Show us yer house and house-related meddlings
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Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
obviously it's entirely up to you how you spend your money, and whether you want the hassle of not having a functioning bathroom for however long it takes, but just a few alternative thoughts-
i've had a shower curtain rail up for 20 years (it was here when i got here) and it's a telescopic one, and it's never fallen down. but this seems a minor component.
while i'm not a plumber, the issue with the bog sounds like some small part within the cistern is broken or not working so it's either not filling or not flushing properly. could be as simple as a part costing a few quid that's needed rather than replacing the whole thing.
also, there seems to be a fashion for hiding the cistern and plumbing behind tiling, but i can't help thinking that will make any future repairs a damn sight more complicated and expensive.
cleaning / replacing the grouting on the tiles and replacing the seal round the bath will make quite a difference. (i haven't quite got round to it with mine - did see an advert for a local firm who does such things, but then covid happened)
not sure how easy it's going to be to strip paint off the ceiling if it's under recent coats of paint. sounds like the whole heating / ventilating issue wants sorting first.
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
Aye, if I had a few hundred quid I could redo bathroom suite and the basics - but even with fairly cheap suite it all adds up - we cannot do the plumbing ourselves so that would be on top, I could do tiling - and our tiles do need replacing*. But if I was going to replace everything I'd also want a plasterer to come and skim the walls and ceiling (it's like really really thick textured finish on our bathroom walls, I can actually make out a profile of fucking Maggie Thatcher in the texture of the thing which does not make for a relaxing soak in the tub), and I'd need an extractor fan put in (don't have one and hence condensation issues and constantly having to open and close the window and wash everything with vinegar every so often).
So I reckon I'd be looking at £1.5k outlay even with a cheap suite and doing everything but the plumbing and plastering myself...
*(The loo, which is in a separate room, is worse - I think the previous occupants ripped off tiles in that room and took half of the plaster off with the tiles, then slapped some knotty pine tongue and groove onto the bottom portion of the walls and left it unfinished - I can see the plaster behind it is hacked off and it is just a cover-up job, and the skirting board is just a nailed on piece of wood with massive gaps between skirting and panelling - I either need to rip that all out and get the walls replastered so I can tile it, or caulk (I estimate 3 tubes of caulk) and prime and paint all the panelling and pull off and replace the skirting - I mean I can do that no probs - just buying caulk and a decent wood primer is a lot of expenditure for me right now! I start thinking about doing something about it then just get depressed because the costs start adding up and I feel overwhelmed).
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WouldBe
Dislicksick
Wasn't sure if you could afford it from what you've said previously. I just put it up as a basic price for anyone that was interested.
Portland suite is a standard for Wickes and they always have it in. So it would be possible to do your loo and bathroom separately and still have a matching suite even though it wouldn't be obvious with them being separate rooms.
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Re. ceilings.
Our old bathroom ceiling had a very odd covering - almost like a sheet of Fablon or something. It looked very dated but O boy it kept the mould away. When the bathroom fitters came round, I asked what it was and if there was anything similar available. They had no idea what it was.
They recommended acrylic panels, which we went with. IMHO if you have a bathroom prone to condensation and therefore mould, a painted ceiling is just going to go mouldy, and the mould will stain and be hard to wipe off.
You have to make sure you don't create a situation where condensation and mould happens behind or around the panelling instead though.
You can get insulated tile backer board:
Wet Rooms - Wetrooms Online: The UK's Wetroom Experts
Wet Rooms - Wetrooms Online: The UK's Wetroom Experts. Wet room shower trays, tanking kits, shower screens, underfloor heating, tile backer board & more.
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which is one way to keep the temperature of the surface as high as possible, whilst also allowing you to put a water resistant finish like tiles on. Certainly better than "bathroom paint".
As others have said, sorting out ventilation is crucial. Spend the money on an over-specced extract fan, and one that runs on a humidistat rather than just on a timer with the light. It needs to come on as soon as there is humidity in the air, it needs to have enough power to get it out of the room ASAP, and it needs to continue running until the humidity has dropped again.
