A new Ensuite - Finis

The ensuite was finally finished last Tuesday - 17 working days. I apparently have to wait for a couple of weeks before thoroughly cleaning so the grout can harden up properly. But the pleasure of moving everything back in & vacuuming was wonderful. The design is a very definite improvement.

Unfortunately there was a small leak from the tap at the back of the under basin cupboard. RH came back on Thursday. Apparently it was because the horizontal part of the basin where taps are mounted wasn't perfectly flat. The remedy was the tap to be seated with a squidge of silicone. You would think that it would be a routine thing to do.

Definitely shouldn't speak too soon. I have discovered that the WC seat has been put on wrongly. Waiting for RH to respond. You can see in the photo that it is set back from the edge of the pan.

A New Ensuite - 10 - Government Building Regulations - Registered Competent Person - Compliance Certificates

Monday
The 16th day of my ensuite saga. Still not finished. RH is coming back to finish tomorrow with a registered electrical trader to provide the Compliance Certificate, which I definitely do need.

I am now more familiar with the Government legislation than I ever wanted or expected to be. It has been a stressful 2 days. I have several observations.

• The government & local councils have definitely not effectively communicated & informed the public or traders that it is a criminal offence for trades to work without being registered. 
• Traders are unable to issue the certificates for work done in clients houses, which are mandatory, unless they are registered.
• RH phoned round all his mates in the trade & only one of them knew anything about the legislation. I asked a friend who has just had an ensuite done & he didn't either & has not had certificates for any recent work in his house, some of which is substantial.
• Apparently the vetting system for registration is rubbish. 
• It would appear that the scheme can not be effectively enforced, which is another reason why it seems useless bureaucracy. 
• How many clients know that they need to ensure that the people they use are registered traders? How are they expected to check?
• The public do not know the questions to ask trades. The onus is on the trades to register & the clients to ensure the people they use are so registered.
• The only reason I know about the certificates is because I moved house in 2013 & my daughter is moving next week & reminded me. Solicitors require all the certificates when you sell your house.
• I can see the need to protect the public from "rogue traders" & "cowboys" & risk of physical harm. It does seem sensible that people doing work on electrics & gas in particular should be professionally competent & up to date. Therefore there should be mandatory, certificated, training on a regular basis to ensure skills & knowledge are appropriate. 
• I can also see that the government wants to crack down on the "Black Economy," which is rife in the building trade. Tradespeople might want to keep their costs as low as possible to keep quotes low & get the jobs, although I have never met a poor plumber.
• Anything which costs trades money, uses time they could be working or increases their paperwork is not going to be welcomed. They are people with skills, experience & expertise. That should be recognised. They are not necessarily financial wizards or academic. It all needs to be as simple & brief as possible.

RH will register himself. He can see that it will benefit him. He doesn't do any gas work. He will use a registered electrician in future. It has been very stressful for him too.

I also wonder what happens if vendors don't have certificates for work they have had done, which I suspect is widespread? Are the solicitors for sale & purchase really going to stop the sale going ahead?  I doubt it. I think they will just ignore it. I doubt there are even checks to ensure an existing  certificate is valid.

I just wonder who devised & implimented this legislation? Who trialled it? Who checks & how is it monitored for effectiveness? In my view it isn't fit for purpose.

A New Ensuite - 9

Friday

Bad news - the job won't be finished today. RH will have to come back on Monday. I really can't believe that a small ensuite bathroom can go into a 4th week.

Good news - All of the rubbish in my car port is being collected today so I can go and get my car back from my daughters. The ensuite is much, much better than the badly planned, dark, cramped one which is now consigned to the dump - Good design by AK. Good work by RH.

Middling news - My cleaners can't come until Tuesday anyway. So if I want to move back into my own bedroom, & I do, I'll have to make an effort to do some meaningful cleaning myself.

Spent ages vacuuming the dust in my bedroom & the corridor. RH had done a clear out, but the dust gets everywhere. All the stuff RH needs on Monday is in the ensuite. Then made up my bed.  Have to use the bathroom along the corridor or the ensuite in the spare bedroom though.

Saturday

Vacuumed the stairs & downstairs. Washed the sheets from the spare room. Too much - reminds me why I need cleaners!

Sunday

Readers beware. I have just discovered what may be a major problem. I texted RH to remind him I need electrical / plumbing completion certificates. See the government reg's below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433759/150604_Building_Work_Leaflet_amended_version.pdf

He says he has never issued them, so I assume he isn't a "registered competent person". As he is the person recommended by the bathroom design & supply company it never crossed my mind there might be a problem.
I have no idea what will happen now!

