Shower Room Revamp with shower panels

[Bigyin]

As a few were asking question in GM i thought i would lob up some photos from the last few days as it was decided (by SWMBO) that the shower room was in need of a refurb. We thought it had been done a while back but when she found some photos of the room from 1997 and realised just how old it all was then OBVIOUSLY it had to be changed

This was the 1997 picture, since then the units had been painted a dark grey by the missus and the tiles regrouted white.

screengrab

EVERYTHING had been secured in with shit loads of white sealant to the extent when screws were removed from fittings, nothing moved, not even a wooden cupboard on the wall



Once all the sealant had finally been stripped off which took a while it was time to get the panels on into the trims. Added bonus was the missus didnt like the white shower anymore so it was binned and a new shiny black one sourced. Fitting was fun as everything was now 10mm further off the wall ;0)



Reassembled all the shower components and nothing leaked or went bang with the electrics....bonus



Time to get on with the rest of the room so quite a bit of cutting to get everything to fit in neatly ....... always helps that the eldest boy is a chippy so i have access to his tools and the accuracy of a nice rail saw





Thats as far as i got last night so that'll do for this post and onto todays

[Bigyin]

Back to work this morning and all the remaining panels fitted and some trims added to hide any joins. Wallpaper added as well to the opposite wall before any worktops were added.

I also had a 2M long oak worktop that was going to be marked up to provide a worktop for sink, top for a small cupboard, a window sill and a couple of wall shelves ......cue the rail saw and some jigsaw action and hey presto



Lots of sanding done this afternoon to remove any marks and a few saw burn marks where the blade got hot and then a couple of coats of Danish Oil onto each piece and time to get fitting.

Worktop in place and fitted the tap and new basin sink. All together and plumbed in with no water pouring out anywhere which is also a bonus. All in all i am fairly pleased with the result given that i hate DIY and dont think i am very good at it but i persevere and make the best of what i can muster



Had to add a panel to fill in where the previous sink had been cut into the unit and managed to make it from a cupboard i had ripped off the wall



Few finishing bits to do (thats the old window sill as new one hasnt been trimmed to fit properly yet )

Thats the last room in the house that has been completely changed since we moved in under 2 years ago so i can go back fucking about on my MTB and hopefully work as well soon

[demographic]

Once you use a guiderail saw there's no going back. Normal circular saws aren't a patch on them for most jobs that require accuracy and a splinter free (well almost) cut.

[Silly Car]

Bloody great job, looks fantastic! Good use of masking tape to reduce splinters.

Why oh why or why didn’t I think to use my rail saw to cut my panels!! To be fair my new second fix hand saw blitzed through the necessary cuts nice and neatly.

[Taipan]

Nice job! We've got one of those waterfall taps. We loved it for a week, but its so slow it takes about a week for the hot water to make it over from the combi next door!

[Mussels]

That looks great. I need to do mine at some point and everything I've seen so far only shows internal corners in a shower, I was beginning to think that external corners must look terrible.
I can't decide at the moment whether I want to lose room space or put the effort in to remove the old tiles, my choice may depend on what I find when I swap the shower over from electric to mixer.

[Bigyin]

Once you use a guiderail saw there's no going back. Normal circular saws aren't a patch on them for most jobs that require accuracy and a splinter free (well almost) cut.

I loved using it. The boy bought it for large worktops as an investment, he now uses it for almost all jobs ...... and they dont free you of splinters as i had to remove 2 today and have a 3rd i need to dig out in the morning with a sharp knife into my hand

Bloody great job, looks fantastic! Good use of masking tape to reduce splinters.

Why oh why or why didn’t I think to use my rail saw to cut my panels!! To be fair my new second fix hand saw blitzed through the necessary cuts nice and neatly.

I was told it would be too harsh and smash the panels to bits but i was very slow and steady with the cuts and it worked a treat... the "dont use a rail saw as its too much" was from 2 fitters and a builder ....... fuck it, whats the worst that can happen

Nice job! We've got one of those waterfall taps. We loved it for a week, but its so slow it takes about a week for the hot water to make it over from the combi next door!

I opened the inlet tap a bit more so it flows well

That looks great. I need to do mine at some point and everything I've seen so far only shows internal corners in a shower, I was beginning to think that external corners must look terrible.
I can't decide at the moment whether I want to lose room space or put the effort in to remove the old tiles, my choice may depend on what I find when I swap the shower over from electric to mixer.

You will lose 10mm off each wall if you go on top of tiles ........ i had thought the same initially but its not even noticeable except when fitting stuff as it needs longer screws. I thought the external corners were massive when the trim bits turned up but they make sense when its all put together ..... hopefully the pics show the internal 90 degree trim and the external ones on the window reveals upright. The top bit is a simple piece of trim from B and Q to hide the join

[demographic]

When I say splinter free (well almost) I just mean a much cleaner cut that spelches out of the face much less.
The anti splinter strip on the guiderail greatly lessens the splintering/spelching out.

To be fair, I reckon the panels with the hollows can be some of the more difficult ones to cut perfectly.
Just because its so thin material and can be a bit waffy.
I sometimes put stuff like that face down and cut it upside down but guiderail saws have mostly negated that need.
Another way with the plywood bathroom panels is to do a 1mm scoring cut before the final full depth cut or as you did using masking tape so your pencil line shows better and lessens the splintering.

But, yeah you still get splinters in your hands. Just a perk of the job I guess.

[Silly Car]

There are a few external beads in use here...

C62E25FB-73A4-4702-8B3E-CED931E59924.jpeg (263.4 KiB) Viewed 909 times

I just need to get the sealant gun out and finish the joints

[Bigyin]

Fuck me, talk about creating work for yourself

I definitely took the easier option rather than creating all those cubby holes ..... good effort

[Silly Car]

Haha, it started off with fancying remote valves on the shower, a way of boxing them in and finishing off the corner next to the window...

Once the framework was built for that, it was only a small step to ‘there’s a lot of wasted space’ and the idea was born for the cubby holes.

It was quite daunting cutting the holes through the panel but we had pretty much a spare panel so could afford a cock up but it fitted first time. Cutting and fitting the beading around the holes was the hardest dut to the profile of it but I’m happy with the outcome.

The only regret is not putting an extractor fan in the top of it to vent the steam so that’ll have to go into the ceiling when we rip out the bathroom above.

[Bigyin]

Forgot to post this a few days ago as i finished it all off with using up spare bits of panelling to cover all the kick boards all round and some added to end panels of the units. Also ripped out the recessed white ceiling lights and replaced them with copper coloured trims. Be glad to get back to work next week doing something i like instead of DIY.

I do the "make it happen" the missus does the decor and dressing