Bathroom extracts are often installed badly, and get blocked up with stuff over time, to the extent where they are hardly moving any air. Another thing to keep an eye on is where the replacement air comes from. If the bathroom door doesn't really have any gap under it when closed, for example, then the fan will be fighting against a lot of resistance and creating a mild vacuum in the room rather than actually shifting a large volume of air. Sometimes it might be worth putting some kind of vent between hallway (or whatever's outside the bathroom) and the bathroom. Ideally you want to get the bathroom air out, and replace it with dry, warm air from the body of the house (actually ideally you want a heat exchanger system but that's another story).
Asking how much a bathroom costs is the proverbial length of string. You can get a whole bathroom suite for less than £1000 or you can spend more than that on a single shower tray. You can do the work yourself or you can find the most expensive specialists.
Either way, £8000 for a small bathroom should get you as much luxury as you could reasonably want.
Given that you have the budget, I would recommend hiring some people you can really trust who truly know what they are doing.
How you do that locally, I can’t tell you. Do you have any specialist bathroom shops that don’t sell just the cheapest possible stuff and can assist with design and implementation? That’s no guarantee that they’ll be any good but it does give you a chance to talk to them to assess how much you trust them and see other work they’ve done. When we did a major rebuild, that’s what we did to choose our stuff and help design it (because we were kind of starting from scratch). The building company doing the rest of the house did the installation but to be honest, I wish I’d got the specialists to do the bathroom. I think their experience would have helped avoid some minor cock-ups.
Either way, £8000 for a small bathroom should get you as much luxury as you could reasonably want.
Given that you have the budget, I would recommend hiring some people you can really trust who truly know what they are doing.
How you do that locally, I can’t tell you. Do you have any specialist bathroom shops that don’t sell just the cheapest possible stuff and can assist with design and implementation? That’s no guarantee that they’ll be any good but it does give you a chance to talk to them to assess how much you trust them and see other work they’ve done. When we did a major rebuild, that’s what we did to choose our stuff and help design it (because we were kind of starting from scratch). The building company doing the rest of the house did the installation but to be honest, I wish I’d got the specialists to do the bathroom. I think their experience would have helped avoid some minor cock-ups.
By the way, I can recommend that if you don’t want to go down the cheapest route (but also far, far from the most expensive!), St. James do really high quality taps, bath mixers and shower units that just have a really great, solid feel. Expect to spend a few hundred quid on a mixer, rather than £50, though. As always, what you spend comes down to your personal circumstances.
I guess for me it's the context of the house, I wouldn't spend 8k on a luxurious bathroom that is small and in a modest and ordinary house. That being said, I love so many tiles out there, if I could afford it, maybe I could easily go a bit mad, although how on earth do you make decisions when there's so many beautiful things to choose from?
I'm now looking at our bathroom and seeing all its faults, it would be nice to spend some money on more than Wickes's cheapest. It's not a priority though, at least it's light, which makes up for a lot.
Edie I do think as you've saved, you should allow yourself the pleasure of some luxury.
I'm now looking at our bathroom and seeing all its faults, it would be nice to spend some money on more than Wickes's cheapest. It's not a priority though, at least it's light, which makes up for a lot.
Edie I do think as you've saved, you should allow yourself the pleasure of some luxury.
Well for me (and that was what I was talking about) it would be about what I can spend on the rest of the house, rooms ( or garden ) that are more important to me than a bathroom. If the rest of the house was good and I'd saved up especially for a bathroom, then that's different. But I don't spend much time in my bathroom, I don't care if it's luxury, whereas a plywood kitchen in our 60s house would be really great.
Do you have loads of nails in yours? I did this years ago but just painted the step bit as I can't get the nails out on the tread bit (if that makes sense, haven't google correct terms) , I think they're from the carpet rather than holding the stairs together.
They could do with some proper fixing, there's a couple with cracks and they're noisy. And I'm not sure as a terrace with thin walls whether we should cover them anyway so they're less noisy.
Does anyone know, is this general carpentry? We also need a couple of floorboards replacing.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
I have Wilko's version of this for removing upholstery tacks, but it will only work with tacks which have heads rather than nails which go right into the wood. Use with a hammer.
danski
"vibey"
Much the same but this will get nails out without heads. The points dig in to grip the nail lower down.
