We had been trying to get some reasonable quality vanity units without breaking the bank, but the puffed-up prices for what is nothing more than an MDF box with a basin on top had lead to delays. In the past, we have managed to snag a bargain somewhere/somehow, but after much searching (and several months of living without any basins in the house) we eventually admitted defeat and reluctantly bought some units (with a piffling trade discount) from our local builder's merchant. Bah!
Before fitting anything on the walls, we needed to paint the room and decided to use the same French Grey as in the adjacent utility room. Trying to paint around the wall-hung toilet would not have produced a very good finish, so we took the pan off completely.
Once the room had been painted, we re-hung the toilet.
The ground floor WC had very limited space, so we had bought a suitably compact vanity unit.
It had been a very long time since we'd installed the pipework and we couldn't remember its exact layout within the walls. Luckily we had taken detailed photos of all the pipe positions before boarding, so we could see exactly where it was safe to drill and screw.
Fitting the cabinet was straightforward enough. The Fermacell walls can support quite a considerable weight using just standard screws, though we did plug them anyway for additional strength.
Once the cabinet was secured against the wall, the ceramic basin was simply plonked on top (held in place with a bead of silicone).
Aside from a small portion of the heating system, all the plumbing in the house is plastic; copper pipe is not normally recommended with private water systems like ours because any excess acidity in the water can eat away at the metal and cause leaks.
Doing the plumbing was a little bit tricky because of the limited space in the cabinet. Alan squeezed in a pair of isolation valves, the flexible tap hoses and also managed to get the waste pipe fitted tight against the wall, which will make it easier to fit the little cabinet shelf.
Once all the pipework had been tested, Alan neatened it all up with some decorative pipe collars and cut the shelf so it fitted neatly around the waste pipe. Lastly, we clipped the soft-closing door in place.
Initially the water pressure was way too strong, causing the tap to spray all over the opposite wall (for nice, powerful showers, we have it set at 3.5 bar at our pressure vessel in the shed!) To fix this, Alan adjusted the isolation valves - partially closing them to restrict the water flow and make the tap rather more sedate.
It works! We had originally planned to have the tap on the other side of the basin, but unfortunately this vanity unit is only available in one orientation so we had to make do.
The vanity unit also came with a mirror (handily finished with a grey panel that matched our walls) so to complete the install we hung that too. At a later date, we will also be fitting some kind of splashback to protect the walls.
We also bought a vanity unit for the main bathroom. Like the downstairs WC, this was a wall-hung unit with a ceramic basin, but since it was much larger and had 3 heavy drawers, it would certainly need to be firmly fixed on the wall.
The first step was to mark out the position, drill holes and fit the heavy-duty, metal hollow wall anchors. With these kind of fixings, Fermacell will support 50kg per screw, so in theory our 4 screws should easily be able to hold the cabinet plus 2 people sitting on top (don't think we'll test that theory out though).
Once the cabinet shell was screwed to the wall, we dropped in the ceramic basin. As before, this is just glued onto the cabinet using a thin bead of silicone.
We splashed out (pun alert) on a fancy tap. We managed to get it heavily-discounted online, so it didn't cost much more than an unbranded tap (like the one we had used in the WC downstairs). The difference in quality was noticeable though, especially in the supplied fittings.
While the cheap pop-up waste in the WC required a good deal of fiddling around with plumber's putty to stop any leaks, the pop-up waste here was supplied with thick rubber washers and high-quality threads, which meant Alan just bolted it together with no sealant and it was immediately leak-free.
We fitted isolation valves to both the hot and cold water pipes (so that the water supply can be turned off at the basin, in case a tap ever needs to be removed) and tried out a pair of push-fit, flexible tap hoses (which were a little more expensive than the usual braided stainless steel ones, but much better).
Once all the pipework had been tested, including making sure that the overflow was draining properly, all that was left to do was fit the drawers.
Last (and by far the most awkward) was the en-suite.
We'd bought a long 'his and hers' basin for this bathroom years ago and we had hoped to sit it on top of a reasonably-priced drawer unit, but once again, couldn't believe the kind of prices being quoted everywhere. Yes, it is a long'ish stretch of wall (1.7m) but the cabinets (assuming you can find one without a built-in polymarble basin nowadays) just cost silly money.
We did consider adapting some kitchen units, but the depth of the alcove was restrictive and would have meant a lot of work trying to modify the drawer boxes. (Having cupboards instead of drawers would have made it a lot easier, but would be nowhere near as practical for storage).
After much head-scratching, we eventually found some wall-hung bathroom units in Ikea that looked like they might work... they seemed comparable in quality to anything else out there and weren't too pricey (though still too much for a few pieces of gloss-coated fibreboard and some drawer runners - grumble, mutter, gripe...)
Hanging them on the wall was the easy bit. First cabinet up...
... soon followed by the second one.
Next we fitted the drawers. Although the two carcasses were perfectly lined up, it doesn't necessarily follow that the drawers will be too, so we fitted them to ensure the alignment of all the drawer fronts was correct before screwing the carcasses together.
If the manufacturers of bathroom cabinets are laughing all the way to the bank, the manufacturers of bathroom worktops won't be too far behind... We simply don't have the money for any of those fancy granite or oak worktops, so for the time being we will be using our homemade alternative, made out of a glossy-white Ikea wardobe door!
Alan trimmed the wardrobe door/worktop to size, then added cutouts to accommodate our taps and the sculpted bottom of the basin.
When all the cutting was finished, we removed the blue protective film and lowered the basin into place. It took a bit of trimming and adjusting but once we were happy that everything was fitting in the right place, we could tackle the plumbing that sits inside.
We hadn't fixed the worktop and basin in place, so it was easy to lift them both out of the way. The pipework was going to be a bit awkward to fit, so it was useful to have as much access inside the cabinet as possible.
First step was to fit isolation valves to the hot and cold water pipes.
Once again we managed to find a good deal online for a pair of fancy taps. These were bolted to the basin and then joined to the isolation valves using the supplied flexible hoses.
Getting the waste pipe to fit without impeding the top drawer was tricky.
The Ikea cabinet has a bit of space both above and behind the drawer, but this pipework still required a lot of fiddling around to get right. We bought a special, super-slim bottle waste and various low profile connectors to get the waste pipes positioned in just the right place. It worked out well in the end though - once the drawer is in, you wouldn't know it is there.
Anyone with a keen eye might have spotted the piece of pipe sticking rather inelegantly out of the wall. This is supposed to carry any condensation down from the ventilation system in the attic, but since no water has ever materialised, we can safely connect it up to the waste pipe at a later date.
After the taps, waste and overflow were tested, we could finally screw the worktop down and clip the drawers back into place.
As with all the basins, we will be fitting some kind of splashback to protect the walls and sealing the gaps around them using (the dreaded) silicone at a later date.
No comments :
Post a Comment