Mighty Toilet Warriors

[Dave W]

All bath and kitchen remodels have unexpected problems.

[gweimer]

All bath and kitchen remodels have unexpected problems.

My ex-wife, in a truly inspired moment, decided that "there's probably some nice wood floors" under the carpet in the old house we had in Illinois.

Wrong...and she decided to rip out ALL of the carpeting when I was at work one day.

[Highlander]

I'm not showing up in my French Maid's outfit until the heavy work is all done Kenny  

Damn... and I was so hopeful...

Wrong...and she decided to rip out ALL of the carpeting when I was at work one day.

We must be related... sort of thing I've been known to do...

If you go back a page I've now added the earlier pics for your amusement...

Jackie's been recording the evidentiary material for my prosecution... persecution...?

Yesterday (happy 4th btw) turned into one of those nightmares that just gave and gave... We took the car round to have the MOT done (came back early and quicker than expected) and popped round to pick up most of the plumbing fittings I didn't have in the parts box in the shed and was (not desperately but suspiciously close to blowing budget) was a little shocked to find out how much copper pipe has jumped in value - if you hade bought into Cu five years back you'd have more than doubled your investment... so... back home and started to put everything into place to get ready to "blow" (yes, that is what plumbers call it) all the pipes in one hit... also popped back to get a sheet of 8x4' hardboard (yes! still sold in imperial) and 3x3m of 3x2" (mixed figures?) for the bath framework...
Been at least 10 years since I've done any significant plumbing (except some at my Devon buddies place last summer for an outside tap for his now late mum) and I had forgotten how much better and thicker 1960's copper was - 1mm makes a monstrous difference to heat flow... ahh... techie stuff... fittings... so much is "push-fit" these days but to establish detail - "Yorkshire" and "end-feed"... Yorkshire is pre-soldered and end-feed is "feed" the solder in as you heat it...
The system had to be drained and took forever to clear... I had also miscalculated and had to clear a lot more in the loft to get at the pipes than expected... it was now heading for 1600 and the blow-torch had yet to be lit... once drained and cut apart, old rad off the wall, I had to offer up the new one to get it in the right place, lining up with the new cabinet (all 600mm wide) and in relation to the positioning of the new sink... so, in go the fixings to do a temp hang... same height as the old one... Jackie spent the next hour deciding (not one of her great points) whether it should be the same height as the sink, or between the two positions... now 1900... we settled on 2" lower than existing...
I de-soldered the pipes from the rad in the hall, "wiped" off the old solder and started connecting and cutting...I had to use a head-lamp as I had had to cut the power to this area (when I rewired back in the 90's I split a number of circuits so not all the power or lighting had to be off at the same time) to avoid the risk of the "dance-of-death" by watering the electrics...
I used all Yorkshire (pre-soldered) fittings for speed in this area and the old copper than went through the walls was just not taking so I had to treat it as "end-feed" and it was a real mess... so out with the flux-brush to "clean" the pipes whilst hot... they are all going to be painted so not that bad...
Next was into the loft to do the final cuts and clear the old and connect the new... all done in end-feed...
At just gone midnight I "lived" up the system to check for leaks... none found... washed and crashed...

Friday...


Yes... the only thing keeping that rad on the wall is the timber prop...

Leisurely start today... on my second pint... err... cup of tea (Earl Grey... hot!) and the plan is bath out, plastering, and first part of the tiling...

[dadagoboi]

You're an inspiration, Ken!

[gweimer]

You're an inspiration, Ken!

...or a martyr...

[mc2NY]

When we used to have our " band house," when we all lived in the same place and had our studio...we had a half bath with a special toilet bowl that was sensitive about how much crap you could flush.

So....whenever we auditioned new guitarists, we always had them used that bathroom. If the toilet backed up, we knew they were too full of sh* t to work with  


********

OH....and on the same topic....I have a 400+ pound woman as a tenant, who also has one of those medical conditions where she uses the toilet A LOT.

When she moved in a few years ago, the toilet bowl in her bathroom was pretty close to the wall...fine for normal sized asses but apparently she could only get one of her ass cheeks onto the bowl without having to REALLY struggle. So, what happened was, between her weight and the struggling to fit onto the bowl...the wax ring got crushed and the bowl started to leak. Naturally, she was too embarrassed to say anything. She also had two sons and her mother living there. By the time they finally mentioned anything about a leak, it was nearly a year and the floor was rotting out. GGGEEZ.

So....I ended up having to cut the entire bathroom floor out to replace it. The way the building was plumbed right there, it was impossible to relocate the 4 inch toilet waste pipe...so, I ended up changing the toilet bowl out for a corner toilet that installs on a 45 degree angle....plenty of room for ass cheek overhang, so to speak. EEWWWW

I reinforced the floor by tripling up the 2x6 floor joists under to bowl area. Then, I used full 3/4 inch birch plywood in TWO LAYERS for the floor...PLUS a third piece of 3/4 ply in the corner area, as a separate raised section under the bowl!! THEN I added those big aluminum 3 foot handicap handles, one on each wall to the sides of the bowl and lag bolted into the wall studs, so she could grab on and lower her fat ass onto the bowl....rather than just plop on and crush the wax ring.  PLUS I found a hard rubber ring that replaces the wax one, apparently made for other wide loads to sit on. Then I topped it all off with one solid sheet of the thickest vinyl flooring I could find, so no liquid could leak thru stress cracks in tiles.