I have Wilko's version of this for removing upholstery tacks, but it will only work with tacks which have heads rather than nails which go right into the wood. Use with a hammer.
Cat’s paw
They're actually a Birmingham company, which is nice to see, its good that good things are still made around here.
miss direct
misfungled
I'm back in my flat and really want to get it sorted but don't know where and how to begin. The main thing is getting the boiler on. It just flashes an error message.
Should I have a go at fiddling with it (the seller's brother explained what to do and I have a video of that somewhere) myself? Or call a gas person to come? Who do I call? I'm dreading being told I need a new boiler.
Dripping kitchen tap is a problem too. Noisy and a waste. Can I fix that myself?
Need TV put up on wall rather than resting precariously on a stool. Can I do that myself? Bear in mind I have no tools or abilities.
Just want to have a nice home..
Should I have a go at fiddling with it (the seller's brother explained what to do and I have a video of that somewhere) myself? Or call a gas person to come? Who do I call? I'm dreading being told I need a new boiler.
Dripping kitchen tap is a problem too. Noisy and a waste. Can I fix that myself?
Need TV put up on wall rather than resting precariously on a stool. Can I do that myself? Bear in mind I have no tools or abilities.
Just want to have a nice home..
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Have you got the manual for the boiler? If not, you can download it from the manufacturer's website to find out what the error message means. It's often just that it needs refilling, so you add a bit more water to get the pressure back up, pretty straighforward to do.
Did the previous owners get it serviced in the end? If it hasn't been done, probably best to do so. And get the plumber to look at the tap while he is there.
Re the TV, you are now a home owner and need to buy a drill and get to it...
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Good point.
My best and totally amateur guess as to why your boiler is flashing an error message — a guess based on no information other than why mine typically flashes an error message —is that it needs repressurising. Have a look for YouTube videos based on that.
I would say that the dripping tap is relatively easy to sort. Might just need new washers.
Putting a telly on the wall is a 2 person job..imo. speaking as a small person..
Gas boiler problems...ALWAYS get in a registered gas boiler person. Gas is too dangerous to mess with.
miss direct
misfungled
Thanks, couldn't find it on my phone
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
miss direct I recommend resetting it first, sometimes it's just a blip and needs it. Then before putting it on, check the pressure reading. You should be looking at about 1bar of pressure before operation starts. There should be a refill loop under the boiler, open the small tap and keep an eye on the pressure gauge. Turn the tap off when it reaches about 1bar.
If the former owners did not get a service within the past 12 months, you should arrange for it to be serviced. You may remember the lengthy discussion around this point at the time. You may wish to keep repair costs down by looking for a policy from eg British gas or similar companies.
If the former owners did not get a service within the past 12 months, you should arrange for it to be serviced. You may remember the lengthy discussion around this point at the time. You may wish to keep repair costs down by looking for a policy from eg British gas or similar companies.
miss direct
misfungled
In the meantime, I had a shower today and the kitchen was all wet as the ceiling was leaking. So I've booked a plumber to come tomorrow, he can fix the dripping tap too. Maybe he knows about boilers as well, with any luck
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Some plumbers don’t do gas and vice versa, hopefully he’ll have a reliable mate he can recommend if not (and think of any other jobs he can do while he’s there).In the meantime, I had a shower today and the kitchen was all wet as the ceiling was leaking. So I've booked a plumber to come tomorrow, he can fix the dripping tap too. Maybe he knows about boilers as well, with any luck
Epona
Sonic: 1 Nov 2006 - 8 Jan 2022
In the meantime, I had a shower today and the kitchen was all wet as the ceiling was leaking. So I've booked a plumber to come tomorrow, he can fix the dripping tap too. Maybe he knows about boilers as well, with any luck
What Elpenor said - if you are getting a plumber out, check your stopcock and if it is done up too tight to move get him to sort it - kind of important that you are able to turn it off in an emergency and it's a good sort of "while you're here" job if it needs attending to.
