 Renovation case study 1Lynnette and Gary had been thinking about renovating their small bathroom for some time. They wanted to make better use of the small space and to introduce warmer colours to counter the south-facing outlook. ‘The final impetus”, says Gary, “came when the old wallboard rotted to the point you could poke holes through it.” They started with a plan. The old bath and shower were replaced with a new shower unit. The bath is missed but the floor space gained has outweighed the loss. The toilet is in a separate room. They used the showerhead that came with the shower unit – it is a low pressure type as they have a low pressure system in the house Once the planning was agreed, time was spent researching fittings and prices. The couple live in a small town so the shopping net was spread to bigger centres. However, their local hardware store was happy to order in and to match prices. Flooring was the only item they had to source out of town. Gary did all the work himself.
Lynnette is happy with the way the job progressed. “We wanted to continue using the bathroom, so Gary organised the work in stages. “He tackled the ceiling and the walls around the shower first. Next a shower rose went in over the old bath so we could still have a shower until the bath came out. We only had a couple of days during the whole project when we couldn’t use the bathroom.” As usually happens with alteration work, changes were made after work was started. Once the shower unit went in, Lynnette decided to shift the position of the vanity unit – a simple planning change. However, they also decided to tile the floor. This meant installing a rigid, fibrous flooring overlay- a tricky exercise which scratched the newly clad walls. With hindsight, the underlay should have gone in at the beginning of the job. The new vanity unit works well. Lynnette chose a hanging unit to give more floor space but this reduced the under basin storage. The solution is a mirrored door cupboard above the vanity. The unit is built into the wall framing to give a flush line with the adjacent wall.
This was an expensive choice but savings were made in other areas. For example, the existing heated towel rail was repositioned rather than being replaced. The walls are insulated and lined with Gib Aqualine. This is designed to stand-up to the damp atmosphere and condensation found in bathrooms. There was already a fan/heater/light fitting in the room which they kept With careful planning, Gary used all the existing electrical and plumbing outlets. His work was supervised and certified by a registered electrician and plumber which is a legal requirement. Lynnette was keen to have her hairdryer permanently wired but the regulations dictated that it be powered through an RCD protected power point. No building consent was required as there were no structural changes to the house.
Tiling was a new experience for Gary but the DIY instructions that came with the tiles and trial and error, helped produce a professional job. Gary says getting the curve around the shower was a real challenge but he was lucky because the supplier doubled the order. The extras allowed a few miss-cuts and breakages as he learnt the art of tiling and also gave him the bonus of enough good tiles left over to resurface the toilet floor. The tiles are taken ten centimetres up the wall as a skirting and the cut edge finished with a neat metal bead. Lynnette says if they had known of the finishing bead earlier they would have carried it right around the shower unit. This couldn’t be done retrospectively as there is a lip on the beading that has to go under the edge of shower unit. The room is finished in a warm cream. Gary and Lynette are very happy with the end result.
They managed a complete bathroom make over within a budget of slightly less than $4,000. Consumers' Institute and Department of Building and Housing © Copyright 2004 |
