Baths
Upgrading baths may require major household reorganization.
Fitting replacement baths or moving your existing bath to a new position in the bathroom requires some careful thought and preparation. Not only is the bath a large item to handle, but the pipe-work must be carefully positioned to ensure a professional looking job.
On a more practical note, be prepared for a DIY job like this to take more than one day to complete. If your house has two bathrooms there is no problem, the family can get used to a limited choice while you work. However, if this is the only bathroom in the house, it may be wise to organize sleepovers for the kids to minimize upsets and to give you plenty of time and space to work.You may be lucky enough to make a straight replacement but chances are, though, that the new bath will have a slightly different design and you will have to modify the pipe-work accordingly. Always fight the urge to strain the joints on the old pipe-work to force it to fit as this can cause stress fractures which may not leak initially but through time could cause problems.If you are upgrading your bath to a classy, free-standing model or you are fitting a spa bath, a corner bath or a walk-in bath for an elderly relative the project requires the same range of activities:1. Turn off the water supply.2. Remove and dispose of the old bath. pipe-work and fittings.
3. Seal the hot and cold feed to allow reconnection of supply to the house
4. Make good the wall and floor where the old bath stood
5. Position the new bath in its location and mark out accurately where the new supply and waste pipe-work will run.
6. Check that the waste pipe falls (slopes) away from the trap below the drain at a constant angle of about 1 degree (roughly an inch of fall for every running yard) and is well supported.
7. Make up as much of the new pipe-work as you can before fixing the bath in place.
8. Position and fix the bath, making sure that it is level along its length and across the width using a spirit level.
9. Make your final connections to the waste, the faucets and the supply and check that all of your joints are watertight.
Now it’s time to run yourself a bath and relax!