Wet Room

Written for a HA property with a pretty wrecked Wet-Room.

Renew bathroom/Wet-Room complete

Temporarily disconnect all hot and cold water feeds and waste water drainage connections to the bathroom and disconnect all electrical connections to the shower and make safe.

Remove the defective electrical shower and fittings.

Disconnect WC, cistern and waste connections and make good. Retain WC and cistern if sound.

Take up the “wet room” flooring complete and thoroughly examine all floor timbers for wet rot damage and replace all defective timbers with new, sound sections of pressure treated timber.

Provide new proprietary wet room floor

Provide a new wet-room floor such as an Aquaproof Wet-Room Tanking System or suitable equivalent.

Angle of the Wet-Room Floor (Slope to Falls)

The Slope to Falls is the required incline in the floor that runs from the edges of the designated wet area to the waste outlet. The minimum recommended fall is 15mm and the maximum recommended ratio is 85:1, (i.e. for every 85mm the incline travels towards the waste outlet the floor level will fall 1mm.)

It is imperative that the slope to falls is formed into the floor itself. The floor must not be flat and you should never try to create the falls with tiling.

Use a “Shower Tray Former” to match existing shower room layout.

The Shower Tray Former can be installed onto a wooden deck or a concrete floor.

Wet-Room Floor - Structural Rigidity

It is important that a wetroom floor is rigid and stable prior to tanking & tiling. On a wooden deck the joists will need to be stabilised in the immediate shower area and this is done by constructing a sub floor within the joist space using 18mm Plywood. The minimum recommended thickness of the flooring to be laid on top of the joists is 20mm as recommended in Building Regulations.

Ideally a Shower Tray Formers would be installed directly over the sub floor and then the rest of the floor would be over laid with 24mm marine grade plywood or a quality WBP board (not chipboard).

Wet-Room Drainage (Waste Outlets)

The wet-room drain (waste outlet) should be a top accessed, trapped unit with a constant flow rate in excess of the output of the shower running at full capacity. The waste outlets can be supplied as standard with Shower Tray Formers and in this case should have a constant flow rate of 46 litres per minute, which is normally more than adequate for a regular wet-room shower arrangement.

• ==However, if the wet-room is to have body jets and a deluge shower head etc, then an upgraded waste may be required. In this case waste units with constant flow rates of 60 or 120 litres per minute can be purchased as separate units.==

Wet-Room Waterproofing (Tanking)

All wet-rooms must be tanked. Unless the designated shower area is to be completely isolated within the bathroom by partitions, then the minimum requirement for waterproofing a wet-room is to do the entire floor area, turn up the walls a minimum 100mm and floor to ceiling to the walls in the immediate shower area. If the area is isolated then the waterproofing can be restricted to that area, but should extend beyond it by a minimum 300mm.

The waterproofing system must follow the contours of the slope to falls (hence the reason why the incline must be formed into the floor) and be dressed into the waste unit to seal it.

New Waste Connections

Strip out WC flexible hose connector and wash hand basin waste pipes and make good to bathroom walls in preparation.

Provide a shower, wash hand basin and water closet to the bathroom enclosure, satisfying the following requirements:

• Supply and install in a suitable location an electric shower and fittings, which is connected to the drainage system by means of trapped waste pipes. The wall surfaces within the shower compartment are to be impervious and capable of being kept clean and hygienic.
• Supply and install in a suitable location a new water closet comprising toilet pan with hinged lift up seat and flap and flushing cistern. The water closet is to be connected to the drainage system by means of trapped waste pipes. If existing WC is to be retained, all flexible waste connectors are to be discarded and renewed with suitable hard uPVC connections to current Building Regulation Requirements. Test all connections to water and cistern an ensure suitable lock valve if present to mains water feed,
• provide new wash hand basin and ensure that it is properly connected to the drainage system by means of trapped waste pipes. Supply and fit two courses of ceramic wall tiles as a “splashback” behind the sink using a suitable tile adhesive and waterproof grouting. Provide mastic seal where sink abuts the wall.
• Connect the shower compartment/trap, wash hand basin and water closet to adequately sized waste pipes capable of carrying wastewater out of the premises and discharging it into vertical drains connected to the main sewerage system. All waste carrying pipes are to be designed to prevent draughts and foul air entering the premises. Ensure that the tanking system is impermeable around securely fastened new amenities.
• Reconnect all hot and cold water feeds and test.
• Provide and fix in this room a proper means of electrical lighting suitably connected to the wiring circuit. Light switch to be of the pull-cord type.
• Install a mechanical means of ventilation, with heat recovery. The ventilation is to effect not less than 30 air changes per hour and discharge directly to the external air.
• The door to this room is to be fitted with a suitable sliding bolt lock.
• All electrical works are to comply with the I.E.E Wiring Regulations, and by an authorised competent electrician is a member of one of the following organisations: NICEIC certifications service Ltd, BRE certification Ltd, NAPIT certification Ltd, ELECSA Ltd or British Standards Institution.

New door to bathroom

Provide and install a new door to the bathroom; door to be a close fitting solid door of sound traditional construction, close fitting into the frame. Any locks must allow internal egress without the use of a key.