Cath's Bathroom Weblog

ooops

cathbathroom — Sat, 24 May 2008 18:52:51 +0000

Didnt get much bathroom stuff done today. Did fit the shower doors. It was such a nice day I made a frame for linda to put her corks in for a noticeboard instead!

I have a target!

cathbathroom — Sat, 24 May 2008 06:39:15 +0000

Im aiming to get going on the bathroom again. There is no progress in getting a refund for the shower so we will just have to go with it and do our best to plug the holes with silicon.

On the positive side, the wall panels have arrived and look great Im really happy with them just a bit woried that the change in design near the toilet will mean I’ve not ordered enough panels. Will try it and see. Going to talk to the lino shop before I do the panels to see how far down I need to go. Might end an inch or so up and get the lino man to flick the flooring up the wall a little.

Also good news is that the tap people have sent me a new valve to stop the dripping tap so need to try that this weekend.

OK so whats the target? Its to finish the bathroom before we go to France.

Gary thinks thats a bit ambitious.

Back at school

cathbathroom — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:42:40 +0000

Back at school. have written 60 reports and become qualified to take pupils out on mountain bikes. Not opened the bathroom door in a week or more!

Still trying to get money back from Douglas James for the shower. Still getting the run-around.

Wall panels still not arrived yet. Probably just as well since I have 8000 word essay due in on 1st May. Better get it started. Bathroom will still be there on 2nd May!

Communication with Douglas James

cathbathroom — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:08:55 +0000

We had a phonecall at around 9.30am from the MD of Douglas James. We were out so called back after school. Gary spoke to Heather and she said she would call back. She didn’t.

Especially for Douglas James- a video of Easyfit Shower!

cathbathroom — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:26:50 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_os4NkwoYT4

The shower company wanted photos and an email so I made them a video as well. Still tying to get money back. Went to aikido tonight so no diy.

Day 17

cathbathroom — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:13:42 +0000

Last day of holiday was spent tidying the house and cleaning! I was tempted to fit the toilet as there is not much to do to get it in but decided to have a day off.

Back to work tomorrow

Day 16

cathbathroom — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:00:48 +0000

More “Easyfit‘ or even easy to fit shower hassle. This morning we lifted on the fixed glass side panels of the shower. We had to screw through an L-shaped bracket into the shower walls. We did this but the screws were really hard to put in so it took ages. Gaz went and bought a new screwdriver but still no easier. After 3 hours the sides were up and we had to drill and screw the glass to the brackets. This we did. Filling the shower with bits of metal. I hoovered them out of the shower and wondered if they included hoovering out the metal shards in the one hour fit time? We had been meticulously putting silicon behind each screw head as directed in the instructions but when we had the fixed panels up I lost all faith in the shower as I spotted a problem.

There was a gap. All the way from the inside to the outside. I cried again. Gaz demonstrated the enormity of the problem by putting a screwdriver in the gap.

It has this massive gap on both sides. I know it says seal with silicon but sealing something that big with silicon is just a bodge job. I paid a lot for this shower I dont want to fill it with silicon in the hope it might be watertight for a couple of weeks. In addition to this it is generally bad quality with plasticky feeling fittings.

Then we tried to fit the covering strip over the screws on the inside of the shower. It was the final straw. It rattles and bulges out in places. Even if I fill it with silicon it looks rubbish. Its just bad. All bad.

This afternoon in contrast was spent fitting the Grohe toilet. You could say from the rediculous to the sublime! Everything I needed for fitting the toilet was in the box. The quality is great. Now I know it would be unfair to judge a countries manufacturing from just two products but lets just say the shower is English and the toilet is German. The shower is rubbish the toilet is great.

Should finish fitting the toilet tomorrow and on Monday the shower company are getting a phone call.

Day 15 Easyfit shower!!

cathbathroom — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:02:56 +0000

“Imagine a shower that never leaks. Imagine a shower that requires little cleaning. Imagine all this in a shower that can be installed in one hour. Douglas James has made your imagination a reality with the new Easyfit range of shower Cubicles exclusive to Victoriaplumb.com.” this is a direct quote from their website.

