1a) Acrylic Baths

These are the most popular and widely sold due to their design flexibility and wide range of shapes, sizes and colours. They retain their water temperature for longer compared with other bath materials and have good resistance to water staining.

Generally the bath wall thickness will vary from 4mm, 5mm or 8mm depending on design, price and quality. Equally the supporting frame/cradle and baseboard will vary in design and quality. Essentially to ensure your new bath does not creak, squeak, flex, move or ultimately leak it must be fitted properly and this may well involve us building an additional supporting framework (not supplied by the manufacturer). Our gallery refers. Some of the cheaper baths on sale can prove to be a false economy due to the additional work and materials required. Also if a heavy shampoo bottle or hard object is accidentally dropped into a bath with a thin wall thickness there is a strong likelihood of the bath cracking. This is good business for plumbers but not necessarily a good deal for the customer.

1b) Jacuzzi (Whirlpool) Baths

Acrylic construction with jets located in the sidewalls of the bath. Water is drawn from the bath via a pump (normally situated under the bath) and returned through jets in the side walls of the bath. Air can also be introduced and the jets and water flow are adjustable.  

2) Enamelled Steel Bath

3) Cast Iron Bath

Electric Showers

 

If you are thinking of upgrading you is electric shower check with us or the supplier regarding the kW rating. If too high your electrical cabling may need to be upgraded from 6mm core size to 10mm core size. There are other potential issues regarding RCD’s (residual current device) fuse ratings etc (a job for a qualified electrician).

Pumped Showers

Some times referred to as power showers. Hot and cold water supply gravity fed from tank normally situated in loft space. The hot and cold supply is then fed via a pump to the showerhead.

The pump can be remotely sited or part of the shower control. The latter looks very similar to an electric shower and is often mistaken for one. Remote pumps sited in airing cupboards, under baths etc enable flush mounted valves in the tiled wall. These look more aesthetically pleasing. Performance of these showers is very good with excellent pressure and flow.

Mixer Valve Showers

Valve bodies either flush with wall or surface mounted. Mixer valves are supplied by hot and cold water from either gravity fed system, pumped, pressurised un-vented cylinders or combination (condensing) boilers.

In our opinion mixer valves supplied by water under pressure (pumped, un-vented cylinders or combination boilers) offer the best performance in terms of flow and pressure.

Thermostatic Control

Essentially this means that whatever temperature you set the shower to this temperature will be consistently maintained despite fluctuations in water flow (for example people flushing toilets). All showers listed above can be supplied with thermostatic control.

We strongly advise thermostatic control for combination boilers and un-vented systems.

 

Leaking Radiator

If one or more of your radiators has a leak from either; one of the radiator valves, a fractured pipe or rusted seam, then carry out the following actions: Switch off central heating and hot water. Boiler should no longer be operating. Once boiler has stopped, turn off all the radiators by screwing fully clockwise the TRV valve (Thermostatic Radiator Valve) normally located on the right side of the radiator. This will isolate the main body of water within the radiators. If you have a gravity fed system (tank in loft), or you are not sure then also turn off the mains water stopcock by turning fully clockwise (normally located under the kitchen sink). These actions will minimize the amount of water that will leak out of the system. Then call plumber.

Nail through Pipe

If you have driven a nail through a wall or floor and it has punctured a water pipe then leave it in place. If you have removed the nail, put it back to plug hole. Turn off mains water at stopcock by turning fully clockwise, (normally situated under kitchen sink). If you suspect it is a central heating pipe, play safe by turning off central heating and hot water, then, follow our advice under “Leaking Radiator”.  If water still continues to flow at fast rate, open up taps. Call plumber.

Toilet Will Not Flush

Normally caused by a broken siphon valve inside the toilet cistern. Check if all your cold-water taps are working normally, if so then the likely fault is with the toilet cistern. Fill a bucket or washing up bowl with cold water and use this to flush toilet until plumber arrives.

