This article is part of a series of articles that highlight two of the MANY ways that we focus on doing a proper job when installing your bathroom so you can be sure that it will last for years to come.

Bath Supporting Frame Before With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Bath Supporting Frame After With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

What we do to ensure a good job when fitting a bath:
  1. We make a frame to support the bath properly

As a matter of course we ensure all our installed baths are supported by a wooden frame around their perimeter:

Bath Frame To Support Bath With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Bath Correctly Supported With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

This limits the amount that the bath rim flexes when the bath is full of water & occupants, and this lack of deflection helps to preserve all the silicon seals around the bath that prevent unwanted water ingress from occurring.

We really care about stopping water penetration into unwanted areas and so should you!

Is it cheaper to NOT support a bath in this manner?

In the short term, yes of course it is, as banging in the bath in 10 minutes takes no labour, materials or comparative effort.

In the long term, definitely not!

Its the difference between cost & value, and is something we always talk to our customers about.

High quality workmanship, which may ‘cost’ more because it takes longer to do things correctly, represents good value as it ensures a quality bathroom installation that will last for years.

Bad workmanship, which may ‘cost’ less up front, represents poor value if it necessitates work being re-done at greater expense at a later date.

Putting things right at a later date often costs 3 or 4x the amount that it would have done to do them correctly at the time. Pay once and have it done right!

Bath Area Tanked With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Bath And Shower Over With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

To all those plumbers banging in suites on the cheap, thanks very much!We get loads of full scale bathroom refurbishments (caused by leaks) that could have easily been prevented by doing things properly to start with.

Prevention is better than cure.

2. We seal baths & shower trays properly

Wrongly Fitted Bath With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

a) We fit the bath in the correct order – i.e. normally BEFORE wall tiling

This allows for a more watertight seal that will stand the test of time.

PS We also know when to break the rules such as here:

Freestanding Bath With Chrome Waste And Overflow With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

….where the freestanding nature of the bath shows the walls behind it, thus necessitating the wall tiling to be completed prior to fitting the bath.

Incorrect Bath Fitting With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Above you can see an incorrectly sealed bath.

The bath has not been primary sealed to the wall prior to tiling (however, you can see the secondary silicon seal that seals the tiles to the bath.)

b) We always seal the bath to the wall at 1st fix with mould resistant sanitary silicon and clips where necessary.

This ensures the bath or shower tray is fixed solidly, and that any water that gets through a broken or damaged secondary silicon seal will be stopped in its tracks and not get anywhere unwanted.

c) When sealing between the bath and the wall tiles around it, we ensure that we fill the bath full of water.

This helps to ensure that when the bath is eventually filled with water (and is therfore much heavier) it does not pull away from the wall tiles above resulting in a broken silicone seal.

(This movement is limited by building a framework also.)

This in turn helps to ensure that water-tightness is maintained over time.

Its a simple technique but one that can have major consequences if not followed…

Consider this:

I sub contracted on a job a while ago and the plumber had not followed any of the procedures that I insist on i.e. supporting baths as mentioning above & following the three silicone sealing tips highlighted above.As a result of the bath being unsupported, the secondary silicon seal had broken around the bath due to the bath flexing under the load of the occupants and water.

Water from the shower had started to permeate in between the bath and the wall tiles through the broken silicon seal.

Over time, this water trickled down the boarded stud wall (as there was no primary silicon seal as a 2nd line of defense) before hitting the floor and spreading under the newly laid floor tiles in this bathroom and also the newly refurbished en-suite on the other side of the stud wall.

Broken Silicon Seal On Bathroom Installation Leeds With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

So what happened?
All of the floor tiles came loose due to the leak, so had to be lifted, the sub floor had to be replaced as it had swelled due to the excess water and both rooms had to be retiled with new tiles. Also, the bath had to be removed and then fixed in place again.

Cost to put right
£750 + 2 weeks without bathing facilities when the remedial work was done.

Lessons learned
Do things right 1st time and avoid paying twice to save a few quid up front!

We do things the way we do for a reason and its not to bump up the fitting price unnecessarily!

Tiled In Bath Frame With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Tiled In Bath With Bathroom Installation In Leeds

Summary

These are just a few of the MANY small things we do (in many areas – not just plumbing) that others may not, that add up to a big difference in the overall quality of your fitted bathroom.

If you are going to invest in a new bathroom, you want it to last and you don’t want to waste your hard earned money.

The best way to do this is to invest in decent materials and experienced fitters that work to tried & tested standards to ensure longevity.

I hope you have found this useful, please leave a comment below or get in touch for a free site survey.

Chris

What we do

We install quality bathrooms from start to finish, with all the bits in between taken care of.

We provide advice and guidance during a free site survey, and we have a blog with lots of articles that cover frequently asked questions and show you examples of our recent work.

We install bathrooms from start to finish, supplying all the necessary trades and project managing the whole process, so you don’t have to!

We work to detailed, itemised estimates with fixed costs, so you can budget properly without fear of unexpected skyrocketing prices.

Our focus is on doing a proper job for a fair price in a reasonable time – see here for more info.