Tiling: The Shower (Day 3)

As our tiler continued to work his way around the shower, it had become apparent that the plumber needed to come back to install the faucet for the sink. Sean had started on the limestone, and would soon begin the rear wall of the shower - this rear wall is also where the sink's faucet is located, so once the more time-consuming shower was completed, the remainder of the bathroom was expected to go quickly.  Because the faucet is wall mounted, this became a critical issue as it had to be installed before the tile, so Sean could accurately cut the tile around it.

The limestone starts to go up

"Aglaya" and I had actually spent quite a bit of time deciding on the type of faucet (or tap, as it's known in the UK) - I was advocating a simple, modern wall-mounted one, whereas "Aglaya" was keen on a more traditional deck-mounted version. We looked at literally dozens of models trying to come to a resolution. So a stalemate ensued for a while..."Aglaya" wasn't necessarily inclined to give in, but I think when it became evident how much this particular design decision meant to me, she relented...I have always envisioned having a wall-mounted tap in my loo!


The tap arrived that morning, so while Sean was setting limestone, I was marking up the plywood wall to locate the faucet, so it would be ready for our plumber when he showed up.

Locating the faucet & cutting the holes

Fortunately everything was ready when the plumber showed-up - he immediately mounted the faucet onto the plywood, and then  began connecting the pipes to it. Because this was happening while Sean was tiling, there was a lot of activity, but fortunately no one got in anyone else's way. By the end of the day, Sean had installed most of the smaller limestone pieces, and our faucet was connected and ready to be tiled around.

To properly install the faucet, our plumber removed the plywood to do it

The plumber connecting pipes to the faucet

End of the day - limestone and faucet installed (faucet is in the bottom right corner)

Once Sean and the plumber left for the day,  I cleared out the bathroom floor and primed it for the rubberized waterproof membrane. After 20 minutes it was dry, and began painting on the membrane - the same waterproofing used on the shower walls. At the same time, I also installed a few pieces of the insulated waterproof tile backer board on the side wall. By the time everything was finished it was late at night, but fortunately the work had been silent...

The bathroom floor primed for waterproofing

Part of the floor waterproofed, and a few pieces of tile backer-board installed

Midnight - Yours Truly painting on the rubberized membrane

1am - the completed waterproof membrane on the bathroom floor

Under the Shower: Waterproofing (part 4)

With the bathroom wall construction completed, I now have to make major progress on the shower - with the tiler coming on Monday there's a lot of work to do in just four days...

The next step is to finish waterproofing the area under shower, and permanently affix the raised shower floor. As mentioned in previous posts, I've gone a bit crazy with the waterproofing and have several redundant layers to minimize the chances of a leak. As part of this strategy there are actually two "floors" to the shower - the actual raised shower floor (because it is sitting on top of a steel beam), and then the sub-floor, which is level with the rest of the bathroom. Each "floor" - including the entirety of the bathroom floor - is to be fully waterproofed to increase the redundancy, (hopefully!) minimizing the chances that if there is ever a leak, it will not penetrate through to the flat below ours.

I started by waterproofing around the shower drain opening in the sub-floor - a large hole that was cut into the plywood while leveling the bathroom floor and installing plywood around the drain.

Feb 16th - applying the waterproof membrane around the drain

After the membrane was dry, the following day I fitted the Marmox insulated tile backer board, made sure everything fit together properly and prepared a bucket of flexible tile adhesive. As with the shower walls, the combination of the rubberized membrane, waterproof tile adhesive and waterproof tile backer board creates the redundant waterproof assembly.

Feb 17th - fitting the Marmox board in place

Testing to make sure everything fits!

Ready to go - mixed tile adhesive, cleaned sub-floor.

As mentioned in our roof posts, I have a serious aversion to mortar and troweled adhesives...mainly because I'm not that good at working with them and generally make a mess. This time I made a huge effort to learn from those initial experiences, mix smaller batches, and work quickly - yet carefully. Fortunately it went better than I expected, with minimal mess! The sub-floor was coated with the adhesive in sections, and the Marmox boards were placed over them.

Adhesive partially applied

First Marmox board down

Next few pieces on the left - the last section of adhesive on the right

In between the board edges, silicone is applied, and then taped over with a special (and expensive) waterproof tape that completes the waterproofing system at the joints.

Completed Marmox board with silicone along the joints

Extra waterproof tape around the drain opening

After all joints are siliconed and taped, I added several intermediate supports for the raised shower floor, making sure everything was level and cutting openings for the boiler's white condensate line. I then did a few final reviews of the waterproofing to verify there were no gaps or neglected areas, and screwed the waterproof plywood in place.