But it was a BIG project and rather disgusting, so I figured I'd overbuild it once so I would not have to do t again.  It turned out to be quite a research project to figure out how to solve the dilemma.

The ceiling is a drop ceiling because it needs access to the second floor bathroom pipes. So, I jokingly told the woman that "it was not possible to install a block and tackle to lower her onto the bowl."

She's actually a really nice woman and jokes about her weight...a working single mom. Ironically, she is the top money maker at a telemarketing research company...she sounds like a young, hot babe on the phone. She said she will be dead if they ever install videophones.....

We nicknamed her new toilet "the Large Marge,". No shit. (Um, actually, quite a bit I imagine

[Highlander]

ROFL (in all the muck and mire on the bathroom floor)  

I used to have to do a lot of work back in the 90's in what were then called EPH's (elderly person homes) and discovered that a trade name for special absorbent pads they used were called "Kylies" - always gave them a chuckle in relation to a certain singer ..
They also had specialist laundry machines (my connection to the sites - Miele were the best but not the only ones) that were known as "turd-churners" as the "larger" holes in the drums to handle "solids" better ...
The joys of getting older...  
Don't forget... never p*ss of your children as they may choose your retirement home...

You're an inspiration, Ken!

Hardly... I wish I had half you capabilities with crafting timber...

...or a martyr...

Gary, I've been waiting since 1992 to rip this out, and I'm enjoy every second of it... mostly...


... took a lot longer to cut these connections off and get them out of the wall/drain outflow than expected... the little white balls are a "sixties" insulation called vermiculite, which back then may or may not have had asbestos contamination...

Well, just enjoying a cuppa (now gone 1700) after returning from the dump after getting shot of the remains of the old bath... I already knew that the builders had cut into the wall at one end and it looked like the bath (which is longer than the room by about 2"/50mm) had been lowered in from the window end...

Wrong...
Turned out the only way I could figure they got it in was if they had built the hall wall after fitting the bath... I had to smash the bath out with a sledge... 10 minutes (ish... time stamp was 1355 to 1407 - Jackie's sister also has had contractors ripping their house apart and the "pro's" took 30 minutes to break theirs up) later there was nothing but rubble and shards of razor-sharp enamelling everywhere...





To make matters worse part of the hall-wall gave which is going to result in more cost... bummer...


... the cleared space...

I'll post some pics in the morning...
Still planning to drop the pipework, plaster and maybe some tiling...

Martyr indeed...   (Jackie... use the copper nails when you put me back on the cross...)

[gweimer]

My last actual house was an old 1900's Georgian house, over 15 years ago.  It had no A/C, so when the summer got REALLY hot, the upstairs was brutal.  The upstairs toilet began to leak through the floor into the living room.  It was just that the ring was old and it had a tendency to melt in the heat.  What I finally did was pay a lazy BIL to fix it, then after losing my money, did it myself.  I put a tile floor in, and then created a better seal with a sturdier ring.  On a suggestion, I cut out the spot in the living room ceiling.  The floors were getting soaked and not drying, so they were in danger of developing rot and weakening. I caught things in time.  Part of the repair was to place an air vent (a good sized one) over the hole.  It looked like part of the duct work, and allowed for the moisture in the floorboards to dry. 

[dadagoboi]

I'm serious, Ken.  Spent some time drawing up my bath mods this AM...then the Grabber showed up so that was that.  Gotta keep my priorities straight! 

[Pilgrim]

It figures that on THIS forum, this particular thread would have staying power.  I think I'm proud. 

[gweimer]

It figures that on THIS forum, this particular thread would have staying power.  I think I'm proud. 

Come over to the FDP sometime.  Threads about vacuum cleaners can go on for days.   

[Highlander]

[nerd] Better keep me away from that one then, Gary... best for all concerned... [/nerd]

Brilliant add-on John... she had some cheek...!

... Gotta keep my priorities straight! 

Remainder of the day was a loft-space-in-the-hot-sun nightmare - backwards and forwards from the shed and loft trying to find the right parts for an odd fitting - also forgot the pipe to the bathroom tee'd-off to the WC, which is separate, so had to go digging through piles of insulation to re-route it...
Only got the water back live at about 20 past midnight... just winding down now... oops, nearly 0200... SWMBO will not be pleased...!

(needless to say, so much for the plastering and maybe a bit of tiling... )

[Pilgrim]

Come over to the FDP sometime.  Threads about vacuum cleaners can go on for days.   

No longer eligible due to injudicious comment.  Probably best for both parties.

[Lightyear]

No longer eligible due to injudicious comment.  Probably best for both parties.

WDF!?    You, "Professor Nice Guy", banned!?  Just can't get my head around that one

[Highlander]

Must be a typo, Buzz... can't be true... 

... this particular thread would have staying power.  I think I'm proud. 

You just knew it was going to run and run, Al... like a week old hot burrito you found in the back of the fridge you just should'na eaten...

I'm not going to discuss the schedule today... far too much like tempting the fates... pics when I have more time... Forgot to add, part of yesterday was spent stripping the old mixer-shower/tap unit down to leave in some mild descaling solution... apart from age and general w-a-t looking nice and shiney now with not a sign of scale in or out...