Turn Around House - Friday 17.12.10

Last time I was at the Turn Around House, Vic said, Hey, I think we gotta problem.

I came into the house, fully expecting to find another bloody LEAK, but no!

IT WAS WORSE : (

That worktop (counter top)MeWally had so expertly fitted, with it's  virtually invisible routed corner joints and millimetre precision gap for the cooker; yes those worktops, well the space for the cooker was 

TOO SMALL. 

It's a space that was perfect when the worktops were fitted - PERFECT. We double checked, measuring the space. Measuring the cooker. Measuring the space. Measuring the cooker. You get the idea.

THE SPACE WAS TOO SMALL. HALF A CENTIMETRE TOO SMALL.

How can that be?

WHY?

The tiles - of course - I tiled the walls after the worktops were fitted. MeWally didn't allow for the thickness of the tiles, and I never gave it a thought. And there we have it, here we have it. Or more like it, here we are

in the Turn Around House routing, chiselling, and surforming the unnecessary material away. It had been a smartly finished end, now it's a raw edge.  

Monday will see me putting the finishing strip on the raw edge before the gas engineer comes to call and fit the cooker.

WILL IT NEVER END???

Turn Around House Friday 10.12.10

FITTING PLASTIC BATH PANELS.

I hate this job, mainly because it should be a quick and simple kit AND IT'S NOT, why not?

If you invent a system - goodness knows it's not rocket science - you'll make a bomb - in monetary terms! In lieu of any innovation, allow 3 or 4 hours for this pointless task.  

here's what you do ---

You'll need wood to make a frame or battens. It doesn't need to be new! Rummage through your wood pile - or a friends. Failing that .....Buy some????

Even better is extruded plastic - a good supplier will have what you need. Sadly TPC, our local supplier, has folded and I don't have time to go to Bristol to the next best supplier in the area. IMO, Plastic beats wood for this job, as it doesn't mind getting wet and is light, cheap, and adheres well to the bath. It's also soft and flexible, which means it is a dream to work with and can be EASILY retro adjusted in situ - if you see what I mean.

You'll need a few other things

Use a good quality grab adhesive - white/invisible  (if bath and panels are white)

You'll also need a saw, some screws, a drill and wood drill bit (  a sensible size to make guide holes for screws), screw driver to suit screws, spirit level and a straight edge. Some spacers - thin pieces of wood/lino/plastic/double glazing spacers (in photo above)  (could be a few layers of frozen or ready meal cartons) In this case Ive used off cuts from the bath panel as SCREWFIX have supplied a side panel that's at least 3cm too long  - IDIOTS.

Cut spacers into small pieces.

Sand them to remove burs.

Cut wood into small pieces, drill  a hole through spacers and wood pieces and introduce your screw. Repeat 9 more times. I drilled each piece individually, but you could drill through all 2 or more layers like a big sandwich.

Use your spirit level to decide exactly where the bottom of the bath panels should rest. It's very difficult to do this by eye. Draw a line - pencil will wash off most surfaces. Space your blocks along your carefully positioned line and screw down. You can see the narrow slot for the flange to slide into. You're blocks will be under the bath and not outside it!

THE AIM OF THE WOOD WORK -

Is to make a channel, or slot into which the flanges at the top and bottom of your bath panels will slot SNUGLY.

To get a snug fit, you will need to experiment with the battens to get just the right amount of gap to make the job a success - too little gap and the flange wont go in at all - too much gap and the panel will wobble and flap about all the time and, possibly, fall out altogether.

BEAR IN MIND THE AIM AS YOU WORK!

Screw your wood and spacer sandwich to the floor. I have a batten running along the floor as the bath had to be set a smidgen higher than we wanted - don't ask : (

You could put down one long batten with spacer under if you prefer. It's quicker and needs more wood/less screws. I'm not sure why I didn't do it that way ??

The end panel can be done the same way, but I used a plastic joiner from the old kitchen worktop. These joiners slope and will act as a cam to pinch the panel bottom under.