Building Tradesmen - A Blueprint for Harmony?

I've had quite a lot of experience of meaningful building work during my lifetime.

We had a huge extension done on our 4th house when I was in my 30's, which increased the size of a 3 bedroom detached house by over a third & re-modelled the existing house. I designed the plan & we employed a structural engineer & building contractor. We didn't have a project manager. It went massively over schedule because the contractor was over extended & was sub contracting everything out. The whole thing was a nightmare & we were both working long hours at the time. We naively assumed that the professionals knew what they were doing.

My previous house suffered a huge water escape from the loft which left two thirds of the house uninhabitable & destroyed everything we owned in it. The drying out, stripping out & re- building took a year because it had to be done twice. The insurers contractors made a complete bodge of it the first time because, again, they sub contracted out too much work. Half way through my husband died. The contractors tried to get me to sign off on the work the day before his funeral. Fortunately I didn't, on the advice of a friend who was a plumber. I then had to project manage all of the work being done again.

In my current house I have had electrical work done, decorating, the kitchen re-modelled, a Moroccan courtyard created, & now am doing my ensuite bathroom. I'm therefore used to dealing with bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, plasterers, painters & decorators, tilers, etc etc. I  also did a lot of decorating & tiling when we were young & had no money, so have some first hand experience. My husband did electrics & plumbing.

All of this makes me really despair when I have work done in my home - because that's what it is - it isn't just a house. It's your own very personal, private space. It's your sanctuary against the world & trouble.

I have expectations of professional trades:-

1. They should arrive on time, when they say they will & put in a full days work.
2. They should know what materials they need to do the job & should ensure that they have everything on site ready to use in advance. The need to "pop out to suppliers" should be minimal. It wastes the clients time & money & puts the schedule back.
3. They should be able to schedule the work to minimise time loss, for example waiting for mortar / grout to "go off", & give a reasonably accurate estimate of how long the job will take.

Obviously I do understand that unforseen things do happen which cannot be planned for ahead & that will alter 2 & 3.

1. They should respect the clients home, keeping the job as clean & tidy as possible & protecting paintwork, flooring & posessions properly. Building work is messy but that isn't an excuse for mess everywhere.
2. If the client is living in the house while the work is going on, as I have done for all the work I have described, the above is doubly important.
3. They should consult & ensure that they know exactly what has to be done, especially if the client is not on site all the time.
4. If the client is there they should consult & inform regularly.

What I don't expect is "bullshitting". But that is often what you get. I'm not an idiot. I can think.There is a difference between excuses & reasons.

It isn't rocket science. There are countries who are worse than the UK - Greece & Turkey spring to mind. There are also countries who are light years ahead of us - Germany & the whole of Scandinavia for example. It can be done. It's a question of attitude, forward planning & joined up thinking.

Most of our building trades people are just not up to the sort of standards that clients have every right to expect in their homes. Just look at the levels of complaints about new build housing.
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/forum/consumer-rights-television-programmes/10392-bbc-watchdog-more-moans-about-new-homes.html

There are numerous websites to help consumers who have problems with any building work -for example.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/getting-home-improvements-done/problem-with-home-improvements/

The problem is huge & encompasses everything from disruption, stress & hassle to dangerous & shoddy workmanship. It really isn't good enough.

A new Ensuite - 8

Tuesday.

Who would have thought that it would take 3 weeks to do a very small ensuite? It now looks as if it won't be finished until Friday. So I won't be able to get my cleaners in till Monday next week.

Being here all the time is a bit of a double edged sword. I'm living with the noise, the dust & the problems daily. (If I wasn't here RH would just have to sort them out without my input). I'm camping out & can't get to my clothes without negotiating the tip that is my bedroom. I'm in limbo and can't settle to anything. On the other hand I can make sure that it's all done as I want it.

                                    

Like so many things in life, if you knew what was involved before you started you might think twice about doing it at all. Hopefully it will be so much better than what was there before. There is a price, financial & psychological though.
 

I am fed up with it all now.

A new Ensuite - 7

Thursday

Good news & bad news.

I have ordered 2 corner glass shelves which will, with a bit of luck, be perfect for the gap between a boxed in cupboard & the wall. They aren't cheap, but a darned sight cheaper than the bespoke shelving would have been. Hopefully they will arrive on Monday in time for RH to fit them. It is amazing what you can find on Google. You just have to have the right search question.

So that makes the bad news - that the work might possibly go on untill Wednesday now, into good news, because RH will still be here to fit them. I have accepted the extended time scale & won't book the cleaners until I'm sure.

Another trip to Topps Tiles for materials today, but the mosaic floor in the shower area is going in as I write this.

