Contractor conundrum - Wetrooms
Discussion
Morning folks, I'm hoping there are a few experienced plumbers/joiners on here to give me some advice in picking between two contractors tendering for the job of turning my old bathroom into a luxurious wetroom. Apologies for any misused terms as I'm not hugely up on either construction or plumbing. But any advice or insights would be hugely appreciated.
Current situation:
20 year old kit house, wooden construction, wooden floor joists etc. 6' by 6' bathroom with small ledge along back hiding pipework and a corner box section hiding the waste gases vent pipework. We want a heated tiled floor and wetroom constructed.
First contractor is a building company that does everything from full houses to extensions etc to bathrooms and kitchens. They are proposing.
Taking up floor and replacing + sinking joists with doubled or at least strengthening existing ones
A silvered layer to reflect heat
A 3/4" concrete layer to provide support for tiling
Heating elements layer for under floor heating
Bury as much of the piping in the walls and floor to remove shelf/box section
Bore hole outside and redirect waste gas vent up the side of the house
We purchase all the bathroom fixtures, fittings, glass panels and tiles. Which I don't have a problem with.
Second contractor is a plumber that I have used in previous properties for boilers and minor bathroom work in the past. He's proposing
Sinking a preformed shower tub into floor and tiling over that
Adding heated towel rail instead of underfloor heating.
He supplies all fixtures fittings and tiles etc (was part of the quote)
Really my questions are this;
Does the work that the building contractor is offering to do likely to support and be able to maintain a stable (and waterproof!!) platform for the tiling to sit on?
Is redirecting the waste gases pipe feasable?
How likely is it that they could really sink most of the pipework into the walls as opposed to hidden by box sections?
The plumber who i trust for a reasonable price is telling me that he wouldnt do what were asking, but proposed a solution. Problem is it's a: not a wet room and b: doesnt have underfloor heating due to his concerns.
The builder seems to promise a lot but all depends on whether he can deliver the finished product.
Can anyone offer me some advice or some questions that I could ask to clarify further? This is the first time I've had anyone in to do a job this major.
Much appreciated
Rich.
Current situation:
20 year old kit house, wooden construction, wooden floor joists etc. 6' by 6' bathroom with small ledge along back hiding pipework and a corner box section hiding the waste gases vent pipework. We want a heated tiled floor and wetroom constructed.
First contractor is a building company that does everything from full houses to extensions etc to bathrooms and kitchens. They are proposing.
Taking up floor and replacing + sinking joists with doubled or at least strengthening existing ones
A silvered layer to reflect heat
A 3/4" concrete layer to provide support for tiling
Heating elements layer for under floor heating
Bury as much of the piping in the walls and floor to remove shelf/box section
Bore hole outside and redirect waste gas vent up the side of the house
We purchase all the bathroom fixtures, fittings, glass panels and tiles. Which I don't have a problem with.
Second contractor is a plumber that I have used in previous properties for boilers and minor bathroom work in the past. He's proposing
Sinking a preformed shower tub into floor and tiling over that
Adding heated towel rail instead of underfloor heating.
He supplies all fixtures fittings and tiles etc (was part of the quote)
Really my questions are this;
Does the work that the building contractor is offering to do likely to support and be able to maintain a stable (and waterproof!!) platform for the tiling to sit on?
Is redirecting the waste gases pipe feasable?
How likely is it that they could really sink most of the pipework into the walls as opposed to hidden by box sections?
The plumber who i trust for a reasonable price is telling me that he wouldnt do what were asking, but proposed a solution. Problem is it's a: not a wet room and b: doesnt have underfloor heating due to his concerns.
The builder seems to promise a lot but all depends on whether he can deliver the finished product.
Can anyone offer me some advice or some questions that I could ask to clarify further? This is the first time I've had anyone in to do a job this major.
Much appreciated
Rich.
Given that the house is well insulated, and the room is only 6ft x 6ft. I would have thought that a decent heated towel rail would warm it up enough for the 15mins a day that your likely to spend in there. It has the added benefits of warming and drying your towels
The relatively enormous cost of installing the underfloor heating system seems to make no sense for such a small room
The relatively enormous cost of installing the underfloor heating system seems to make no sense for such a small room
sparkythecat said:
Given that the house is well insulated, and the room is only 6ft x 6ft. I would have thought that a decent heated towel rail would warm it up enough for the 15mins a day that your likely to spend in there. It has the added benefits of warming and drying your towels
The relatively enormous cost of installing the underfloor heating system seems to make no sense for such a small room
Well what with it being such a small room we really need to maximise the space we have available. A towel rail would have to replace the original radiator which would mean losing wall space which is at a premium. Having a towel rail means being unable to move the sink to that particular wall area and having to use a section of the proposed shower/wet area in order to have a mirror on the wall (there isn't one above the sink atm as it faces the small window). The relatively enormous cost of installing the underfloor heating system seems to make no sense for such a small room
RichTbiscuit said:
Well what with it being such a small room we really need to maximise the space we have available. A towel rail would have to replace the original radiator which would mean losing wall space which is at a premium. Having a towel rail means being unable to move the sink to that particular wall area and having to use a section of the proposed shower/wet area in order to have a mirror on the wall (there isn't one above the sink atm as it faces the small window).
So, no towel rail then, just a nail in the back of the door?There's an airing cupboard right next to the bathroom and also a non-heated towel rail for storage is going to be placed at the end of the wet area as that whole shower should take up the same footprint as the current bath.
The concrete was claimed to be there in order to support the floor and to reduce movement that would allow cracking of the grouting between tiles. If it didn't have this support then the floor would flex due to being wood joists and water would leak into the crawl space.
What i really want to know is whether these measures are enough to avoid such a situation. builder claims work is guaranteed for a year.
The concrete was claimed to be there in order to support the floor and to reduce movement that would allow cracking of the grouting between tiles. If it didn't have this support then the floor would flex due to being wood joists and water would leak into the crawl space.
What i really want to know is whether these measures are enough to avoid such a situation. builder claims work is guaranteed for a year.
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