You end up with a room that is dry behind the tiles and level under the floor, and that is where the work actually goes.
What This Article Covers
- An Elphinstone bathroom is either older village stock with a timber floor or later infill with a solid one, and those are different scopes.
- We strip to joists and masonry, because what sits behind a panel here is rarely what the last person said.
- Tiling is set out from the finished floor level and the centre line, so the cut tiles land in the corners.
- Shower areas are tanked before tiling with taped joints and banded corners, because sealant is not waterproofing.
George Herkes & Son Joinery has worked across East Lothian since 1989, holds East Lothian Trading Standards Trusted Trader accreditation and is rated 5.0 from 62 reviews, and the bespoke joinery service in Elphinstone that builds the vanity is the same team that strips the room out.
Send George a photo of the bathroom and he will come and look at what is under the floor.
Bathroom Renovation Costs
What you end up with is a room that is dry behind the tiles and level under the floor, and that is where the money goes. The visible half, the suite and the tiles, is the part people price and the part that decides least.
An Elphinstone bathroom is usually one of two shapes. A small upstairs room in nineteenth century village stock or a post-war council house, with a soil stack on an outside wall and a suspended timber floor. Or a later infill property at Waterloo Place or Marchwood Court with a solid floor and the services boxed. The first is a strip-out job with a floor to strengthen. The second is a job where the fall has to be found within the build up. Those are different scopes, and no figure means anything before the survey says which one you have.
Free quotes on Bathroom Renovations across Elphinstone. Speak to George at George Herkes & Son Joinery.
Strip Out and Preparation
Older bathrooms in this village have been plumbed and replumbed, and temporary prefabs put up after the war lasted into the 1980s here, so what sits behind a panel is rarely what the last person said.
We strip to the joists and the masonry where it is needed. That is the stage that finds the rotted board under the bath, the dead pipework capped and left in a wall, and the tile bed that has been built up twice. Floors get strengthened where the survey says they need it, and noggins go in between joists under the bath and the shower tray. Walls get made good so tiling has something true to sit on. It is the same preparation stage as a loft conversion installer in Elphinstone job. Get this wrong and everything above it is decoration.
Tiling, Fixtures and Finishes for Elphinstone Homes
A small room punishes bad setting out. In a bathroom under two and a half metres wide, a tile course started in the wrong place leaves a sliver cut on the most visible wall.
Tiling is set out from the finished floor level rather than the existing one, and from the centre line of the main wall so the cuts land in the corners. Fixtures are set against the stud and joist positions, since a wall hung basin or a concealed cistern needs a frame fixed to something structural. Vanity units and any fitted panelling are built in the workshop the way a garage conversion specialist in Elphinstone would build a stud wall, which is to say made to the dimension the room turned out to be rather than to a nominal size.
Plumbing, Electrics and Waterproofing
This is the half of the job you will never see again, so it is the half worth being fussy about.
Waste runs need a continuous fall, and on a suspended timber floor that means notching within the permitted zone of the joist rather than wherever the pipe wants to go. Shower areas are tanked before tiling: boards, taped joints, banded corners. Sealant at the edge is not waterproofing and never was. Circuits, extraction and lighting go in at first fix, with the extraction ducted out rather than into a loft void. The same standard runs bathroom designs in Tranent.
Installation Timeline and Project Management
A bathroom is the one room a household cannot work around, so the sequence is arranged to shorten the days it is out of use rather than the days on site.
Strip out and first fix run together. Then the floor and the walls are made good, then tanking, then tiling, then second fix and the joinery last. Materials are on site before the strip out starts, because a room waiting on a delivery is a room out of use for nothing. One team runs it start to finish, the same way bathroom refurbishments in Prestonpans are run. You get the sequence in writing with the quote.
Where a household has one bathroom, the order changes to suit that. The soil connection and the waste are made good before the old suite goes, so the room can be brought back into use at the end of a day rather than left open overnight. Where there is a second toilet in the house the sequence can run straight through, which is usually the shorter route. Which of the two applies is settled at survey along with everything else.
Want a price for Bathroom Renovations in Elphinstone? Ask George Herkes & Son Joinery for a free quote.
People Also Ask: Bathroom Renovations in Elphinstone
What kind of bathrooms do you do in Elphinstone?
Both kinds you are likely to have. Small upstairs rooms in the older village stock and post-war council houses, with a stack on an outside wall and a timber floor, and the later infill properties with a solid floor where the fall has to be found in the build up.
What do you usually find when you strip one out here?
A rotted board under the bath, dead pipework capped and left in a wall, and a tile bed built up more than once. The village has been plumbed and replumbed over the years, so we strip back rather than build over what is there.
What is the most expensive part of a bathroom renovation?
Usually what you cannot see, which is the floor, the falls and any pipework that has to move. The suite and the tiles are the part people price and the part that decides least. The figure comes from the survey. We answer How much on average does it cost to have a new bathroom fitted? in full in a separate guide.
Do you tank the shower?
Yes, before tiling. Boards go on, joints are taped and corners are banded, so the waterproofing is behind the tile. Sealant at the edge is not waterproofing and was never meant to be.
