All Topics / Value Adding / Renovating bathroom – what order does everything go in??

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  • Profile photo of NamiNami
    Member
    @nami
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 14

    Hi there,

    We're starting our first bathroom renovation this weekend. It will be a complete reno, and we are combining the shower/bath (currently they are separate) and moving and replacing the bath and vanity to make more room. We'll also be re-tiling the whole thing.

    Having never had any experience in this, I'm abit confused about the order of what goes in first.

    We had the plumber come in this morning to remove the toilet. I was weary about doing it ourselves as it had the potential for disaster turned out this only take 2 minutes and done pretty easily!

    Anyway, the husband will be demolishing the entire bathroom tomorrow. Ripping out the tiles, the bath, shower, vanity and the concrete covering about half the bathroom. This last part needs to be done as we are having the plumber move the main floor drain and some of the water piping (sorry I have no technical plumbing vocab) due to the reconfiguration of the room.

    The plumbers will come back and fit all the new pipes into place.

    We'll pour new concrete and waterproof etc.

    Then the tiles go in.

    Now, do all the vanity, bathtub, toilet go in after the floor tiles, and then the wall tiles last? Or do all the floor and wall tiles go in, followed by the bath, vanity and toilet?

    If anyone can shine some light on this, it would be much appreciated.

    Thank you!!

    Nami

    Profile photo of doityourselfdoityourself
    Member
    @doityourself
    Join Date: 2009
    Post Count: 1

    Hi Nami,

    Your best bet would be to tile the floor first ( this saves a lot of time cutting around toilet etc) Then you will have to install the bath first before gyprock, Then you can tile all walls. Once finished you can install toilet and vanity.
    It really depends on how soon you want a working toilet and vanity? but if you can hold out untill all wall tiles are layed, i would do it that way.Hope that helps.

    Profile photo of crashycrashy
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    @crashy
    Join Date: 2003
    Post Count: 736

    careful about taking advice from someone who suggests using gyprock in a bathroom…..

    1. first, you need to install tile underlay (like fibro but specially for tile floors)
    2. allow plumber & electrician to rough in
    3. fibro all walls with 6mm fibro (dont use 4mm although its cheaper. it makes walls less flat which makes tiling look aweful)
    4. tiling
    5. plumber comes back to install shower, bath, vanity, toilet
    6. electrician comes back to fit out

    why on earth would you pour concrete in the bathroom? do you WANT it to look like its a bad 1960's half finished refirb? and what about stubbing your toes?

    DONT tile the floor before the sparky & plumber have roughed in. firstly, it will make their job very hard. second, they are likely to damage it. we had one idiot on here a few years ago whining because he tiled a kitchen floor before getting in a sparky to go at the walls with a kango, needless to say the floor got damaged and this idiot went off his head, proceeding to call all tradesmen, including me, incompetant shonks.

    Profile photo of Scott No MatesScott No Mates
    Participant
    @scott-no-mates
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 3,856

    Crashy, step 1 – substrates should be the same ie all concrete or all CFC otherwise you will need an expansion joint between the two.

    3a Waterproofing (essential)
    4a Shower screen (if any)

    Profile photo of rudo1phrudo1ph
    Participant
    @rudo1ph
    Join Date: 2008
    Post Count: 38

    I am not quite at this stage yet but will be in a few weeks.  Why do you need to put down tile underlay and fibro on the walls?  I had assumed I could chip out the old tiles and make sure the floor was level, reseal the floor and then lay tiles………….

    Am I dreaming here?

    Rudi

    Profile photo of oracleoracle
    Member
    @oracle
    Join Date: 2009
    Post Count: 1

    nami
    where abouts do you live?
    if its sydney way i could drop in and give you a run down and point out the important bits.

    Profile photo of Scott No MatesScott No Mates
    Participant
    @scott-no-mates
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 3,856
    rudo1ph wrote:

    I am not quite at this stage yet but will be in a few weeks.  Why do you need to put down tile underlay and fibro on the walls?  I had assumed I could chip out the old tiles and make sure the floor was level, reseal the floor and then lay tiles………….

    Am I dreaming here?

    Rudi

    Tile underlay if you have joists (ie you need to have some sort of floor) otherwise you'd run with a mortar bed over concrete, then seal (need to seal floor, junction, penetrations and walls in accordance with the BCA). As for the walls you'd generally use compressed fibre cement sheet or moisture resistant plasterboard (and then apply the waterproofing membrane over).

    Profile photo of NamiNami
    Member
    @nami
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 14

    Thanks so much for the info guys, you're always so insightful!

    Just some more info, we live in an old block of units on the ground floor, so we can't get under the bathroom. The only way in was to jackhammer into the floor to access and rearrange the existing plumbing.

    From my understanding, as we had to cut into the existing floor out so the plumber can rearrange the existing plumbing for our new configuration, the concrete is to be filled in on the floor and level the bathroom out (and re- fill the hole that was made), then the waterproofing and tiles go ontop of the concrete.
    I dont know anything about this fibro and underlay stuff though… I gather it would be what is waterproofed and then tiles go ontop…? Sounds easier than concrete though.

    Will check with hubby and see if he's heard of all this.

    Thanks for the offer Oracle, that's really decent of you. I live in the inner west in Sydney. If I need further advice than what this helpful forum can provide, I'll let you know 

    Profile photo of crashycrashy
    Participant
    @crashy
    Join Date: 2003
    Post Count: 736

    ahh a unit, well thats entirely different.

    I assumed you were doing this in a house going by the 'knocking out the wall' part.

    rudi, its a false economy to chip off the old tiles. will take forever, and the surface will be so rough & damaged you will have to replace the fibro anyway….

    Profile photo of NamiNami
    Member
    @nami
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 14

    Thanks Crashy, yeah, abit daring… the wall was also in the unit (BTW, it wall worked out well, I'm really glad we did it!).

    After thinking through the responses, I now realise what this Fibro is. The old owners have used it before re-tiling (doing a really crappy job with really cheap tiles which fall off in some areas just by looking at them). This is obviously what we've been left with after taking the old tiles off the walls over the weekend. I was wondering why this stuff (fibro) that I thought was render wouldn't come off 
    The placement of the old tiles (and fibro) was only half way up the walls, and then higher (but not to the ceiling) where the shower area was.
    With the new configuration, the tiles won't be at the same height up the wall…so…

    Would anyone know: Is there any way to remove the old fibro easily? As I was assuming the only way to flatten out the wall was just to add more on.

    Thanks!

    Profile photo of Asbestos Audits QueenslandAsbestos Audits Queensland
    Participant
    @aaq
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 47

    Hi Guys-
    Old (pre 1984)and fibro – means asbestos, hope you wore your safety gear and didn't contaminate the area and if the walls are solid watchout for asbestos plaster to the hot water pipes.

    Brian

    Asbestos Audits Queensland | Asbestos Audits Queensland
    https://asbestosaudits.com.au/
    Email Me | Phone Me

    Any asbestos questions ask me.

    Profile photo of NamiNami
    Member
    @nami
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 14

    Thanks so much Brian! I hope to do more renos in future, so it's most definitely good to know! Phew!

    BTW, hubby has told me that the stuff behind the tiles was actually render, so sorry about that confusion.

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