imperfections, so you'll need a second coat.