Plumbers have just made the water system live (major milestone, will allow us to move in very soon) and made a small discovery.

 

We have two Hansgrohe ibox valves in our ensuite - one for shower and one for bath. Both have a primary outlet (shower head, bath filler) and a secondary (pencil shower).

 

Shower works fine but bath is back to front, i.e. the pencil is the primary. Plumber admits that he had done them both the same out of habit and did not look too closely at the valves themselves having never had an issue before. Turns out that this type of HG bath valve, the bottom connection is the primary, opposite to the shower.

 

So, two options (aside from buying a new valve).

 

1) go to the room next door, hack out the wall, swap it around and make good.

2) buy one of these as suggested by the HansGrohe customer helpline. Effectively make the selector knob sit out by default and it is now pushed in to activate the secondary. £26 for a spring !

 

We're going for 2) right now but the Mrs is not happy so we reserve the right to ask the plumber to do 1) if needs be.

 

Have to say, the HG helpline is very good and they jumped on the issue immediately, me thinks we're not the first to to have this problem.

 

Anyone else come across this issue?

Apologies, I missed this one. 

Im with your missus tbh, get it chopped out and redone if you can get at it from the adjacent room. It'll only do you nut in after you move in and you'll then not want the grief. 

"Don't spoil the ship for a penny of tar"   

On 8/28/2016 at 23:39, Nickfromwales said:

Apologies, I missed this one. 

Im with your missus tbh, get it chopped out and redone if you can get at it from the adjacent room. It'll only do you nut in after you move in and you'll then not want the grief. 

"Don't spoil the ship for a penny of tar"   

 

As it happens we found a leak in the en-suite last Saturday - not disastrous but enough to stain the living room ceiling. So off goes the water and out come the plumbers on Tuesday.

 

After a good hunt, we realised that it was behind the vanity unit so that had to come off  - previous crew had used the Sikaflex EBT to bond the sink to the cabinet and the cabinet to the wall so it did not want to budge. In the resulting removal, the corner of the double sink got a hairline crack. Everyone amazed at the adhesive properties of that stuff.

 

Then the tiles came off (very cleanly I might add) and the source was found - drywall screw through the cold feed to the loo. Quickly fixed and we're dry again.

 

I got MagicMan out to fix the sink (he'd previously fixed a few chips & scratches in the resin bath) and that's pretty much good as new. He also touched up a few other bits (chip to a veered door and scratch to the front door) - quite the miracle worker, they can repair practically any hard surface from tiles to ceramic to wood to worktop etc...

 

Tile shop still had tiles from same batch in stock and tiler is back next week to make good.

 

So, while we were looking at the chaos, we decided to bite the bullet and take off the tile & plaster that covered the bath mixer - luckily everything was accessible so the plumber swapped the primary and secondary in 30 mins. 

 

Plastering boss came out today and is happy to cover the cost of the damage, so in a few days we'll be good as new.

 

Hoping to actually move in tomorrow...

 

4 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

Hoping to actually move in tomorrow...

 

Wow! Great news, Hugh. Bet you're excited 

I am going to ask a very dumb question (I am an electrician so not used to the "ways" of plumbing)

 

These are thermostatic mixer valves that can send the output water to a primary or a secondary port as explained.

 

So here's the dumb question: Why have a different one for the shower and the bath? They both do the same function, so I am staggered there is a "bath" version and a "shower" version, and even more staggered at the stupidity of having the ports opposite way around depending on which one you buy.

 

3 hours ago, worldwidewebs said:

Wow! Great news, Hugh. Bet you're excited 

 

Exhausted is closer, excitement will follow

 

44 minutes ago, ProDave said:

 

So here's the dumb question: Why have a different one for the shower and the bath? They both do the same function, so I am staggered there is a "bath" version and a "shower" version, and even more staggered at the stupidity of having the ports opposite way around depending on which one you buy.

