Bathroom renovations

[flipflop104]

Hello

I'm in the middle of renovating my bathroom (with the help of my wonderful dad). It was a toilet and bathroom seperately but next door to each other so he has knocked the wall down between the two and put a wall up where the toilet door used to be.

I now need to rip the bath out and replace with a walk-in shower enclosure and tray - that's the length of the current bath) - but the shower will have to be at the opposite side of the room that it's currently at, ie. it's over the bath at the tap ends and it will have to be directly opposite over the bath at the non-tap end - except the bath is coming out - the room is only bath-length wide) and move the toilet and sink so they are looking at the bath's long wall - they are currently both on the wall where the taps are on the bath, ie next to the bath). You keeping up with me? lol. We then need to re-tile the whole room and put a new flooring down (a kind of vinyl type material that comes in tiles).

My question (finally) is, what order does all this need to be done in?

My dad thinks I should get the tiler in first before the shower and new toilet/sink vanity unit is put in, which seems sensible BUT there is a box that runs across the room (the wall that the bath taps are on and the toilet and sink are currently on) that houses the pipes to the shower, toilet and sink - if that's tiled up then surely the person who comes to do the shower and sink/toilet won't be able to move the pipes around.

[flipflop104]

Continued (sorry).....

BUT if I get the person to fit the shower and toilet/sink unit first then doesn't that make the job harder for the tiler.

I'm assuming the flooring is the last thing to go down? BUT my dad says (rightly so) that because we have floorboards, a sheet of plywood or something similar will have to be laid on the floors boards so there's a flat surface for the floor tiles and if we put that down before the shower goes in (cos pressumably the shower will have to sit on the plywood as well) then the perosn fitting the shower, sink, loo, etc. won't be able to get under the floorboards to the pipes that are there.

Aaargh!! What a logistical nightmare. Can someone help me please?

[missieb]

The normal order is
Do all the plumbing first - pipe runs leaving the ends of pipes and holes for waste etc sticking out of the wall/floors, Then the boxing in.
Next comes the tiling/grouting
Next the shower, loo, basin etc are plumbed in
Finally silicon seal where needed.
However there are one or two shower screens that you have to install first & then tile after so best to double check with the instructions before calling in the tiler.
Good luck - it's a nightmare - I've done it twice this year!

[Yodel]

If you're going to use a tiler and a plumber, why don't you try to find a bathroom fitter with both skills in both trades. The finish will be much better if you employ a specialist, and you won't have the problem of co-ordinating different tradesmen.
PS. Must admit to a vested interest because my partner is a bathroom fitter, but the advice still holds good!

[flipflop104]

@ Yodel - your partner's not based in Leeds by any chance?

[Yodel]

Unfortunately not, plus he's booked up to the end of the year anyway. Take a look on yell.com under 'bathroom design and installation', but avoid the 'big boys' as they mostly sub-contract. Go for someone who advertisers 'fit only' as well as 'supply and fit'.

[missieb]

I forgot to say - the ply on the floor goes down at the same time as the boxing in.
Also I misled you on the tiling/shower order business - it's the tray that sometimes goes in before the tiling and sometimes after, not the screen! But whatever always check the fitting instructions for everything you need before you start.
I've always used a different tiler - you've got to be really lucky to find a combined first class fitter and first class tiler!

[buildersmate]

Totally agree with Missieb's sequence of the jobs and not combining the plumbing and tiler trades into one.