Work is progressing & it looks good.

Friday

10 days in. A phone call about an hour after RH was supposed to be here - A client with an emergency - no heating or hot water. What can you say? It obviously takes precedence. So the already over schedule installation will probably go on till even later in the week. It's galling because I had postponed a visit from friends tomorrow.

At least I got some jobs done & cleaned & tidied a bit.

A new Ensuite - 6

Wednesday

Spent ages last night on the roof, in a howling gale, trying to tape up the outside of the spare room ensuite extractor fan which was driving me mad clacking. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep if I didn't do it. I borrowed some gaffer tape from my nice neighbour. Can't get at mine because my car port shed is inaccessible due to bags of rubbish waiting to go to the tip. Apparently it's a real design failure with older extractors.

This morning started with problems. The new WC has arrived minus some fittings & there is a difficult issue about how to finish off two vertical edges & whether to centre the tiles with the basin tap. Difficult to explain without a diagram.

Really the tiles need to be centred on the position of the tap or the vertical grouting line will be offset & look awful. That means that the edge of the tile near the door will be machine cut by hand. What I don't understand is why the manufacturers have stopped glazing the edges of tiles like they used to do when I last tiled a bathroom many moons ago. It can only be a cost saving measure, but it means that you have to have the tacky plastic strips.

So there was a mega discussion & we had to go to Topps Tiles to decide which strips to try before any work could start. That's a couple of hours gone. The upshot is that there is no way I can move back into my bedroom on Friday. Work will continue into next week & I can't get the cleaners in till everything is finished. None of the rubbish stopping me using the car port will be removed till the job is completed. So my car has to stay at my daughters.

I know it's all psychological & it's more important to have a good job than to rush & spoil it, but it is disapointing. I can't settle to anything because there are issues every day. On the other hand I'm hardly suffering. You do get to the stage where you just want your house back though.

A New Ensuite - 5

Tuesday

I chalked out the relative positions of the 2 sizes of washbasins on the floor last night. There is really only a few centimetres difference & the width doesn't matter. It's the depth from the wall that's crucial. RH positioned the WC so we could really see the space between this morning. So I've decided bigger is better. I hate small basins. Ordered it first thing.

RH has had a tidy up in my bedroom, it was a complete tip, & is beginning the tiling today.

I'm in limbo. Living in a mess is all very well, but it saps your will to tidy up as you would do normally. I haven't made my bed since the beginning of last week! I did vacuum, but it was all just as bad within a day. Dust is very pervasive. My mantra is - It will be worth it.

2.30 - Two walls are tiled, but they are the straightforward ones. RH has gone.

I want 2 glass shelves, but the shape is tricky & they will need a very accurate template, which I don't think I can do. That makes them "bespoke" & therefore very expensive - If I can even find someone to do it.

There is a solution to everything on line. You can get ready made, corner, quadrant, glass shelves for a fraction of the price of bespoke. I'm very chuffed.

A new Ensuite - 4

Monday

Beginning of the 2nd week. RH arrived promptly at 7.30 having not resolved the problem of his swollen thumb since Friday. It is a worry for trades people, they rely on being physically fit.

We had a discussion about the wall hung wash basin - which he didn't realise had to be higher than the previous one & moved to a more central position on the wall. Good job he had asked me about whether to remove the tiles, because if he hadn't I would have assumed that he knew. As it is I now realise that the basin itself is the same compact size that I am using in the spare bedroom ensuite. It's too small for someone who likes to splash their face when they wash. You end up banging against the central tap & getting water everywhere. Why the manufacturers don't give you the option of a tap offset on one side I can't imagine. Why do women think of practicalities & function & men don't?

So I texted the designer AK & asked for options before we open the packaging so it can be returned & exchanged. Went to showroom to look at bigger alternative basin which also has a cupboard underneath. Dithered because the new tap is smaller & doesn't project into the basin as much as the one I'm using.

Decisions, decisions. You really need to be around when work is being done on the house to try to anticipate problems before they become real issues. I don't know how people having work done can just leave it to the builders.

I also don't understand why men are averse to forward planning, making lists & ensuring they have everything they need before they start a job. Or is it just a way of having a break, which I can understand - sort of. Anyway RH left at lunchtime again. On the other hand the sealant gunge does have to "go off" before he can start tiling.

When I said how much I was looking forward to getting back into my bedroom on Friday there was a long pause. Apparently I shouldn't look forward to it too much! Up to that point he had been pleased at how well & how quickly the job was going!

