"T i m" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

Today I took my (70 ish year old) Mum round the sheds because she
would like a new bathroom. Dad isn't into DIY (now) and she tends to
drive anything that get's done these days (she also tripped over a
speed bump in the carpark, hitting the deck and cutting the finger
that was nearly bitten off by a dog a while back) ;-(

They were talking of removing the huge cast iron bath (any value ..
horse trough, planter etc or is it sledge hammer time?) and replacing
it with a shorter one (just to retain a 'bath') and fitting a decent
sized shower cubicle that would take a stool (for Dad) etc.

None of the sheds had a 'short' bath on display but did have corner
(and semi corner) ones but they would upset the useable layout of the
smallish bathroom.

I think I've found some 'studio' baths out there in internet land but
wondered if anyone had any experience of them in the flesh so to
speak?

Just for a bit more background .. they have a fairly old central
heating system (wall mounted balanced flue with pumped indirect system
to rads / cylinder (was all convection / coal fired)) and now what
seems to be fashionable flat panel cast iron rads ;-)

So, questions if I may ..

Where could we see a range of good (but not 'deluxe' / expensive)
shorter baths?

Who does a nice range of 'roomy' shower cubicles (spec as above). What
are the pro's / cons re over / under floor plumbing on the shower
waste please?

I think Dad would like a 'power shower' but believe you can't have
pumped shower and a combi / sealed boiler (if they were to go over to
one with a heating upgrade in the future)?

Any general tips / advice welcome please ;-)

All the best for 2005 ..


Go to a "proper" bathroom shop. Not a facetious comment, they will have the
catalogues etc., and may (if you are lucky) be able to give advice. Assuming
there is one near you, of course. Stuff that is not available in the sheds
will be more expensive though.

In this particular circumstance, both sides of the combi argument would
probably agree that a combi is fine and you wouldn't need a power (pumped)
shower. If it's a long way off, you would just have to dump the pump at the
time.

Cast iron bath: If in good nick and out on a truck it might be worth
something, but you've got to get it out which will generally involve a
desperate slide into madness or (more likely) the use of a sledge hammer and
a large amount of aggro.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)