Feb 18th - Additional wood supports for the plywood base

Final shot before closing-up: fully taped and waterproofed

The plywood based permanently fastened

Permanently attaching the plywood made me somewhat nervous, as from this point onwards, I'll never again be able to access the drain and sub-floor in case there's a leak. I guess this is where having the redundant layers of waterproofing come into play, and provide some peace of mind. Not to mention a bit of confidence from the success of our new roof, and the fact that it has not (so far!) leaked...

The Shower: Initial Build-out

While the plumber was installing the radiators, I was able to start focusing my attention (finally) on the shower. It (along with the rest of the bathroom) is going to be completely new - when we did demolition we pulled out all the old fixtures, so for the moment, the bathroom is just an empty space except for the toilet and the boiler. So the entire shower enclosure has to built from scratch: framing, walls, floors, waterproofing, tiles and new plumbing...in other words, "the works".

I had previously installed the bathroom sub-floor, working out the initial layout when we had the boiler installed. During that period, the wall separating the shower from the boiler was put up - so when everything is finally done, that wall will become the front of the shower (where the shower head and valve go).

Morning of October 17th - the previously framed-out is visible on the left.

After clearing everything out - the starting point for the shower!

The first task will be to start installing the tile backer boards - I had done quite a bit of research on the various options and decided to go with a product made by Marmox - a waterproof, insulated cement board. Not only will this be the proper surface to which the tiles can be attached, but it can be used as part of a waterproof system for building showers - I liked that this product accomplished several things at the same time. The Marmox boards can either be screwed into framing, adhered to masonry with adhesive, or nailed in place with plastic "spankers". I opted for using the "spankers" and the adhesive due to the very uneven surfaces of both brick and plaster - this was similar to dry-lining plasterboard in the living room. The adhesive itself is waterproof, but it also adds strength to the installation which will be necessary if we use heavier stone tiles.

Applying adhesive to the wall and the back of the Marmox board

The first Marmox board installed

The design for the bathroom (and specifically the shower) ended up becoming quite complicated as there are many "spanners" in the works here. You may have noticed there's a large arch in the brick wall - this was only discovered during demolition as it was hidden behind the old walls. This arch resulted in a steel post going in to reinforce the steel beam - which (of course) pockets into the brick wall directly above the arch. This post ended up in the shower, and the post is sitting on a heavy steel beam to help distribute the forces and weight (or to be more precise, the point load) of the post across a few floor joists below. As a result, the floor of our shower will sit on-top of the steel beam. I also added a ledge that wraps around two sides of the bathroom - this was initially done to help hide the concealed cistern from our loo, but i carried the ledge around to give a ledge over the sink and in the shower where we can put things. The final design of the bathroom incorporates all these elements and (hopefully) will seamlessly tie everything together for a clean and simple appearance.

Second Marmox board installed and starting to frame out the base of the shower. The ledge is also starting to be framed on the right side of the picture

The shower base fully framed out - sitting on top of the steel beam.

The shower floor's plywood substrate

The Marmox system includes an insulated and waterproofed floor board that is pre-sloped for water drainage. I ordered one that was closest to the size of our shower and then cut it down to fit. One of the other things I liked about the Marmox system is that is has been designed around a specific drain - the floor board is pre-cut to receive the drain, so the entire system is integrated and should come together easily.

The Marmox floor board

We had worked out that as the plumber finished working on the heating, he would do the "roughing", or first fixing, of the shower pipes and fixtures. We had previously selected and ordered the shower head and valve, but that evening "Aglaya" and I had to choose exactly where they should be installed the following day - she really enjoyed this part!

Locating the shower valve - which height feels right?

Locating the shower head.

So the next day our plumber installed the pipes and fixtures based on the locations we selected the previous evening.

October 20th - Overall view of the shower plumbing

Detail view of the shower valve in the wall

The floor drain anticipating the future floor height due the steel beam (visible in the backgound). The white pipe is a condensate drain coming from the boiler

With the initial plumbing completed, it was finally time to sheath the shower with plywood, covering the pipes (on one side). As part of the waterproofing I decided to use WPBP (waterproof boil proof) plywood that would later be covered with a waterproof tanking kit (to be explained in the next post), followed by the Marmox board.

Installing the plywood substrate

Most of the plywood installed

With the floor, plywood, plumbing and Marmox in place...the outlines of a shower are finally starting to be visible!

Heat!!!

After 10 months we finally have heat!

Sunday night we finished spackling and painting the newly hung plasterboard and our long push to be ready for the plumber yesterday is finally over. He arrived in the morning and set about unpacking the new radiators and setting them into position.

Morning of October 17th - unpacking the radiators

The first radiator in position

He then started fastening the brackets into the walls and soon we had our first radiator up on the wall. After all the others were up he decided to come back today to connect the pipes and valves...