A New Ensuite - 3 - Wet Rooms

Thursday - It's very interesting watching the construction of a wet room. Having tiled a bathroom in my youth I'm intrigued at just how much more there is to a wet room. Everything is taken back to a shell & then the floor & the walls are built up through several layers. The materials are lightweight & technical, but will be completely impervious.

The floorboards were stripped out so extra joists could be inserted to stop movement which could crack the membranes & tiles. Very lightweight tanking boards cover the floor & walls with special impervious corners & strips to seal all the joints. Then gunge is applied. There are special washers to spread the load when the boards are screwed to the walls.

Once all the tanking is done & the hidden shower tray is installed, hopefully by the end of this Friday, the tiling can begin. It's looking good that it will be done after another week.

Friday - Noooo! Hush my mouth.

Yesterday we discovered a leak where a boiler vent isn't attached to the soil stack. Leaking acidic water - We thought since the new boiler was installed two & a half years ago. My original plumber, S W,  popped in as soon as I texted this morning & it's because the soil stack was turned through 90 degrees to accommodate the new position of the WC. It snapped the vent pipe. However the good news is that it will be relatively simple to put right & the water hasn't been leaking for years as we thought initially.

My installer's right hand is very swollen today so he has to go at lunchtime to see his GP.

I may have to "camp" for longer than another week, but I was only without water for a day!

A New Ensuite - 2

The first 2 days were capping off the plumbing & stripping out. Today & tomorrow are going to be carpentry - floor & a wall. There are plusses. Not all the walls have to be stripped of tiles. All has gone smoothly so far. Unlike my kitchen saga the installers arrive when they say they will, do a full days work & don't clear off for hours or even days.

The minuses are the dust everywhere, the noise & the van loads of rubbish for the tip. But I'm confident it will be worth waiting for.

Yesterday's highlight was that RH brought his gorgeous chocolate Cocker Spaniel Bella with him. He is going to breed from her when she comes into season soon. I may well be tempted even though I said I don't want a puppy or a pedigree dog. That would be a bonus.

PS
Shouldn't have said it! My carpenter D discovered a leak from the boiler this morning. The plumbers who installed the new boiler didn't connect a pipe from the boiler to the waste, so it must have been dripping ever since inside the boxing in. It became obvious because the boxing in was opened up to install the new WC. It is easily fixed when RH comes back tomorrow, but so annoying when you have trusted someone to do a professional job. AND it was dripping on an electrical connection!

On the plus side - A man knocked on my door around tea time yesterday & asked if the sanitary ware in my car port was going to the tip. If so could he have it. Absolutely delighted that it was taken away there and then & will be re-cycled & used in his house. He is a teacher with 4 children so I imagine he will be pleased to save a lot of money. That's the bonus of living in a city. Stuff does get recycled by passers by.

A New Ensuite Bathroom

I started the process of chosing a new bathroom in September. I ordered it in October & confirmed the installer in November. The installer, R H, came to begin this morning - A good installer is busy months in advance.

It's truly amazing how long these things take. The whole process is long winded. You have to look at a lot of bathroom showrooms, talk to a lot of salespeople & installers to know exactly what you want. In the beginning you don't know the questions to ask or what is available. If the people are good they think of things that you wouldn't have done. Each conversation moved me forward & opened up new possibilities. Looking through catalogues revealed just how much choice there is.

In the end, my designer / supplier A K, came up with a great design, which will make my very small ensuite much, much, better. He has moved the WC to a different position & it will be wall hung, so a much more comfortable height for me. There is going to be a built in cupboard over the WC with a built in mirror & shaver point. (My current ensuite doesn't have one at all). I won't have my knees up against the pedastal & my face in the washbasin! (Useful when you have a sickness & diahorrea bug though!)

I'm also having a wall hung washbasin with a wall hung cupboard under for storage. I won't have to bend double to wash my face or splash water all over the floor. I'm 5ft 8ins, so I hate pedastal basins. They are designed for children & midgets.

The real joy of wall hung is that you can easily mop the whole floor - Well, my cleaner can.

The "piece de resistance" is the shower enclosure. The existing one was a curved corner shower you had to climb into. It was far too small & I banged my arms every time I showered. I'm having a completely tiled "wet room" with two 1m bi-fold doors at right angles to make a square shower area. Because these doors fold right back to the wall the whole floor space is available except when I shower. As I live on my own I can only do one thing at a time, wash, use the WC or shower. The whole room will be available for the majority of the time & will look far more spacious.

Whoever chose the existing matt khaki coloured floor & wall tiles in a tiny ensuite with no natural light had no idea or taste. The new tiles, plus an additional downlight, will make the whole room much lighter & more pleasant to be in.

A new bathroom isn't cheap. But you use it every single day & I'm worth it.