New DIY ventures... BATHROOM

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Ljm

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#208101 26-Jan-2017 16:37

We are wanting to kick-start some renovations on our 1970's house this year and are wanting to do some of the work ourselves to keep the cost down. To give you an indication of handiness(?) capabilities - my husband gutted, re jibbed, plastered and painted one of our bedrooms (along with a lot of help from his builder brother) and we have done wallpaper stripping, lots of sanding, filling and painting doorframes/doors and are now wanting to start on some bigger projects.

1. Bathroom - Want can we realistically do ourselves? And what should we get professionals in for?

Gutting bathroom - what is involved? - If doing ourselves what would we have to consider apart from turning off power and water?
Relining walls with Aquajib - If framing is all good is there any reason we cannot just stick up new aqualine? When would we waterproof and how?
Getting more powerpoints put in - electrician will do this.
Plumber in to fit new vanity, shower over bath (will have to move shower-head, going from seperate box shower to shower over bath to create more space) - Would builder assist in building/creating space for bath?
We aren't going to tile in the bathroom (perhaps do a small splash-back around the bath) but rather will just do paint/acrylic.

I realise I sound like a complete novice here (which we kind of are) lol, but WHO could I look for to project manage this for me? A builder or a project manager specific type person? How do you know in what order to do things??? And with a one year old - how long are we realistically looking to NOT have a working bathroom for? (Note toilet is separate).

Thanks in advance for any advice/comments and words of encouragement :)

nickb800

2715 posts

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#1710205 26-Jan-2017 17:36

We're looking to do a bathroom reno this year too!

GIB aqualine shouldn't need waterproofing - just the appropriate layering of paint. It could be worth putting some waterproofing membrane behind the bath backsplash tiles.

Sounds like you guys are pretty handy - you could project manage yourself, contract a plumber/tiler/builder and have the bathroom functional in a week plus a few days painting. Strictly speaking you could box in the bath yourself, but could be worth paying a builder for a couple of hours work and get it done right

andrewNZ

2487 posts

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#1710263 26-Jan-2017 20:10

Bathrooms are funny things. IMO, you should get the pros to do most things.

The previous owners of my house redid the bathroom themselves. It looks great, but there are some terrible flaws, most of which will very awkward and pricey to fix.

The problems:
-There is a ledge between the bath and wall which is lower than the bath and slopes to the corner, making a cessy puddle (which probably seeps into the bath box) if the ledge isn't wiped after every bath.
-The tiling around the bath is very poorly done.
-There is a screw behind the tiles which has almost punctured the bath near the top.
-The shower is poorly assembled and leaks.
-There are multiple examples of poor finishing that tweak my ocd.

timmmay

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#1710294 26-Jan-2017 21:10

Make sure you talk to the council so you have any required consents and get appropriate inspections. If you do it wrong you have to declare it when you sell the house, lowering the value.

I'd be pretty careful with this, there are heaps of regulation. You might be best off finding a bathroom firm / builder and telling them straight up you want to do what you can to keep costs down but you want them to ensure all regulations are followed.

gb67

44 posts

Geek

#1710346 26-Jan-2017 22:50

Just done the ensuite. Acrylic showers stick to unpainted gib, not painted, not plastered.

If any plumbing needed remove the whole sheet, floor to ceiling then let the plumber at it.

Most showers only warrantied if approved installer does it.

Amosnz

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#1710352 26-Jan-2017 23:09

We just finished doing our bathroom, gutted it to stud and started over. We removed a hot water cylinder and went to infinity at the same time. I did most of the work except plumbing, tiling (only because it would have taken me far too long) and electrical (I roughed in the cables but had a sparky friend wire off).

We have floor to ceiling tiles on aqualine, the tiler put down a waterproof membrane along the wall\floor corners and the wall behind bath and showers. No membrane behind the vanity tiles.

We went for a back-to-wall bath which sits on the floor so doesn't require framing to sit on. The bath was more expensive but a time saver in terms of less framing\tiling. It probably wouldn't work for an over bath shower though.

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neb

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#1710365 26-Jan-2017 23:41

andrewNZ: Bathrooms are funny things. IMO, you should get the pros to do most things.

The previous owners of my house redid the bathroom themselves. It looks great, but there are some terrible flaws, most of which will very awkward and pricey to fix.

-The shower is poorly assembled and leaks.

This is a major, major issue to look out for. Any kind of leak in or around the shower will end up getting into the framing timber and other parts of the house and will, over time, rot out more and more of the timber. So you can end up pulling out the shower surround for a quick re-seal and find out you have to replace half the wall, or worse. As andrewNZ says, get the pros to do it if it's somewhere that'll be exposed to water.

timmmay

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#1710403 27-Jan-2017 07:38

Random tips, after having a bathroom firm do ours:

Make triple sure they get require consents and inspections (ours didn't)
Take photos of the entire room every day, and after significant changes during the day if they'll be covered up
Keep all receipts

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andrewNZ

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#1710595 27-Jan-2017 11:54

neb:
andrewNZ: Bathrooms are funny things. IMO, you should get the pros to do most things.

The previous owners of my house redid the bathroom themselves. It looks great, but there are some terrible flaws, most of which will very awkward and pricey to fix.

-The shower is poorly assembled and leaks.

This is a major, major issue to look out for. Any kind of leak in or around the shower will end up getting into the framing timber and other parts of the house and will, over time, rot out more and more of the timber. So you can end up pulling out the shower surround for a quick re-seal and find out you have to replace half the wall, or worse. As andrewNZ says, get the pros to do it if it's somewhere that'll be exposed to water.

And it'll be gradual damage, so next to no insurance.