When we got back to site on the Monday morning we had a weep on the sink waste and a weep on the shower unit.  The sink weep was easy enough for Stu to sort out, but the shower one was a bit trickier.  Stu had to have the plasterboard wall off on the landing so he could access the shower pipe work.  He tracked the weep down and set about putting it right.  While Stu actioned that, I set about laying the last of the tiles. By lunch time, the weeps were sorted and all the tiles laid.  In the afternoon I grouted up the tiles, while Stu siliconed the shower and bath.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I left Stu in the bathroom to fit the bath panels and plumb in the sink and the towel rad while I set about taking out the two in built wardrobes, knocking down the block wall that was at the back of the two built in wardrobes and erecting new stud work so that one bedroom had a new stud wall in it, while the other bedroom gained a larger walk in wardrobe.

I finished off the wardrobe stud work on Thursday by boarding it out with plaster board so John and J the plasterers could do their thing on Friday.  Stu finished off in the bathroom by fitting the toilet and the shower screen.  Friday morning we travelled over in the snowy conditions, which weren’t too bad, until we got to the drive way of where we were working.  Unfortunately this is positioned on a hill, and the van started slipping and sliding as I tried to find grip.  We had travelled for 45 minutes no problem, but nearly became a cropper in the last few metres of the journey!  John and J arrived shortly after wards and set about their work, while Stu and I had a good tidy up and left late morning as there was nothing we could do until the plastering had been finished.

On the Monday and Tuesday we were back in Peterborough doing some extra work for a client which involved putting me putting in a new insulated stud wall in a bedroom while Stu took out an existing rad, and then replaced an old rad with a new double rad.  John and the J the plasterers then turned up to plaster skim the new wall, and skim over the existing artexed ceiling.

On Wednesday we picked up a load of bathroom wall tiles on our way in to work.  The Wednesday and Thursday were just about tiling as the all the walls had to be tiled, plus the new stud work with built in alcoves that we had built, so there were plenty of tile cuts to keep us busy.  On Friday while I continued to tile, Stu set about plumbing in the bath and shower unit, especially as the clients had been without either for nearly two weeks.  Stu got the shower and bath working and although things were not ideal, the clients at least could stay at home and use their facilities instead of the local gyms!

The focus this week was the bathroom refurbishment, so Monday was about taking out all the existing furniture, and stripping off all the wall tiles and seeing what we were going to be left with.  As it turned out, it ended up the worst case scenario with most of the old plaster and cement render coming off with the tiles and leaving us with a lot of exposed brick work, and a lot of mess to tidy up!  The following day we continued our demolition works as it were by taking out the old block built boiler cupboard that encroached space wise into the bathroom.  So by having this out it provided some much needed new floor space.  As it turned out we ended up having the door frame and door out as well as it wasn’t particularly safe after having the block work out.  So this meant putting in a whole new stud wall and door lining.  The client decided the open plan bathroom and landing area was a bit too modern for them!  In the afternoon we had all the old floorboards up to expose the pipe work and for Stu to see what he had to work with.  By the end of the day Stu had run in his new pipe work feeds to the bath, toilet and sink and I followed along laying the new sheet floor boards.
 

On Wednesday we fixed the new stud work wall into position.  While Stu finished that off I bonded out two of the three walls so we had something better to work with when it came to tiling.  The third wall was so bad we decided to plasterboard it instead of trying to spend time bonding it out.  On Thursday Stu primed all the walls with PVA ready for tiling while I plaster skimmed the ceiling.  In the afternoon we layed the new floor tiles.  The next day Stu set about provisionally plumbing in the bath and the shower while I fitted the hidden cistern and then erected some stud work around it with some alcoves built into it to provide storage.  Unfortunately there had been an issue with the wall tiles, and they wouldn’t be into the supplier until Tuesday of next week.  So we will be dropping back to Peterborough to do a couple of days work there before heading back out to Northampton on the Wednesday to make a start on some tiling.

The working week started on Tuesday with Stu plumbing the w.c pipe work into the mains, and then running the hot and cold feeds to the sink.  While Stu was doing that I insulated and plaster boarded the door stud work, and then set about boarding the toilet stud work with MDF so all the pipe work was hidden from sight.  Stu made a start on hanging the w.c door.  On Wednesday Stu finished hanging the w.c door and fitted all the door furniture, then started on a new door for the boiler cupboard. As he was working to an old door frame not everything lined up, so there was plenty of adjustment required to get the door to hang properly.  I fixed the stud work for the sink, and then boarded the stud work with MDF to finish it off, and then plaster skimmed the door wall plasterboard in the afternoon.
 

Thursday was about getting the w.c all finished off.  Stu fitted the sink taps and waste and then set about plumbing it in to the water feeds and waste pipe work.  I was trying to fix the toilet, but kept having problems with the hidden cistern.  It would flush ok, but then it would continue to feed water into the pan on a constant basis and the cistern wouldn’t fill up.  So I had to have the cistern out and strip it all down, put it back together and then hope that it would do the trick and work ok, which it did.  The next niggle was a small water drip from the pan connector and the waste pipe work.  With it being a back to the wall pan, it was hard to see where the drip was coming from, so we had to have the toilet on and off several times trying to remedy the situation.  After a while we got it all fixed in with no more drips or problems, but those two little problems cost us time, which was a pain in the bum but these things happen.
 

On Friday we took care of some of the minor jobs that needed doing before moving onto the bathroom refurb next week.  Between us we finished off the boiler cupboard door, re-pointed some cement work for the flat roof lead work and siliconed around the lead work to give it all a water tight finish, and nearly finished the block paving on the drive area but ended up a few bricks short, typical!.