#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Construction in Thailand >  >  > Building in Thailand Famous Threads >  >  My bathroom project

## WhiteLotusLane

I'll be getting around to my bathroom project and promise to take pictures. 

It involves turning 2.5 x 2.5 meters of tiled desolate nothingness into something with a nice tub, some granite, wood and rocks/pebbles or rock-tiles, glass shower partition, towel cabinet, new wash basin mirror and lights all over the place. It will involve moving the door (breaking a new opening) and making the door open outward to be able to fit it all.  :Smile:  

To save costs I am not touching the existing wash basin and toilet as they're acceptable.  (Though the top of the sink is a pink-ish marble like material and I'm seriously tempted to replace that with the same black granite as will be used elsewhere around the tub & shower area.)  The existing electrical water heater is not powerful enough and not of the type that can be used with a bath faucet so I'm swapping the existing one with a better one in another bathroom where it will suffice for plain shower use.  I'm reusing some wood/laminate stuff and lights that I still have from my old house.

Budget is 13,500 for the tub (it's a big 'un), 6000 baht for bathtub tap & shower heads and 33,000 baht for all remaining materials and installation work, so a total of 52,500 baht.  This is all set in the Chiang Mai area and it's being done by the same people who worked on bathrooms for the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi (posh place) though no doubt they'll manage to shatter my usual unrealistically high expectations in one way or another. After all I need this done on a sensible budget. 

I'm buying tub & taps from Noppadol Phanit in Chiang Mai on the Superhighway ringroad, which is on the left when driving from the Doi Saket Rd intersection (San Dek) towards the Mae Jo Rd intersection.

This is the tub: Bathroomtomorrow.com though I'm ordering it plain, without all the bubbles & lights hoopla.  Check out the rest of that site, some impressive (and expensive) stuff there that mostly won't fit in your bathrooms.  :Smile:

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## WhiteLotusLane

Pictures of the current state:

 
Just a shower on the wall..


Wash basin.. it's okay, though black granite on top would be nicer.. Note how low the mirror is.. all I see is basically my gut and nether regions.




Tiles..  not quite ugly enough to completely rip them out.

Encore: Pic of the view from Chiang Mai this afternoon..  nuttin to do with it:

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## ChiangMai noon

^
i thought you were in Pattaya.
That looks a lot like the view off the Hang Dong golf course looking towards Samoeng.

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## DrAndy

nice bathroom...oh, you haven't started yet, sorry

yes, get rid of the pink and replace it

try to get the classiest fittings; you can get budget ones that look and perform as well as the "posh" makes

the tiles are a bit worrying, but if you are on a budget, you will have to try to use them in your design...pink and black....hmmm

whatever, get some good lighting, it makes a big difference. A nice long light over the mirror as well as some downlights

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## NickA

Looks similar to mine, except mine has a bloody red toilet and sink (sorry, I don't mean red from blood, but bloody red, maybe better to say fekin red)....I've just done some tiling over on DD's tiles thread

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## WhiteLotusLane

> i thought you were in Pattaya.
> That looks a lot like the view off the Hang Dong golf course looking towards Samoeng


Spent some time in Pattaya, then thought 'nyeeeehhh' and packed up.  :Smile:   I still like the place, but I think it's best taken in moderation.  Also the hot weather and high humidity kind of got to me there.  I'll probably start missing the sea soon, and the, erm, Issan culture.

Pic is of Doi Suthep/Pui taken from the second ring road, in between the river and the Hang Dong road I think.

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## Marmite the Dog

> Location: Pattaya


Can you update your CP then please?

Ta.  :Smile:

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## Begbie

Marmite the Dog 

Location: Planet of the Apes

Of course your location is accurate. How's Charlton Heston these days ?  :rofl:

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## Marmite the Dog

> How's Charlton Heston these days?


Is that code for Surayud Chulanont?

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## WhiteLotusLane

> Originally Posted by WhiteLotusLane
> 
> Location: Pattaya
> 
> 
> Can you update your CP then please?
> 
> Ta.


Yes sir..   But what if Pattaya is still my spiritual home?

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## DrAndy

then god help you

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## WhiteLotusLane

:Very Happy:  

Don't worry; it was the first place I got to know in Thailand as the company I was working for had a factory in the area..   Still have fond memories of that time, but in the end I knew it was better to move on.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Ok, we're on track again.  The builders went AWOL for a bit but we got them back in their chains again.  Builders are like cats in that sense, you might not see them for a week and then they come waltzing in as if nothing happened, dragging in road-kill & som tam for lunch.   Or they might not come back at all.