The batten for the top of the bath needs to fit. So, lay it on top of the bath rim to double check.

Sadly this shot has rotated itself, which makes it confusing! But you can see that the corner of batten, under the rim of the bath , is in need of a trim. I cut the corner at an angle so the flange on the bath panel would sit nicely at that point. Be prepared to OFFER UP your battening and double check it'll all work BEFORE putting on the adhesive - I didn't and went up and down the stairs, through the house, trying to avoid getting glue every where as I went.

When you're sure the top battens will fit, screw them together at the corner and put on the adhesive.

Get the top battens in place  and the apply pressure. Note: I've padded under the G Clamps. Don't over tighten the clamps, you're only holding on wood. Go and have a cup of tea.

Slot the flanges into their places and invisibly (neat trick if you can do it) screw the end panel to the floor, using a couple of short screws through bottom flange.  - You can see I've taken off the clamps (!!), and I've put an upright support at each corner - wedged in at a bit of an angle  to keep the top batten in place until set. You can attach them permanently if you prefer. Otherwise, they can be removed after a minimum of 24 hours. Better to leave the clamps in place over night, but the weekend is here, and the occupiers wont want to share their bath times with 3 G clamps. WELL WHO WOULD??

Fitted Bath panels

The side panel needs to be removable so that the pipework can be accessed in the future. You can hold it in place with a couple of MIRROR SCREWS at the bottom corners of the panel, they're attractive and shiny .... until they begin to rust ....

The Turn Around House Sunday 5.12.10

Having just spent days on end tiling, tiling, tiling, one or two people have moaned that I'm not explaining how to do these things! So for those who need to know, here's a quick guide. Sorry there are no pictures of me setting up my BATTENS etc.


MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE.


Buy an electric tile cutter. Saves time and money - less wasted tiles.


Next time you're in a public/friends loo/kitchen, look at the tiling, what do all tiled rooms have in common? Get familiar with tiles. What makes a well tiled room?

Tiling Techniques.

• Clean your walls well. If the surface to be tiled is porous (new plaster), paint over area to be tiles with diluted PVA. You can tile over existing tiles, which I'll do in the kitchen here.

Grease from kitchen tiles - scraped and tiled over!

• Measure and mark the centre of your wall/s to be tiled. You may, instead, want to CENTRE YOUR TILES between your taps, or the middle of your window. NEVER start in one corner of a room and work your way across. 
• Tiles MUST all line up, vertically and horizontally, even when they turn a corner of a room. So set up a vertical and horizontal wooden batten (nail into the wall - think about cable and pipe runs BEFORE using your nails). NEVER assume your floor/skirt board/work surface/bath (you get the picture) is level. Use a SPIRIT LEVEL, draw your 2 lines and offer up your 2 battens accurately.
• Tile your first row of tiles along these battens, starting where they both meet in a perfect right angle (check it before you begin).
• Apply the tile cement to the wall in an even coat using the 'comb' that should (if you're lucky) come with the cement. Do enough for about 5 - 10 tiles. It must be fresh if it's to hold the tiles.
• Use TILE SPACERS - those little plastic crosses.
• Clean cement from the tile surfaces and where it bulges out of the gaps. Your finger will do for this. Don't go mad, with your rubbing and scrubbing at this stage, as you'll move the tiles about.
• Let the tile cement set a bit, an hour or six, then rub over with a damp sponge to get the worst off, or grout now. 

grouting Float

• Use a grouting float to push grout between the tiles and to remove the worst of the mess from the surface.

Tiling Sponge

• Use the sponge (buy a proper one) to clean off the excess grout. Do this straight away. DO NOT LET THE GROUT SET FIRST!!

tiling sponge

• Keep the sponge well rinsed and wrung out. Use it flat on the tiles as you don't want to dig out the grout you've just put in. You can see washed on the left and just grouted on the right.

