Drip, drip, drip then drip, drip,drip, drip even more were the sounds I heard whilst sitting at my desk in the study. I looked up and watched a steady ‘stream’ of water pouring through the ceiling and thought “that’s shouldn’t happen!”.
I waited for Matt to finish his shower in the bathroom above and then did an inspection under the bath to find it was absolutely soaking wet, with the bath sealant the expected cause. On closer inspection though I discovered the water had actually penetrated the wall tiles, effectively allowing the full power of the shower to soak the wall behind, and subsequently my study.
I put an immediate ban on using the shower and after discussing with Tina, we agreed that a new dedicated shower was required, courtesy of my bonus.
The following weekend I ripped out the old bathroom units; the toilet and sink were built into a unit so were easy to remove although the bath was more awkward due to the size. But it didn’t take long and soon I had an empty room to contemplate the task ahead.
Plumbing and small building tasks don’t phase me; in fact I quite like getting stuck in but I did agree that the tiling should be done by a professional; for some reason I just can’t seem to put tiles up and make them look good.
The new bathroom (or shower room) would require the flooring to be replaced; the water damage had ‘blown’ the original chipboard and a false wall to be built to hide the on-suite pipework which was now visible now that the bath had been removed.
We agreed that we wanted a walk in shower; including a low profile tray and glass screen and the room fully tiled. Of course a new toilet and sink would also be required.
I firstly started on the false wall and soon had the new boarding hiding the pipework. Next was to lift the flooring. As I said earlier, some of the flooring was easy to lift as it was damaged and soon I had half the floor up exposing the beams and study ceiling.
And then came my first ‘Frank Spencer‘ moment!
As I was trying to lift part of the flooring my foot slipped and next thing I was sitting astride a beam with my feet in the study, with large chunks of plasterboard ceiling on the study floor. Oh how I laughed and oh how the dog barked 🙂 I put a brave face on the situation and deemed it was not all bad as the ceiling was shot anyhow due to the water damage. Still I knew I wouldn’t live it down when the family arrived home from work and they certainly took the piss as expected.
I ploughed on with the task in hand and decided that in order to help get the remaining flooring up I would need some power tools. I did some online research and eventually decided that I needed a reciprocating saw, which I duly bought the following day from my what was becoming my favourite DIY store, Screwfix Direct.
When I got my new ‘toy’ to work I was impressed and wondered how I’d even managed to do DIY without one; It cut through the flooring like butter. But it also cut through one of the ring mains circuits under the flooring as well plundering the house in darkness, after firstly creating a large electrical flash 🙂 A quick repair got the power back on; not before the family started to wonder if I really knew what I was doing. Of course I was not deterred and put it down to ‘slight mishaps’ and part of the DIY experience.
Since those two incidents things have gone pretty straightforward and in fact, considering what could go wrong, I’ve been pretty lucky. The toilet and new basin went in without a hitch and the shower install is progressing well.
- Lovely new toilet and basin with boxed in soil pipe (pleased with my handy work too)
- Shower tray installed (being weighted down by my tools to help with gluing the tray to the floor)
- Should be able to start ceiling the walls ready for the tiler soon
- I remembered to poke the shower control wire through before finishing the false wall
I’ll post some pictures of the new bathroom once it’s completed…assuming I don’t manage to flood the place!