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Need to know about baths

I think that statistic assumes you don't have a 3 bar shower pump!

I can certainly fill the bath out of my normal shower but I'm currently using the downstairs shower which is gravity fed at about 1/2 a bar. You don't half notice it gives out a lot less water!

I'd certainly go for rain water if I could collect enough of it. Much better than the calcium hydrogen carbonate solution we get out of the tap in Kent!

I'm all for rain and grey water solutions but the reality is that they need to be designed into a building from outset. Retrofitting isn't at all practical in most cases.
 
Pravda said:
Ever so slightly off topic. If we were serious about saving water. Then we could collect rain water (its not beyong the wit of man) and use that, rather than fresh drinking water, to shower in. But, as we know, they're only playing at saving the planet
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It's being done by engineers in a few new projects and DIY'ers in some existing buildings.
The problem is the space required and the cost (of the extra plumbing and storage but also the increase in area). I would pay for it, would you?
 
colasblue said:
Ah but I also bought a dishwasher 40 years ago which is still going - an unexciting Hotpoint. A new one would be lucky to last 5 years and I'm a bit concerned that the quality of cheap baths may have deteriorated similarly. New products generally seem a lot crappier then their predecessors.

My next door neighbours are on their second new bathroom in five years. That's a game I'd prefer not to play!
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Some people would have a new bathroom every 5 minutes regardless. See also kitchens. Back in the 90s I had friends who bought a big stone terrace in a nice part of Leeds. It was beautiful, with a lovely new fitted kitchen. Ripped that out, at a cost of £8k, and a year later they moved on.
 
stevec67 said:
Under a bath? What's the point? If you like, but I've better things to do.
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I presumed that he meant the bathroom but nevertheless If the floor flexes tile will crack and fail. The Romans used to lay tile on sand which took up the movement and this technique survived centuries. The issue these days is the adhesives have no give!
 
The quality of the other fittings, taps, mixers, etc. has declined a lot in recent decades. What was once simple but robust chrome-plated brass is today often a strange mix of alloys and plastics, with weird "ecological" and bogus "health spa" functions. But they tend to not last. There are a few very expensive brands that make everything in stainless steel.
We have a problem now in that the two taps on the wall, hot and cold, and the "switch" between them, for bath tub or "telephone" shower, are starting to give problems, but they are mounted alongside the tub in a vertical slab of travertine. To change the hardware, we will sooner or later have to smash a hole in the travertine. One safeguard would have been to bring the various pipes out from the travertine to begin with, and have external taps and mixer. But we didn't think of it.
 
I did our bathroom a few yrs back now, getting the old cast bath out was "amusing" and thankfully had ear protection the smash the thing up - trying to get it downstairs without marking the walls would have been all but impossible.
Went for the larger / deeper variety, and while I cannot remember the make, it does have strengthened sides and base.
Completely re-newed the T&G floor, doubled up on joists under bath, and took two big slabs upstairs to spread the load under its supports.
Getting the new bath up was 'fun', and ended up taking off the door to swing it into place.
Lined as much as I could with fluffy loft insulation to help heat loss.
Put proper stop cocks on both H & C feeds, to help any future maintainance, and made sure an easy trap door entry available to the front where taps and P trap are - just in case (this has paid dividends with an all but useless auto plug hole)
We also have hard water, but being a 'plastic' type liner, many car cleaning products soon bring back a shine and have it looking like it was fitted the day before.
 
tuga said:
It's being done by engineers in a few new projects and DIY'ers in some existing buildings.
The problem is the space required and the cost (of the extra plumbing and storage but also the increase in area). I would pay for it, would you?
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I have often thought how great it would be if you could collect all the 'grey' water - water from your shower, sink etc, and rainwater - process it back to potable and reuse. I would pay the extra for something like this. I've recetly seen a clip about collecting rain in Amsterdam from flat roofs using combo of plants and gutters that looked really interesting. I do think within the next 10 or so years systems like this will become more common.
 
boneman said:
I have often thought how great it would be if you could collect all the 'grey' water - water from your shower, sink etc, and rainwater - process it back to potable and reuse. I would pay the extra for something like this. I've recetly seen a clip about collecting rain in Amsterdam from flat roofs using combo of plants and gutters that looked really interesting. I do think within the next 10 or so years systems like this will become more common.
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My brother has a system for collecting rainwater and pumping it up to an additional header tank, just for the toilet, in his loft. The water goes through his home made filtration system first. The pumping costs nothing, as he has a load of solar panels and a big battery. The trick is to 'forget' to tell your water supplier, as your bill is based on water supplied, and a multiple of that for waste water, so if you use an alternative source for the loo, they can bump up the charge for waste.
 
Jamie said:
My brother has a system for collecting rainwater and pumping it up to an additional header tank, just for the toilet, in his loft. The water goes through his home made filtration system first. The pumping costs nothing, as he has a load of solar panels and a big battery. The trick is to 'forget' to tell your water supplier, as your bill is based on water supplied, and a multiple of that for waste water, so if you use an alternative source for the loo, they can bump up the charge for waste.
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that sounds great! Did he just work it out for himself how to set up or was there a pre-set plan?
 
I do mean that I intend to tile under the bath. That will make the floor a lot more water resistant than bare boards or even no boards at all which is what some people have. Floor flex is a key issue and one of the reasons I'm going for ply. My last tiling job lasted over 30 years over the original T&G chipboard so I think I've got the hang of selecting appropriately flexible adhesives etc to get that part right.
 
PaulMB said:
The quality of the other fittings, taps, mixers, etc. has declined a lot in recent decades. What was once simple but robust chrome-plated brass is today often a strange mix of alloys and plastics, with weird "ecological" and bogus "health spa" functions. But they tend to not last. There are a few very expensive brands that make everything in stainless steel.
We have a problem now in that the two taps on the wall, hot and cold, and the "switch" between them, for bath tub or "telephone" shower, are starting to give problems, but they are mounted alongside the tub in a vertical slab of travertine. To change the hardware, we will sooner or later have to smash a hole in the travertine. One safeguard would have been to bring the various pipes out from the travertine to begin with, and have external taps and mixer. But we didn't think of it.
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Don't smash a hole, cut a neat slot. Replumb as necessary, then tile over the cut out with tiles, corner trims, etc and it will look "factory" as they say.
colasblue said:
I do mean that I intend to tile under the bath. That will make the floor a lot more water resistant than bare boards or even no boards at all which is what some people have. Floor flex is a key issue and one of the reasons I'm going for ply. My last tiling job lasted over 30 years over the original T&G chipboard so I think I've got the hang of selecting appropriately flexible adhesives etc to get that part right.
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tiling under the bath is madness. You can do the same with a plastic tray or some damp course membrane costing next to nothing and fitted in minutes.
The ply is a good idea. No need for marine.
 
i have specified and used Trojan granada 8mm baths quite a bit over past 10 years . very well made and last well . good grip and not too expensive

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stevec67 said:
Don't smash a hole, cut a neat slot. Replumb as necessary, then tile over the cut out with tiles, corner trims, etc and it will look "factory" as they say.
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Thanks. Was thinking of something along those lines: cut a slot, as you say, maybe 10x30 cm, re-plumb, and have a stainless steel plate with 3 holes for the H, C and "switch" in it made, maybe 15 x 40 cm, that screws onto the travertine with 4 SS screws into rawlplugs in the travertine. For that cool, urban, U-boat look.....
 
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