As you may recall, with the door in the existing location you wouldn't be able to get into the bathroom anymore after fitting the tub, thus defeating the purpose of having a bathroom.  So we're breaking some wall to move the door.



I kind of like the big opening..  :Smile:   Why do doors always have to be the same size anyway; you could go with harmonica type sliding doors for rooms so you could have a large interior space which would also help air circulation..    Here though the right side will have to be reconstructed as the tub will go along the right side, with a shower partition in the left-back corner.  This layout means we don't have to fuck with the existing toilet & wash basin location.



The most common place for the tub would be against the back wall, but a slightly wider tub doesn't really fit well next to the toilet, and then placing a shower cabin / partition becomes more of an issue.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Because breaking walls is so much fun, we decided to break a little bit more.   :Smile:  This allows a little better position for the door.  Currently the door frame is being fitted; the door will open to the outside as opposed to before.



Also we're fitting a nice black granite slab to the wash basin.  Also decided *against* re-using an existing 4500 W water heater from another bathroom..  4500 W doesn't really cut it in the winter in the North if you like a steaming hot bath, so I bought an actual bathtub water heater.  A Panasonic one, 10,000 Watt.  7200 baht it was.     This however resulted in a problem for the shower area: there's only one tube and a standard 'open/close' tap installed currently. The water would get way to hot to connect that directly, so the best solution would be to buy another hot/cold mixing tap, break some more wall and run an extra 'hot' tube separate from the cold one.. . . ..      Decided against all that; far easier to just keep the existing shower heater for the shower for now.

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## DrAndy

> . This however resulted in a problem for the shower area: there's only one tube and a standard 'open/close' tap installed currently. The water would get way to hot to connect that directly, so the best solution would be to buy another hot/cold mixing tap, break some more wall and run an extra 'hot' tube separate from the cold one.. . . .. Decided against all that; far easier to just keep the existing shower heater for the shower for now.


I hope you have a good electricity supply with all that power requirement

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## WhiteLotusLane

Yup, they're running another cable.  But they're pretty good at electrical stuff, they were even going to do the ground wire without me having to ask them.  As for power requirement, it's I think unlikely to run both the shower cabin heater AND the bathtub heater at the same time; also the bathtub heater would find itself on 'Medium' most of the year I would guess.

Maybe one of these days I should run all 6 airconditioners, all water heaters, microwave, toaster, iron and the washing machine (a proper Siemens front loading one) at the same time and see if I start seeing sparks, or darkness.  :Smile:   ...  I normally wouldn't do that.. Actually I don't think I ever had more than 1 airconditioner running at the same time other than when they were just fitted and being tested. Actually most of the time I don't run any airconditioners, just some ceiling fans.

I would say that the mains electrical supply is up to it though, there's some really big houses in the same compound, no doubt with serious power hungry stuff inside.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Things were going a bit slow because the same crew was doing other stuff around my house as well, plus the bathtub took some time to be delivered from Bangkok.  But now things are moving again!


Re-building the brick wall next to the door frame. I'm not an expert on brick laying, but to my eye it doesn't look quite as gross as what I usually see for walls that will be rendered in cement anyway.


Putting in the drain pipe


Yay!!!  The tub arrives


Building the enclosure for the tub.   Good thing that we changed the door frame around to have the door open to the outside.  :Smile:

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## WhiteLotusLane

Rendered in cement:

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## WhiteLotusLane

Lots of things happened, most of them slowly and too insignificant to even be captured in pictures. 

We had a lot of wood flooring left, so this we're re-using in the bathroom. Initially they put it in a vertical pattern, which needlessly cut up a lot fo the material.  In the end we removed it all and did it again.



Same material also went on the front wall around the door.  Mostly because there was enough and because we couldn't find the same style tile as was on the wall that was broken out. On the left there will be a cupboard though the designer/contractor understood its position a little different from me, so actually on the bottom left is now wood paneling that will be completely covered by the cupboard.  (Cupboard will have a big laundry drawer below, and glass shelves for towels and the like and go all the way up to the ceiling, meaning the roof access panel that's there will have to be moved also)




THen for the wash basin, the mirror was way too low and needs to be re-done, and of course the basin top will be changed from pink-ish marble to black granite.