Attaching the radiator brackets

A hung radiator

That evening - the living room's radiators awaiting connection to the boiler

So this morning he arrived early to begin connecting the radiators to the boiler via the copper pipes he had previously installed just below the floor during the "first fixing" back in June. The connection from the copper pipes to the radiator are done with chrome piping - those chrome pipes connect to the radiator via a valve that controls the flow of hot water.  These valves are thermostatic, which means that each radiator has its own individual control that automatically turns off when the radiator hits the desired temperature - this will save energy and heating costs.

Morning of October 18th - where the valve and pipes will attach

Our plumber connecting one of the valves

 The plumber moved very quickly and by the end of the afternoon he had all of the radiators connected and starting filling, testing and balancing the system. Soon everything was working properly...so we finally have heat! It's definitely another major milestone - and one we reached just in time, since the temperature started dropping this week and there's a distinct chill in the air in the evenings. Regardless of whatever else happens as we try to finish this project, it's such a relief to know that at least we won't have to go through another winter without heat.

A completed radiator in the living room

The Next Two Weeks...

So with our new focus on getting the heat working, that will be the goal of my next two weeks here in London.

It turns out that it's not just a question of getting the plumber here to finish his work - there are a ton of things to do before all the different parts of the system can become operational (déjà vu...). Each of those parts requires work that goes beyond the plumber - and so falls to yours truly.

One of the key issues will be to have the new radiators installed on the walls. The not so obvious problem here is that we don't have walls...yet. Well, not the final, finished ones, anyway. To get those up means hanging new plasterboard on the grotty old perimeter walls, plastering and painting - because once those radiators are connected to the plumbing we won't be able to get behind them ever again.

Initially, I had no inkling of how much would have to be done to get the heat working, but here's a quick list:

• Rewire the entire flat with new electrical wiring and a breaker box - needed to power the boiler (and everything else)
• Install the last section of the boiler's flue pipe (that vents to the outside)
• Level the floor where the old kitchen used to be (one of the radiators goes there)
• Order plasterboard, plaster, fasteners, etc. Then carry everything upstairs  :-(
• Dry-line portions of the old walls with new plasterboard (a lot more work than it sounds!)
• Spackle the joints of the plasterboard (for now, only behind where the radiators go)
• Paint the plasterboard (also only behind where the radiators will go)
• Finalize the heat calculations and sizing of the radiators - then order the radiators along with the valves and pipes
• Hang the radiators onto the walls
• Connect the radiators to the pipes along with the thermostatic valves
• Fill and balance the system
• Turn the boiler on!

Starting the Bathroom: SubFloor

With the roof done, the scaffolding down, the balcony cleared and the downspout finished, it's finally time start focusing on the inside of the flat!

The first line of business will be to build our shower - but of course there is lot to be done before starting work on the actual shower. When we were leveling the floors back in January and February, we left out a few areas and never finished the sub-floor in the bathroom. So the first task will be to build and level the sub-floor - once that's done, the wall framing can go up and the initial plumbing (called roughing) can go in, followed by the waterproofing and tiles...

August 11th -montage of the bathroom before starting work

As noted in our posts about leveling floors, the first task here is to set up level string lines and then cut leveling strips from wood that matched the level line. Once those strips are cut, they are screwed into the wood joists. After they are all leveled, the plywood sub-floor is measured and cut into place. So far so good. Once the plywood goes on it needs to be screwed into place - and that's where the drama started...

The area that needs to be leveled - the previously completed areas are to the right and left

August 12th - the leveling strips over the joists and plumbing

August 12th - the plywood subfloor cut and positioned in place

So before telling you what happened, let me just explain that driving a screw into plumbing is apparently a very common DIY mistake - even professional builders do it. It's so common that a few days later, our building control inspector sheepishly admitted that he'd done it a few times himself! So if you're guessing that I drove screw into a pipe while fastening the sub-floor....you're right...I was working my way through the sheet, when i suddenly heard a sickening hiss...not too loud, but definitely there. It stopped me in my tracks, and it was only about 30 seconds later, when the water started shooting everywhere, that I realized what I had just done!

So I quickly removed the plywood, saw the hole, ran to the kitchen and shut off the main water valve for the flat. Surveying the mess, I realized it was not too bad and quickly soaked up all the water with paper towels and rags. Our trusty fan-heater was positioned to help dry everything, and within 30 mins there was no sign of the leak. In the meantime I had called our local handyman Alan - who again (!) saved the day by repairing the hole in about 20 minutes - so we managed to get it done before "Aglaya" came home to a soaking situation...

The "hole"- just to the right of my thumb...

The patched pipe - gotta be more careful from now on

So after all the excitement and stress I decided to take the rest of the weekend off, and resumed work on Monday. To prevent another incident like this, I carefully located and measured out the locations of all pipes and then drew their positions onto the plywood. To be extra safe, I also marked the joists, and then heavily marked the areas to avoid. I think this will be a new practice moving forward...

August 14th - the danger areas drawn on the plywood

The finished sub-floor - approx location of shower wall shown by the 2x3 on the floor