The Start of the Re-build

The first part of the rebuild was to add a new bed of mortar to the rough concrete floor.
The new screed bed of mortar just after it was put down.

The new mortar bed had to cure for two weeks before we could think about tiling the floor. This gave us time to work on the new walls. As we were moving the washing machine from beside the old vanity to the other side of the bathroom and into a partitioned off area, we needed a way to get services to the new laundry.

There was a power point in the proposed new laundry area, but we needed to get hot and cold water to it and some way to get the waste water into the sewerage system. We had considered burrowing through the wall behind the new laundry but that's straight into the back of the kitchen cupboards and there wasn't enough clearance for the pipes behind the cupboards.

Plan B was more elegant - but a lot more work. We built a new stud wall against the existing brick wall of the bathroom and ran the services through that. It meant having to fix Villaboard sheeting to the new wall and more waterproofing but at least we could make it plumb (instead of tilting backwards towards the top like the original wall) and also run the relocated shower outlet inside that wall. The nib wall to partition off the laundry could also run off the new stud wall. Several problems solved in one go!
The new stud wall bolted to the existing tile wall with the
shower mixer, shower outlet, water inlet pipes for the laundry
and waste water drain pipe installed.

Above and below - another view of the new stud wall
and the nib wall to partition off the new laundry.


Note the Villaboard sheeting screwed to the wall in the image above. By applying this sheeting, the wall was packed out to be level with the original tiles allowing us to tile straight over the existing tiles on this wall. Some new products on the market can be painted onto old tiles (and painted surfaces) and the new tiles stick to the wall like something to a blanket!

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