Finally, the door has been placed back. Painting needs to be done of course, fortunately we still have the same color paint somewhere.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Ok, lots of progress to report.  :Smile: 

First I'm happy to report that I'm not reminded of living in a construction site every time I walk up the stairs; wall looks tidy again, just needs the light switch:



Then the tub seems to fit well:



The towel cabinet is taking shape, it will just get some glass shelves.  We increased the budget a little but to make room for a drawer near the bottom for laundry: 



The granite top for the wash basin in place:



Now, this is the last spot that's still being vigorously debated: 



As you can see there's just not a whole lot of space left there for a shower area. The current plan is to go with a glass partition for part of the way next to the toilet, have a 15 cm edge right up to the bathtub and then towards the back wall, and an L shaped metal bar from the top of the glass partition towards the back wall.  On the floor will be semi-rough rock-like tiles; just 4 are shown but we'll cement them into the whole shower area. (80 x 120 cm I think..  I hope that's enough..  Well see.)

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## buad hai

Wow, looking quite nice.

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## Marmite the Dog

I still can't understand why anyone would want a bath-tub.

It does look very nice though.

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## jumbo

WhiteLotusLane,
Have you used the same granite for the bath surround, if so it looks good, I will pinch your idea when I install my bath. I was stuck for ideas for the finishing edge.

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## buad hai

> I still can't understand why anyone would want a bath-tub.


I don't know why, but I really love to take a bath. When I check into a hotel the first thing I like to do is draw a hot bath and just soak for a while.

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## Little Chuchok

> I still can't understand why anyone would want a bath-tub.
> 
> It does look very nice though.


Back home,most Real estate agents would tell you that it is high on the list with women.

After a huge night out I used to enjoy soaking in a hot bath to sweat it out.I stopped doing this when I woke up trying to inhale water.... :Very Happy:

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## WhiteLotusLane

> Have you used the same granite for the bath surround, if so it looks good, I will pinch your idea when I install my bath. I was stuck for ideas for the finishing edge.


Yup, same granite.  Around the shower partition will be an edge with the same granite on top as well.




> I don't know why, but I really love to take a bath. When I check into a hotel the first thing I like to do is draw a hot bath and just soak for a while.


Me too!  When I fist got to Thailand and lived in guesthouses and then a small apartment room, which didn't have baths or even hot water most of the time.  It was then that bathrooms became a priority in my life.  :Smile: 

Proper water pressure is another thing that brings great happiness to my life.   For the water supply to the bath one of the options considered was to actually run a separate tube from the water pump along the outside of the house directly to it.  :Smile:    It's the back of the house anyway, and in THailand you usually end up with a bunch of tubes & cables for airconditioning and the like stuck on your walls..   In the end they did locate where the pipe was in the wall, broke the wall from the back side (adjacent room) and will get the water from there.   Probably for the better.

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## Marmite the Dog

I haven't had a bath in years, but I am a Limey...

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## El Gibbon

As expected!    :Smile: 

E. G.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Some of the latest plumbing issues highlighted..

To find the water supply for the bath, the wall had to be broken.  Tiles of this type couldn't be found so I think the idea was to break it from the other side of the wall, though tiles still ended up breaking; not really sure.  Anyway they'll put some mosaic tiles in a simlar color in the affected area so I'm not that bothered.   

Still the pipe does get put in from the other side, and then into the OUTSIDE wall, before coming back to the water heater & tap. 

This is the bedroom wall on the other side of the bathroom:



Some tiles broken inside, but will be fixed:



This is where the pipes come back in; to the water heater above (which we will move a bit to the right; sigh ; and then to the faucet near the bath.



That faucet suddenly looks tiny, also because the bath is pretty big.  :Smile:   Note that bath has this bulge near the back so the tap will have to stand out from the wall a bit; had a discussion on that yesterday on how to make that look not ridiculous; considered were mounting a 'block' on the wall from where the faucet will attach to, or just finding some extra chromium bits.   It's not THAT far anyway, just another 2 cms to clear the bulge.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Almost done.  :Smile:   Will post final pictures when everything has been cleaned and is all gleaming and shiny. 

The last remaining issues are being addressed.  As per the separate topic there were some noises and water coming back from the ground floor bathroom floor-drain when the bath was drained; this improved a lot since I opened the over-flow drain a bit further, allowing air into the system. 

Then, they managed to mount the faucet not entirely straight.. sigh..  I only noticed it after entering the baht; hopefully some minor breaking and wiggling can put this right and if not: Sod it.

Final issue is the bath drain plug itself, which is perhaps a bit over-engineered in that it has a spring mechanism so that you can close it by pushing it down, and then opening it again by pushing it again, causing the spring to push it open..  Fancy, but it just works a bit weird and sometimes the spring doesn't open again.   So we called the company that makes the tub and fortunately they have a service center in Chiang Mai AND they sent a guy over the same day!   I was impressed.  Still, he didn't have the part for this particular tub so he's getting it from Bangkok.. Oh well, just hope he can sort it out.

