My bathroom is 1.676mm (5'6") & took a standard bath when it was built.

Slug, you can either get a 1700mm bath and chase the wall out so it fits or you can get a 1500mm bath (much more comfy for that post coital bathing).

Col

[quote author=ColG  link=1083959024/0#3 date=1083964466] (much more comfy for that post coital bathing).

Col [/quote]

No-ones mentioned 1500 mm size baths to me, I've just had the Dixons style blank, 'you from Mars mate ?'' look when i've asked if theres anything smaller !

thank you Colg.

As long as Mrs.Windy is happy, thats the main thing !! Life wouldn't be worth living otherwise, but maybe thats just my viewpoint of marriage  
Yeah, if you could measure the bath, theres a possibility that my Bathroom Bird may not have found anything yet. Thank you.

The 1680mm is the old standard 6'6" baths, someone still made them but will have to get the brain cell working.

scruff

[quote author=thescruff  link=1083959024/0#11 date=1083970106]The 1680mm is the old standard 6'6" baths, someone still made them but will have to get the brain cell working.
scruff [/quote]
1680 is 5'6" not 6'6"  

[quote author=thescruff  link=1083959024/0#14 date=1084006131]Well spotted Dewy, I told the finger to push a 5; Really.

Hope it didn't take 2.26 hours to work it out  

scruff [/quote]
No. More like 2.26 seconds including the typing.

[quote author=greg  link=1083959024/15#16 date=1084047526]Windy Miller  - so long as the tiles come down onto the bath - then you should have no issues [/quote]

You don't want the tiles coming right down onto the bath though - the bath flexes as water and people go in/out, and if there's a solid joint between tile and bath the possibility exists for the tile to be popped off the wall.

Incidentally, people do know that when tiling/sealing a bath they should fill the bath with water during the sealing operation? That pulls the bath away from the wall the maximum amount as the sealant cures.

Andrew

Anyone else do double seals? i.e  Bath to the wall first then bath to the tiles.

Don't forget of you chop them in too much the taps hit the tiles.

scruff

I had the same problem with a house i was doing up and managed to source one from MKM it was 5ft and  quite reasonable at £225 inc both bath, toilet and sink etc. B&Q would order you one but they want an arm and a leg.

Thanks for looking Windy, much appreciated, but the potential legover was out placing her order today.

On a seperate note, i've been trying to find out the best method(s) for cutting a chase in a wall. (Nope, I don't know what the make up of it is  ) Scoured the college library shelves and done some web surfing but couldn't find anything of note. I'm pretty confident I know a way, but i'm always open to ideas ! Does anyone know of any websites that might cover this sort of thang ?

Just got back in from unsuccesfully trying to get me leg over the bird i'm doing the bathroom for .... DOH !!!   Still, I got an SDS big f**k off manly 'big drill, small willy' drill, a set of nice Rothenburg pipe benders and a cert for a garden tap jobby out of it  

Great  news, no chase needed after all the panic, the Plumb Center bath fits with 3mm to spare (noted about the tiles etc !) BUT !!! This has thrown me out a bit, the bath has no tap holes ! Is this common ? Surely not ?!   Not seen this on any of the baths in college  . (Yeah, I know, I KNOW !!!! .... but if no bugger in essex is prepared to give me a plumbers mate job, i'm gonna take yer work and yer women and yer housing etc etc) It's acrylic and obviously I have but one chance to make sure I do the holes right. What kind of drill bit shall I use ? Wood ? Its only glass fibre'ry type stuff after all .....  

I would've thought a Q Punch of the appropriate size would have been the way to go with a fibreglass bath:

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=7684

These work by drilling a small hole (about 1/4in or so) first, passing thru a bolt, then tightening the cutter with the bolt. Nice clean holes result.

Haven't tried this on fibreglass though!

Andrew

I wasn't having a laugh as it happens - I wondered whether it might work. Obviously from your response it appears not.

These Q Punches are very good for sheet material (like aluminium plate). Probably not so good for something fibrous like glass fibre.