Installed in one hour!!!!! they are having a laugh. This has been by far the worst day of the entire bathroom project. I thought the shower would be “easy fit” how stupid of me! Getting it into the bathroom was difficult enough but installing it well…its be a whole days work and still no shower doors installed. The tray is in with the panels and it is plumbed for water and waste. The strips that hold it to the wall went cut to size or drilled for that matter so we had to measure, cut and drill …hardly “easy fit – why don’t they do it for you? And one of the covers for the strip just falls off. Fab. Then there was adjusting it to give more than 40 degrees – that took an hour. The shower doors are just standard shower doors not special for this pod and nothing is pre-drilled or marked. Basically you get a set of shower doors and have to make them fit a fibre-glass back. The instructions are for fitting to a wall with tiles. You have to silicon bits together and the pilot holes are too small making it really hard to screw into them. The whole shower is quite disappointment. Its not even good quality stuff. The shower valve is made from plastic and wobbles giving it a cheap plasticy feel. I wouldn’t buy one again. I should have bought the mermaid panels and just installed a normal tray and doors. It would have been easier. I have fitted whole showers cheaper, with much less stress and in less time with a better finish than this one. I cried a lot today

Day 14

cathbathroom — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:21:13 +0000

The forecast was right! It was hot here today (18.5) so I got up and sanded the plaster then painted the ceiling and dodgey wall paper. I also cut the pipes to give a hot and cold water feed to the shower and installed the service valves.

Then I went for a picnic. We went cycling from Dinnet to the Cambus O May and had dinner on the other side. When we got back I did a second coat of paint and attempted to install the waste pipe for the shower. Unfortunately the easy install everything you need in to install your shower does not include a trap or plug. We had to drive to Banchory to buy a shower trap. Then I cut a hole in the wall for the waste and found 3 22mm pipes running along the wall. I had no option but to put the waste under them. I think it is too low and wont run properly. Over them out have been higher than the shower plug so I guess I will just give it a go.

When Gaz got back from running we tried to cary the shower back panel up the stairs. It was a real struggle to get it through the door and it is a really wide door! I tried to lift it up the stairs but had in the back of my mind what happened with the shower tray so as soon as I got into difficulty I was sensible (first time in my life?) and called Stew. He is coming round 9.30 tomorrow to help lift it up the stairs.

Plus point is that the extractor fan is looking good.

Day 13

cathbathroom — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:31:28 +0000

Only 3 hours of sleep last night so I thought it could be another productive day. The shower was delivered at 8am. It was too big to fit through to door so we had to take it apart outside. The base is heavy but the sides are just awkward.

Soon after that Gary took children to Landmark and I tried to carry the shower base upstairs. I knew it was heavy but I thought it would be ok. It wasn’t ok and I nearly passed out on the stairs so I abandoned it half way up. Stew arrived soon after and carried it up the rest of the stairs for me.

Spent the morning chatting to Stew so not very productive in bathroom terms. When he left I figured out the inside of the new cistern. It has internal overflow- not seen one of those before and it had me confused for a while. I swapped the sides over so it will fill from the side closest to the wall. I tried to figure out how to attach the toilet to the frame, think I understand now but needed Gaz to check the hold the frame whilst I checked the height so I started thinking about the frame.

Originally there was to be a frame and plasterboard kind of new wall but the duct for the extractor went out through the loft. I never thought we would be luck enough to be able to do that. When I saw the size of the shower tray in the room I decided to modify the bathroom design and put the shower further back with only a frame behind the shower and toilet. This means more dodgey wallpaper to paint out and i had to remove more pine cladding.

I did get the frame for behind the shower built this afternoon. I also got a bit of plaster board on it and did a spot more plastering.

The new frame is not wonkey but looks it in front of the old boiler cuboard frame that I was too lazy to take down. You wont see any of it with the shower in place.

The shower sides are still in the porch and they take up so much room I will have to get it fitted asap.

Would like to say I will paint the ceiling and install the shower tomorrow but the forecast is really good. I might just have to go out cycling.