Shower partition is finished, some nice rock-tiles were cemented to the floor, a glass partition went up and an L shaped steel rod for a shower curtain.  Granite edge around the floor of the shower area.  Looking good.

Wow.  Project of a lifetime.  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

> they managed to mount the faucet not entirely straight


Behind the 2 covers that fit next to the wall are 2 erm, fok knows what they are called, but both ends are threaded and they are off centre, just give one of them a little turn to straighten it up, if you prise the cover off you will understand what I mean. The word Concentric comes to mind, although I am not sure if that is a real word or not.

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## WhiteLotusLane

Thanks!! That's encouraging to hear.  :Smile:

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## WhiteLotusLane

Ok, some very minor things need finishing touches but nothing that will show on pictures, so here's the end result:



Shower area is done, has a granite edge around it and a partial glass partition.  



An L shaped stainless steel bar has been fitted for a shower curtain, and I'm happy to report I found one that's 2 meters tall which is is the exact right length to go down to below the granite edge but not all the way to the floor. 



The floor is small rock-tiles that have been completely cemented & grouted in. You can still see they're tiles, but at least they're an interesting & rough surface to stand on while showering.



In the middle some tiles were broken that couldn't be replaced in the same style, so went with some mosaic tiles in somewhat matching colors.  :Smile:  I think it looks okay.



This is what a 10,000 Watt water heater looks like.  (Yes, exactly like all the other ones.  :Smile:  )  This not only guarantees warm water in the cold season, it's also good to warm water fast enough to be able to open the tap fully (high water pressure) and still have very hot water.



Happy we replaced the top with matching black granite.  Also the mirror was replaced and is much taller now.



This is a cabinet for towels and the like. There's a drawer for dirty laundry at the bottom, and...



..and a down-light at the top.



As the towel cabinet is where the access panel to the roof area used to be, the latter was moved above the new door.



The front wall has wood laminate stuck to it (no matching tiles, remember  :Smile:  ) which looks nice. 

Overall I'm happy.  Cant' believe how long it took though, looking back at my first post in this topic this was June 6, it's now 20 July and they still have to come back one time to silicone a tiny granite block/stop near the top end of the bath to prevent water flowing towards the cabinet when using the shower that's mounted at the bottom end of the bath. All in all it was a 1.5 month project!

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## Whiteshiva

Looks great WLL!  Thanks for sharing your experiences and results with us.  Green on the way!

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## ThisOldHouse

Beautiful!  Great touches with the glass, the granite, the rock tiles, the cabinet, the laminate, downlight and all... lots of class!  I really appreciate the tall mirror too.
TOH

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## ChiangMai noon

Super job.
 :Smile:

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## WhiteLotusLane

Thanks, all!!!  :Smile:

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## Texpat

Nice job on your new bathroom.

When workers installed my bathtub, they got the drain pipes fecked up and had to bust into the concrete support basin to fix it.
Second time around creating the basin, they installed a wooden trap door for any future foul-ups.

Down lights are a nice touch.

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## jaiyenyen

Hi DD
I know this thread is a bit old now, but i thought i would answer your question about the tap fitting. Being a retired plumber from the UK, i'm happy to inform you that it is called a "concentric nipple". No jokes please!!!!!! 
Regards
Jaiyenyen

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## Whiteshiva

> Hi DD
> I know this thread is a bit old now, but i thought i would answer your question about the tap fitting. Being a retired plumber from the UK, i'm happy to inform you that it is called a "concentric nipple". No jokes please!!!!!! 
> Regards
> Jaiyenyen


Hey - a plumber (retired or not - doesn't matter!) - just what we need to advise us on some of the construction threads here on TD.  Welcome jaiyenyen - pull up a chair, help yourself to a drink and make yourself at home!

WS

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## Panda

The wife insists that in our new house the toilet and bathroom should be separate.  Reason given was privacy , but let me expand on that a bit. As we will probably end up with an extended family staying with us at any given time, the hong nam could get a work out, especially if someone has got the trots. And since Thais have a mandatory minimum 2 to 3 showers a day, it could restrict entry to the dunney in an emergency.

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## jaiyenyen

Thanks for the welcome WS,
I'm more than happy to help out when i can. I moved to Thailand in April, and i currently live in BKK with G/F and kids, but we have some land near Roi-et which we hope to build on in the future.
BTW, congratulations to WLL on a fine bathroom update.
Regards
Jaiyenyen

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