Andrew

Fortunately, this morning when I woke up, I had the idea of a holesaw, no idea why the thought never occured to me before ! Senility creeping in already i guess   Havn't had a chance to try it yet because of the nightmare of all nightmares ! If you are a home DIY'er or a college chimp like me, you may find this tale of interest !

First off, the hot and cold taps on both the basin and the bath were on the wrong sides, so, I kinda (rightly i feel) assumed whoever had done the original install was a bit of a plonker, so when I saw what appeared to be 22mm going into the bath tap connectors I just thought it was another plonkerism.

HA !!! How wrong can a man be ... bloody 3/4" imperial piping ! it goes without saying that I had cut the pipe and discovered this gem when I tried to put a 22mm cap on it to stop some dribbling (the stop valves are naff as well !!). To cut a drama short I spent half the day mucking about with PTFE and flying around to find 3/4" > 15mm ........ Not an easy task on Cup Final day !! Ended up having to solder a converter and a reducer. Not that it worked of course on the dribbly pipe ! Out again tomorrow to try and find a compression converter, but somehow I don't feel the Sunday fodder of B&Q and Homebase will be of much help !

What gets me is that the house was built in 1980 apparantly and it looks like the whole blooming gaff is in Imperial. With my limited knowledge, should I have forseen this ? I thought the metric stuff had come in during the 70's ?

There is however a morale to all this, what I have learnt today and whilst doing a couple of other jobbies for friends has been invaluable ! There's nothing on earth to drum a point home when youre working on your own ! Doubtless some will, with some justification, raise their eyes to the ceiling at the incompetence of a rookie plumber, but these are lessons which cannot be learnt in a college workshop and will most certainly never be forgotten !!

[quote author=HandyMac  link=1083959024/30#34 date=1085263157]
...I'm becoming a bit of a dab hand at fitting loft ladders these days....
Andrew
[/quote]
Aaargh !! I've obviously got some stuff to look forward to !!  

Thank you thescruff for those suggestions. I did indeed, (eventually !),  manage to cap the offending pipe with a 22mm cap and PTFE and it was as dry as a bone Perhaps its a mix of paranoia, wanting to learn and pride ! Paranoia in that if it isnt made for the job, it must be wrong  , wanting to learn is self explanatory and as for pride. As a novice I have been taken aback at some of the things i've seen from 'professionals' (such as the taps today) and wouldnt want someone down the line to be thinking the same about my work. Bit sad and a bit arrogant, but hey !

Can't quite get my head around the siphoning bit at the moment, i'll have a ponder about that tomorrow.

Hell, I found the easiest way to get water out of a pipe was to connect my aquavac hose to one end and give it a good suck (the pipe I mean, not the aquavac...). Then when the majority of the water has been sucked out put the aquavac on blow.

In just a couple of minutes you've got a dry pipe. Well dry enough so that application of a blowtorch will take care of any moisture residue.

Andrew

[quote author=greg  link=1083959024/30#40 date=1085497976]so why do you say that 22mm to bath taps is wrong? are you on an unvented DHW system? [/quote]
Hi Greg. Having re-read my ramblings I didnt really make it clear that it was actually 3/4" leading into the tap connectors and they were tee'd off the 1/2" leading from the loft cistern and the DHW vessel which does is vented.

Concerning the Imperial / metric conversion thing, after not a little mucking about, the 15mm compression fittings worked a treat for me on the 1/2" but I just couldnt get a tight fir with 22mm on 3/4". Fortunately I have found a place locally who sells them.

I've had a bit of a mare connecting copper 32mm waste pipe to the bath trap. I guess its an ultimate plumbing sin but I ended up having to wack some LSX in which seems to have done the trick.   Please correct me if I'm wrong, I always thought a bath waste should be 40mm ? I was going to change the whole pipe upto the stack but the stack connection was hidden in the most awkard manner possible entailing the possible demolition of the entire side of the house.

Some fella was in today tiling the floor and walls and gave me some great tips about locating the WC pan and drilling tiles. I've r4eally enjoyed this jobby, depite not getting any money for it, I've learnt shed loads from it. Thanks to you peeps for giving me some advice as well.