Water Leaking From Toilet Cistern

Water Pouring From an Overflow

Turn off mains water at stopcock by turning fully clockwise (normally situated under kitchen sink). Open up cold water taps and flush toilet until water stops flowing from overflow. Call plumber.

Leak in Kitchen

Common water leaks in kitchens and utility rooms are normally associated with appliances. Check hoses on washing machines and dishwashers. Check plumbing under sink. Quite often it is something simple you can do yourself.

Leak in Bathroom

If you are fitting new or replacement radiators we can calculate the radiator heat output for you (BTU). The calculations are based on the size of the room, type of external walls, flooring and the average room temperature required.

The overall size of the radiator can be reduced significantly whilst maintaining the same heat output, by opting for double panel, double convector configurations. In other words a large thin radiator can be changed for a small fat radiator. A twin panel radiator (one panel behind the other) effectively doubles the surface area thereby doubling the amount of air heated by convection.

Depending on the layout of your room and the position of large items of furniture you may wish to move an existing radiator to a better position, or replace with either a different size (see above comments) or two smaller radiators.

Chrome Radiator Towel Rails

Chrome radiator towel rails are very much the vogue at the moment. Prices have come down significantly and they look fantastic in new bathrooms, ensuites or cloakrooms. However, there are points to watch when buying.

Cheap deals can sometimes mean very poor quality plastic fittings for attaching the radiator to the wall. We have also experienced excessive amounts of rust falling out the valve connections and rust appearing around the welded seams.

Also don’t forget a good set of chrome radiator valves consisting of a lock shield and TRV (thermostatic radiator valve) will add approximately 20% to the cost of your radiator.

There are many different colours of grout available for floor tiles. The most common are grey, white, ivory and black. For more detailed information please fill out a “Project Enquiry” Form.

When calculating the amount of tiles you require. Measure the square metre area to be tiled and add 10% for cutting and waste. Large tiles can mean additional waste, as the off-cuts cannot necessarily be used. Therefore with large tiles add an additional 15% to your calculations.

If you are planning on tiling yourself and have little or no experience, then don’t be too ambitious on your first attempt (tiling wall to wall and floor to ceiling). Regardless of how resourceful you may be, professional tiling is the result of experience, investment in training and constant practice on different wall surfaces.

Things to consider: walls are seldom flat, even, or with straight corners. The surface you are tiling must be capable of supporting the weight of the tiles. The best surface for supporting large heavy tiles is drywall (Gyproc).

General Guide Rules

1) Remove loose plaster etc. Repair cracks and holes in wall as required. Ensure surfaces are clean, dry and free from dust and grease.

2) Check walls with a straight edge and mark out low and high spots.

3) Using a straight length of timber batten (Guide Rod), place on floor and position tiles with spacers along it’s length. Mark position of tiles/spacers on Guide Rod.

4) Using Guide Rod measure accurately and mark out on wall where tiles will start and end (horizontally and vertically). This is to avoid awkward cuts at floor level, ceiling, windows, doorframes, corners, sanitary ware etc. (see gallery for details).

5) Using another straight length of batten screw level onto wall where second row of tiles will begin. This will be your starting point, ensuring your tiles will be dead level. Do not rely on sanitary ware or floors being level. Once you have tiled up the wall as far as you wish to go, remove batten (once cement is dry) and tile first row.

6) Never start in a corner with a full tile. Always tile into a corner.

7) Constantly check with a level to ensure tiles are flat on the wall, straight (vertically) and level horizontally. Make sure gap between tiles is constant.

Note: You can tile on top of existing tiles, but as a general rule we do not recommend this. Seek advice from professionals before contemplating this course of action.

Drilling Tiles

There are special drill bits (spear shaped) for drilling holes in ceramic tiles. However, tiles are increasingly manufactured with a very hard glaze (particularly floor tiles) and diamond tipped drills and guide templates are required.

We must stress our comments are designed to provide an overview for small projects and are a general guide. If in doubt book our services.