# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  My Bathroom - a slightly different concept

## Ashwood

Finally finished the bathroom! Learned a lot in the process, so I thought it's time to give back some what I've gained from the forum. Have put comments into the photos, so it's pretty self explanatory, but may add more notes if I remember. 
Firstly, the floorplan and comments on the concept. It's a little different from the typical Aussie bathroom, more what you'd see in Singapore or Malaysia. Has a wet area, with ceramic tiles, and a low bund to contain any water before it drains away. A shower curtain (some people don't like shower curtains, but we think they are great if you are not using it as the main water barrier and hence they don't get much direct splash/splatter and therefore don't get stained or mouldy easily). Has the bath, shower, vanity/sink and WC all in the same area - this is getting popular here nowadays though. 
Corner spa, which some people dislike & which potentially uses lots of water. But we have started using it (our toddler & baby and both of us jump in together with just 5-6 inches of water) and what a wonderful playtime the kids have, with their rubber duckies, tigers, hippos & all. We will later on put in a grey water system to use the water for the veges & lawn, and will then start using the spa function on hot summer days. 
Anyway, I think the best part about DIY (besides cost savings) is that you can customize your house exactly as you want it, not how the builder, designer or your friends (sometimes, even manufacturers) think it should be.  
Floor plan below, photos will follow.

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## Ashwood

Start of project - builder did the bare shell, plumber did the piping up to wall outlet, then my work starts. First, to get the bath aligned, to have it recessed into the wall (so that the wall finish is over and outside of the "upturned edge" of the bath.

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## Ashwood

Next, the miscellaneous structures
- separation wall with shelves 
- frame of the bath & seat
(treated pine, blueboard cement sheet) 
Also, the vanity unit
(treated pine base .. waterproofed over with the painted membrane;
tassie oak members .. routered to have rebates for the door & left wall;
merbau T&G floor strips for the floor, left-hand wall - later on, for the drawer fronts, doors & right-hand open shelves as well)

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## Ashwood

Shower waterproofing. Based on my plumber's advice, I placed the floortrap roughly in the middle of the area, with 4 diagonal 'valley' lines leading out to the corners. 
Within each of these 4 areas bounded by the valleys, I laid cement screed gradually increasing in thickness from zero (at the floortrap) to perhaps about 2-3 cm thickness. 
Waterproofing is Crommelin's paintable waterproof membrane (forget the actual name, will check if anyone wants to know). The stuff goes a long way, so I practically painted 2-3 coats after each additional component was added. Really easy to apply, with the finished surface being very rough, like 120 grit sandpaper. Joints, you use a 'fabric' tape that Crommelin supplies as well (all from Bunnings). At some joints, I just used silicone and simply painted the waterproof membrane over that.

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## Ashwood

Things started coming together. Plumber put in the WC unit, electrician got the heaters, etc in. Got a mirror from a glass supplier who graciously helped me put it on - with his experience, he figured (correctly) that I would have struggled getting it onto the wall by myself. 
One thing I should have done more - take more photos in between. Time is tight and sometimes I want to tidy it up a bit before taking photos, but one gets caught up & before you know it, you're into another part of the work. Missed a lot of processes which I wanted to show/share.  
Tiling was done using the Dunlop tile adhesive .. dry powder to which you add water - easier to mix than I thought (again, forget the name, will check if anyone is interested). Tiling straight portions was easy, it was the cutting that was tricky. Different tiles also made a difference. The floor tiles (ceramic) were fairly easy to cut. The wall tiles, really thick porcelain ones, the tile cutter could not manage at all. Every cut had to be done using the angle grinder ... hard work ... anyone thinking of doing this should consider hiring a tile cutting saw! 
Another product I discovered too late is the plastic edge / corner strips you embed into tiles. Would have been much easier & nicer at the areas where the materials joined one another eg. at the separation wall, between tile & merbau, between tile & acrylic panels. 
Used 'handihome' acrylic panels for the wet area walls. Interesting product, no grout lines, fairly easy to install. Nice clean glossy finish, easy to clean. Downside (which they omitted to mention, but isn't that big a problem if you have control over who uses or cleans the bathroom) is you must not use abrasives or scourers to clean it, as it will scratch fairly easily.

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## Ashwood

DIY towel/clothes rails. Hollow 16 mm stainless steel rods from Bunnings. Merbau decking strips as the support & 'dry-side' face of the separation wall (90 and 140 mm widths for different areas).

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## Ashwood

At last, completed. May not be to everyone's taste, but I can say I did it myself, the wife is elated and the little one (last photo) has also given his seal of approval!

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## Armers

Damn good finished product! My bathroom is miles off from even been demoed. People like you keep me inspired!  :Biggrin:  Good work 
Cheers
Armers

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## ramjet1379

Very nice job. Love the wet and dry areas. My lovely lady wants something similar but I wasn't convinced. Your story and pics give me a clearer idea of how it could work.

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## leeton

First class job...well done...you should be bloody proud of yourself. :2thumbsup:

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## ChunkyCharcoal

Nice job and good concept too. Pat on the back for you!!!

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## Vernonv

Looks very flash. Nice work. :2thumbsup:

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## chipps

Now that's inspirational & got me rethinking my bathroom project  :Bath:  
Thanks for sharing Ashwood  :2thumbsup:

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## Ashwood

Thanks all for the kind words. I get lots of inspiration from all you guys too so here's to encouraging one another to do more good work!  Cheers!

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## zacnelson

I love the use or merbau in the bathroom, it looks great next to the tiles!

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## Ashwood

Just added a mirrored cabinet - for some reason, it's called a shaving cabinet. From ebay, of course (although for this instance, its a new unit from an ebay store.)  
Added a DIY hand/face towel rail. Same concept as the other towel/clothes rail. 
Timber is a 90mm merbau decking offcut, just jigsawed then hand sanded, drilled with a 16mm spade bit (3/4 way through the merbau thickness) to house the rod. The merbau piece is secured in place with 2 screws downwards from the inside of the cabinet. 2 mirror imaged pieces left and right. 2nd photo shows the right hand piece. 
Stainless steel rod is what's left over from the earlier bits. I applied some construction adhesive/silicone within the drilled hole to help secure it and stop it from rotating, but its the screws from the top that do more of the job holding things together. 
It amazes me how much stainless steel bathroom accessories cost, so this is a good way to save some $$.   Easy to do, cheap & looks good. The timber in the photo is not varnished yet, so looks a little dull. I'll be using Cabots waterbased polyu. varnish, which is my default varnish for indoor timber as it's so easy & quick to do.

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