DIY in the Bathroom
The bathroom offered some challenges and promted some swift learning in the arts of plumbing, bath rennovation and making crumbly old plaster walls look respectable. The bathroom featured an original antique cast iron bath. Once we had removed the panelling from around it, it was a fine example of a Victorian period roll top enamel bath. This influenced the style in which we chose to renovate the bathroom - choosing a traditional look as opposed to a modern contemporary style. The bath could have done with some renovation as the enamel was a bit chipped around the plug hole. We considered getting it re-enamelled or resurfaced but our budget didn't stretch that far. I found that there were cheaper DIY bath tub resin resurfacing kits available so looked into that but decided to try a two part paint preparation designed to restore old enamel baths. Renovating the bath: firstly the bath had to be thoroughly cleaned and dried. We covered the taps in plastic and taped them up to stop any dripping. Next I gave the bath a wipe with white spirit. The paint had to be applied in a circular motion from the bottom upwards with out over brushing (it levels itself out). I had to work quickly to keep the edges of the painted area wet - and keep an eye on any drips. The finished results were very pleasing and we much prefer our Victorian roll top bath to more modern rectangular or corner plastic baths (although a whirlpool bath would be nice). The outside of the bath just need a rub down with sandpaper a few coats of paint to restore it back to it's former glory.
After looking at various reproduction Victorian style taps we decided that the original chrome taps weren't in bad condition so we decided not to replace them, but we need to fit new waste pipes and overflow as we removed all of the old Victorian lead plumbing. As space under the bath was tight we required a shallow-seal trap. We put in a Victorian style shower with thermostatic shower valve above the bath as we didn't have room for a separate shower cubicle. This is a mains pressure shower as opposed to a gravity fed shower as we removed the water storage tanks from the loft when we re-plumbed the house. All the hot water and central heating is produced from a combination boiler in the kitchen. The new shower does look great but I do miss my old power shower. We also fitted a circular chrome shower curtain ring. We had a difficult time finding a shower curtain rail to the right diameter but after endless hours online searching a through huge range of stores offering endless pages of shower enclosures, traditional and contemporary bathroom suites, taps, power showers, shower curtains and accessories we finally found a suitable one. The round shower curtain ring was very difficult to put up as the Victorian plaster on the wall was very crumbly. The internal walls in our house are of the lathe and plaster variety and the last 100 years have took their toll. Still, the curtain rail hasn't fallen down yet! I decided to remove the nasty old polystyrene tiles on the ceiling as they were not befitting of a period bathroom. Unfortunatley I discovered that they were the only thing preventing the old lathe and plaster ceiling from falling down. Which it did. On my head. Luckily I managed to avoid any permanent brain damage and also managed get hold of our plasterer and at short notice he plasterboarded over the remaining lathes and skimmed over the plasterboard with a nice fresh coat of plaster. Next job: the old fashion 1960s style wash basin had to go. We looked around for a Victorian style ceramic basin to replace it. Once again we trawled through many web sites offering both contemporary and period designer ceramic bathroom sinks, bowls and basins. Didn't find anything affordable so visited a local discount bathroom store where we found a suitable basin well within budget. We also got some chrome reproduction Victorian taps to go with it.
The budget wouldn't stretch to getting the plaster back to re-plaster the bathroom walls, so after a bit of rubbing down of the very cracked old plaster above the dado rail I popped down the local DIY store and got a tub of Polycell SmoothOver for cracked and damaged walls which worked a treat - they just needed a bit of sanding down and a lick of paint to fully restore them. Despite the hard work 'my do it yourself' method saved quite a bit of money. Below the dado rail, as the plaster on the walls was such a state (especially after half the wall coming away when I removed the old skirting board) we decided to have tongue and groove cladding up to the dado level. We waited until the next 10% off day at the local DIY store before purchasing the materials. The whole job too a day but the results were very pleasing. Once again, my Collins Complete DIY Manual helped me out of some tricky situations. It has sections on how to install an electric shower, building a shower cubicle, gravity fed, mains pressure and pump assisted showers, how to remove and install a bath plus lots of other useful information. For the flooring we firstly considered sanding down the floorboards and painting them, but they were not in very good condition. Ceramic tiles were also considered but we opted instead for laminate flooring - the cheap option! We had to look specifically for a laminate flooring that was suitable for bathrooms, but our local DIY store had some on special offer which was handy. Other touches included a nice period style towel warmer instead of a radiator which finished the room off a treat, plus other bathroom accessories to complement the Victorian theme.