 

 

They are different styles but one is clearly for baths and one for showers. We figured the logic was that for a bath, the filler (primary) will be below the control and the shower (secondary) will be above. For a shower, the primary (shower head) is above and secondary (wand) is below.

 

We have ours plumbed in a row for the bath - looks neat (or will do when the tiles go back on).

Some pictures would round this off nicely

 

On 03/09/2016 at 08:41, Nickfromwales said:

Some pictures would round this off nicely

 

I suspect that Nick is talking about the house in general rather than the bath tap.  Congrats.  We're only about 6 months behind you

Nope. I'm a simple chap, just some pics of the finished bath tap install. . 

Some pics of the showers / Wetrooms too please.

 

7 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Nope. I'm a simple chap, just some pics of the finished bath tap install. . 

Some pics of the showers / Wetrooms too please.

 

 

Plumbing porn, I get it

 

Will do so Weds - tiler's not been yet so it's all still exposed.

I feel so dirty. 

55 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Plumbing porn, I get it

 

Will do so Weds - tiler's not been yet so it's all still exposed.

 

I have a feeling @Nickfromwales likes the exposed shots  

That's all in the past ok 

Here's a bunch of pics - first ones are the kids general bathrooms and the last is the replumbed bath filler.

 

Tiles have now been replaces so we'll get everything back Monday.

Lusso stone bath ?

10 hours ago, Trw144 said:

Lusso stone bath ?

 

Yes ! Weighs a ton and did not have enough space underneath for the drain plus elbow and a trap so a hole was cut in the floor - the fittings they supply are rubbish.

 

Nice bath though.

 

15 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Yes ! Weighs a ton and did not have enough space underneath for the drain plus elbow and a trap so a hole was cut in the floor - the fittings they supply are rubbish.

 

Nice bath though.

 

I think we ve got the same one and matching sink. Not fancying carrying it upstairs though.

1 hour ago, Trw144 said:

 

 

I think we ve got the same one and matching sink. Not fancying carrying it upstairs though.

We had to use a genie lift - you may need to take your stairs out to use one. There was no way it was going up the stairs - box was 180kg and add four lads to that and you need beefy stairs!

Your probably right  - fortunately we have quite a large stairwell so I should probably get it up sooner rather than later

@Bitpipe your bathrooms look great! Clean lines, simple colours, modern, not cluttered....right up my street.

and a pocket door too which I equally like for bathrooms.

 

P.S. Are those drawers below the sinks?

Edited September 11, 201610 yr by Barney12

On 9/11/2016 at 20:01, Barney12 said:

@Bitpipe your bathrooms look great! Clean lines, simple colours, modern, not cluttered....right up my street.

and a pocket door too which I equally like for bathrooms.

 

P.S. Are those drawers below the sinks?

 

Thanks!

 

All credit to the Mrs who designed them. Bath & cabinets are from Lusso stone, fittings from Hansgrohe via Megabad and the tile were £30/sqm from local tile shop (Spacers) and an excellent local tiler.

 

The sink cabinets hang off the wall and the sink sits on top. Plumbers applied SikaFlex to the sink and cabinet for extra purchase (which, as we found when removing the ensuite sink post leak, is absolutely bombproof).

On 10 September 2016 at 20:59, Trw144 said:

Your probably right  - fortunately we have quite a large stairwell so I should probably get it up sooner rather than later

 

Person fitting my balcony glass is hiring a manitou and has offered to lift the bath on same day so saves on a genie lift. Bonus.

@Trw144 and @Bitpipe - We're about to order about £4k of kit from Lusso Stone - we were going to get the wastes from them to match - did I pick up earlier they are not great quality?

 

Also a bit down the line are you chaps happy with the product? 

 

 

@Bitpipe - is your shower tray Lusso? I'm thinking of going down that route if they can bespoke the sizes for us. THanks, J

@jamiehamy 

 

no, I ve been more than happy with the quality of the baths and sinks (touchwood). Do weigh an absolute ton though - friend of mines just ordered a bath for his place (not a new build) and I really can't see how he's going to get it up his stairs