Small shower room update 3...

Well, its been going on since the beginning of November 2012 but at least now the end is in sight... At the beginning of February it was as here.

We wanted some 50mm  plastic finishing strip to cover the two sides of the shower tray... Can you buy it in France?  We think the answer is no. Its normal use is for finishing around PVC windows but the French design differs and such strip is not necessary. We did many kilometres looking, so if you do know differently please get in touch.

The plastic finishing strip was obtained whilst in the UK but as it apparently only comes in 45 and 65 mm, we bought some of each. The 45 mm did the job perfectly. This allowed us to complete the tiling  and the grouting (as yesterdays post).

We picked up the door from Leroy Merlin on Monday after ordering it  and waiting for the one month supply time... That should be a post in itself, but it went in the car on its end, NOT flat! And under the supervision of the man from Leroy's.

It got to Braye in one piece but the assembly was a different story! It fell over and but for a miracle only damaged the bedroom wall and skirting board... Well it is toughened glass!!

Today we fitted it...

It is designed for a room width of between 122 and 128cms and achieves this by sliding in the two wall channels shown above.  Our room is 126.5cms wide now it has been re-tiled.

It's looking good and all that is now required to finish it is some silicon in various places and some more of the 45mm plastic finishing strip at either of the external ends... To cover the bit of blue tanking still visible...

We look forward to the opening ceremony in the very near future. 

All is revealed

Following on from yesterdays post, removal of the old shower tray is now complete. The job went reasonably smoothly and once the concrete had been removed from both sides the old tray could be lifted. It was held in place by the waste which had to be unscrewed from the top using a special tool, which we did not have, so made do with a hammer and screwdriver.

Unfortunately because of the power of the breaker we ended up with a chip in the shower tray and several loose tiles, at floor level, in the adjacent toilet. They had been shaken loose... Not surprising given the water content of the plaster.

The removal was quite revealing. You have to admire the ingenuity of the French builders.

The new tray we are proposing to fit is 120cm by 90cm so it will go virtually fully across the width which is 127cm. It is only 40mm high so fitting is is going to be fun...  once it has dried out with the help of our dehumidifier  (from damp Lancashire).

This brings us to the removal of the spoil

and our old friend la déchetterie at Richelieu. See here. We are now two years + down the line and despite a visit to the Mairie at Richelieu, where we were told it is processed by the man at the déchetterie, we still have no card.

So for the third time the very helpful man (Alain Delaunay) took our paperwork and said the card would be delivered by courier!!!

We wait in anticipation.

Does size matter?

We have started work upgrading our small shower room which when it was built was not correctly waterproofed. This has resulted in damp patches on the next door toilet and bedroom walls. We did try some expensive tile spray but this appeared to make no difference whatsoever. As you can see from the pictures the existing 80 x 80 shower tray was well and truly fixed in position.

Investigations reveiled that at either side had been cast large blocks of concrete... Far too much for Colin and his lump hammer. Mechanical assistance was required.

So after some searching, looking at both hire and purchase options, we found what we thought was a small concrete breaker on Ebay UK for £95 with £6 delivery to us here in France. Interestingly the same item on Ebay France was €269. The said item was ordered...

Today it arrived... However it is a little larger than we expected...

It is a full blown tremendously powerful concrete breaker.

It sure made short work of the concrete at the side of the shower tray

In fact it is so powerful I was shattered after removing just one side. 

It is certainly value for money and poses the question how is the postage only £6 when it cost me €41 to send a router back to Amazon (Amazon did refund it).

So I suppose size doesn't matter, it's doing the job. You could also say "Should have gone to specsavers"

The bonus is I can put an advert on line "L'homme à la location avec grand outil"