Out of Order...

Following the main period of the installation one or two issues remained. (Well, quite a few actually.)

The key problems included:

1. water leaking from beneath the sink;
2. the sides and back of the sink were not sealed;
3. no cupboard handles had been delivered with our order, so they needed to be purchased & fitted;
4. waste water shooting up out of the sink's plug hole, when water was released from the bath;
5. similarly, water glugged from the bath when water was let out of the sink;
6. water not running out of the bath fast enough, so we're standing in water during a shower;
7. the end of the bath was not sealed completely;
8. the tiling at the end of the bath was lower than the bath & therefore collected water;
9. the combination of 5 & 6 meant that water either leaked below the bath or ran onto the floor;
10. the radiator only heated up to 2/3rds of it's height;
11. one of the lights had blown within a few hours;
12. all the lights blew the following day;
13. the heated radiator trips the whole house electricity, and
14. the toilet seat came off.

All this meant that we couldn't actually use the shower, bath, sink or toilet that weekend... The installer was due to return the following week, and did so, on the Tuesday afternoon. He came round & set to work, attempting to address all the issues above, plus a few niggles about the finish.

So how successfully do you think we managed to solve all these problems? Answer in the next post.

Cupboard Handles...

If you've been following this blog, you'll have read how a few items had somehow been missed off the order we agreed & paid for. 

So far, these included:

- 1 extractor fan

- 3 lights

- 3 light housings, for bathrooms

- 1 clever power transformer thing

Although I collected all these items from B&Q myself one evening, only the extractor fan & transformer were suitable. I'd been given lights & fixtures unsuitable for bathrooms. Make of that what you will. The installer bought an additional suitable set, which meant he could finish the job.

However, on the last day of the install it emerged that the handles we'd chosen had also ended up being missed off the order. Some companies sell complete units i.e. handles included. Not B&Q. What's more, the ones we had chosen had to be ordered, so picking up the 6 we needed, at short notice, wasn't possible.

So off I went, on a Saturday lunchtime, to pick us up some handles. On the advice of the installer I tried ScrewFix (see ScrewFix.com). This is an Argos-like store setup, where you choose your item/s from a catalogue, write the item number on a slip of paper (using a tiny, free pencil), then queue up to pay, before collecting your order from another desk... unless they're out of stock.

Unfortunately my choice was out of stock. In fact, they had no 6 matching handles that I could buy there and then..! So, back to B&Q I went.

It happened that our original bathroom designer was available due to a cancelled appointment, so he took me around the store to choose a set of handles. As mentioned above, options were limited, but we found a set of fairly standard brushed chrome bar-type handles, which fitted the bill. After a 50% discount (in recognition of the error) they were only £1 a piece.  

Sorted - taken home ready for the return of the installer.

Final Day of the Installation...

There seemed to be an awful lot of things left to do on the Friday - the last planned day of the installation. I assumed that starting a day later than planned might result in the installer having to return after the weekend, for an extra day... And I was right.


Before the bathroom would be finished the following needed doing:
- cupboards finished and installed
- install the sink
- lay the floor
- attach, plumb & wire in the radiator
- all the electrics needed completing / checking etc.
- Seal everything.

...It seemed like an impossible list, for a single day. The installer showed up, with new lights and an electrician, and set to work. It was indeed a long day. However, by 6:30pm we were  pretty much done.



The radiator is slightly curved, and about a metre and a half tall - plenty of space to hang a number of towels. (I've seen some of these radiators struggle to hold a single towel. The bars are too close to threat a towel between them, especially when hot.)

The bath & sink taps are the Cirque style, and I'm please with the look. The shower hose does interfere with the overflow, however. This is a problem since you have to rotate the unit to open & close the plug. We've also noticed that it's hard to actually 'mix' hot & cold water - it's generally either fully hot, or cold, unless you're particularly patient. 

The sink tap is really well-made, and allows for hot & cold to be truly mixed. Again, however, the design of the tap interferes with the design of the sink: the plughole is blocked by a rotating disc, which opens when the flop of water from the tap hits it... unless your get the knack of it.

All in all, we were happy with the look of it all... But.

Unfortunately there were some issues still to be resolved, which I'll discuss in a future post.