If you have tough, dry grout, use a damp scourer. NEVER leave grout to dry out unless it's had a wash over first - washing seems to degrade the grout into a hardish powder, rather than a rock.

• It's fine to use white tiles behind a cooker.
• Electrical sockets - buy long screws, from any hardware shop. Leccy Off. Unscrew plastic front and lift gently out of the way, leaving the wiring in place. Cut tiles so that they sit just inside the plastic face of the socket. Allow to set for at least a few hours and use those shiny new, long screws to GENTLY reattach your socket face. It should sit on top of the tiles and look smart.
•   Wash over 3 - 6 times, using your sponge and clean water.

• Buff off with a dry, soft cloth.
• Tidy up !

• Apply mastic where needed and admire.

The Turn Around House Saturday 4.12.10

The whole day has been spent fitting the bathroom,

and tiling the kitchen - no piccy of that today!

The master bedroom, as well as the smaller one, look like this now. Smart, clean and 'of a piece'.

Also 'of a piece' is the living room. 

Nothing fancy, simply a good base for dressing it up and the colours the incoming people really want.

They'll begin to move their stuff in tomorrow and will want to be properly in by Wednesday.

Better press on!

The Turn Around House Friday 3.12.10

Clean up day - at last.

I had to pull the loo off its' outlet. They're not nailed on, simply pushed on. Easy, as long as care's taken not to spill any 'liquid'. The lino was to run under all items in the bathroom suite. The bath legs will be rested on wooden bearers, which the lino has been cut around. All the taps have flexi pipes attached, each with isolator, which means that if we need/want to change the flooring type in the future, we can by undoing screws/fixings and lifting the ceramics up and out of the way. In the past, with rigid copper pipes, we couldn't move stuff and so all flooring was cut around the ceramics, which meant any 'leaks' could trickle around the edges and soak into the floor boards. Not good.

The carpet fitters from NAILSWORTH CARPETS came and did a high speed  and MOST EXCELLENT job for less money than the rest.

I'd filled the kitchen with a lot of the stuff that had been hanging around the house. I had to put it somewhere in order to give the Nailsworth Carpets fitters a clear house to work in.

Then I cleared a space just big enough for me to tile. It was, to say the least, SNUG.

Yesterday we laid out the carpet that was to be fitted in the conservatory. It's been stored for a year in folds - the carpet, not the conservatory! I could still see the creases this morning.

The conservatory had been prepared yesterday and looked so clean and a lot less rotten. It isn't finished though, as you can see.


I'll post a piccy of the red carpet in there, tomorrow.

The Turn Around House Thursday 1.12.10

Light at the end of the tunnel?


I don't think so, EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS THAT WAY.

But, today we had a good clean up in readiness for the carpet fitters, who are coming tomorrow. The conservatory carpet was lifted and then its' decomposing underlay was SCRAPED, inch by tedious inch, off the floor. A horrible, dusty, job.


The bathroom started the day like this, dirty, untidy and needing to be grouted.

After a few hours work,

It's all done.


Tomorrow - THE KITCHEN TILES.

WILL IT NEVER END?????

Turn Around House Wednesday 30.11.10

Normally, I'd go and garden on a Wednesday, but not today. 

IT IS FREEZING OUT THERE!

I got on with the tiling of 

THAT BATHROOM!

At one point, today, my fingers screamed with the cold. The warm water in the tile cutter (out in the garden) had chilled. The water froze as it sprayed from the cutting wheel. The deck of the machine was icy, making the tiles slide about as I attempted to cut them. The water on the tile froze, and my paper tissue, for wiping the wet tiles, was stiff with ice. The chips and slurry from the newly cut tiles froze into frosty shards and stuck to the deck of the cutter, if not swept away promptly.

After all my suffering, the tiling is just about done. Grouting tomorrow, then clean up and flooring down. 

On Friday night, MeWally will begin to plumb in the bathroom suite. By then the house will have been carpeted and I'll be tiling in the kitchen. 

HOME RUN.

I'll need a holiday after this -

HINT HINT!