Last year, when we finally decided to get rid of the avocado bath suite and sort out the bathroom, we did not really have a final plan. I wanted to put a bath back in but my wife felt better with the idea of a shower. She was finding it difficult to climb in and out of the bath. So I gave up the idea of a new bath. I like a hot soak. We have been talking about this since middle of last year and have been shopping around for all that time. To explain - my honey wanted the larger size of shower. She wanted a seat in the shower to make it easier to bathe. The larger showers look great but to get it in my bathroom would be near impossible. I was trying hard to find a nice way of gently letting her down with the option of going for the normal size (90 centimeter). In February we were in Homebase out in Portlethern and we saw a shower that she really liked the look of. It was 90 centimeters. It was a all-in-one unit that came with everything needed. It looked really smart.
http://www.aqualux.co.uk/slotandlock/index.asp
I was really chuffed that she had gone away from the idea of the larger sized showers and hoped that we would settle for this one. We got hold of this very helpfull assistant. The assistant explained how it all worked and then happened to mention that they had a shower made by the same manufacturer that had a seat built into the design. She explained that it was not like the modern slot-and-lock in its construction, but it looked similar to them. Basically, these types of showers (and the slot-and-lock) are just a modern twist on the old glass fibre cabinet showers of the 1980s. They take the idea of the cabinet shower but make them stronger and then equipe them to give a high spec. In this case, the one in the brochure had lots of gismos - the seat was just one of its many attractive features. My wife instantly took a shine to it. I at first balked at the price but then did a quick bit of rough calcs in my head and thought that to get all the bits together for a tiled shower (with all those gismos) would cost twice as much and take three times longer to install. I liked it to. :-)
The plumbing for the shower, jets, and steamer, were an integral part of the shower. All that was needed was the hot and cold pipes connected to the inlets on the shower. Simple. The wiring was just as easy - one flex to power everything. We did not realise that the shower has a remote control. That was a bit mystifying to us. I found out why the first time I used the shower. At the start, all the pipe-work in the cabinet will have the water that was left in it from the last time it was used. That water has gone cold. First time you fire up the side jets, the first five seconds you get blasted with freezing water. The monsoon shower head is the same. So we have a simple routine. Before going in to the shower we stand outside, close the doors and use the remote to switch on the side jets and the overhead monsoon shower for a few seconds. If we are not going to use the jets and monsoon then that routine is not needed. But if the toys are there, it is great trying them out. Besides, with everything switched on you get drowned in ten seconds flat - great feeling. The sauna part of the shower works really well. I timed it once and it took just 4 minutes to get the cabin up to 40 Centigrade. If I had any complaints/improvements it would be that the timer and temperature control for the sauna should also be inside the shower cabin (they are on the remote). Also when the timer switches the sauna off there is no beep to tell you the sauna is shut off - you just start feeling cold :-) I am such a moan.
To get the shower totally finished I had to get an electrician to get the wires properly connected to the consumer box. It also required a Residual Current Circuit Breaker to be installed at the electrical supply. The electrician did that at the same time. Took him two hours to do that. I had already done all the wiring and I made it easy to check what I had done as the wiring went to a junction box in the dining room before it went into the bathroom. I am sure he was impressed :-) Prior to that I had jumped the power from a normal wall socket to that junction box - not pretty but a good temporary measure until I could get the electrician. Until the electrician wired up the power supply we could not use the steamer either - needs 20 amps and domestic sockets are only safe for 13.
So I did nearly everything myslef for the bathroom project. If you are wondering what was the driving force behind me doing the bathroom myself - it is simple - the earliest I could get a tradesman to come in and start work on the bathroom was two weeks! Before I started work on the bathroom I thought about letting bathroom fitters come in and do the job. They all said two or three weeks before they could start work as they are so busy right now.
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The bathroom renovation - finished - Aug/2011 Sandy7m 9of9by sandy7m70 views
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