New Shower - How Many Tiles can be salvaged?

quazzy

Hi all,

I moved house about a year ago and am looking to add a new shower unit in the en-suite.

I'm not bothered about changing the tiles so my question is based around knowing how many tiles would be broken / damaged when removing the current shower head and fixings and adding a new one.

I haven't settled on what exactly I will be getting yet but was thinking of this (or similar)
http://www.taps4less.ie/PP/U-PBS016.html

Hopefully someone out there could give me an idea of what would be damaged / broken in the process of putting in the new fixutre.

I have 2 spare tiles in white and 2 in blue but I'm assuming the white ones are the ones I'll need.

See picture for details



Thanks in advance

biketard

The answer would depend a lot on what the old shower unit looks like.

quazzy

biketard wrote: »

The answer would depend a lot on what the old shower unit looks like.

the old shower unit is pictured in my first post

doctorchopper

a pipe is going to need to be run inside the wall from the mixer to shower head so i would say at least 6 of the white tiles and possible one of your border tiles depends whats under the old mixer unit

Sleeper12

Can I suggest you go with a known brand. Triton, Mira, Aqualisa etc.

You can still get parts for mira showers from 40 years ago.

The question you need to ask is if you need to replace the cartridge or spindle in 6 or 7 years will the manufacturer still be in business and will you be able to repair the shower or will you have to replace the hole shower again.

Have a look at showerdoc UK website. If you can't find the manufacturer of your shower listed there then it's very likely you will have trouble down the road.

doctorchopper

also could you not get something similar to avoid disturbing all the tiles

K.Flyer

Personally I would just fully recondition the shower valve with new parts and get another 15 or so years out of it.
Change the white plastic cover on the connection coming out of the wall for a chrome one and fully replace the hose and rail set .
Re-use the bottom fixing hole when fitting the new rail set and worse case scenario you will only have one small drill hole to fill.
Easy solution, relatively cheap, ultra reliable shower valve and no tiles required, simples

quazzy

Thanks for the posts everyone.

A few options to consider.

Will post back when I decide or if I need more feedback.

Thanks again

biketard

quazzy wrote: »

the old shower unit is pictured in my first post

Ahh, sorry. My work's firewall must've filtered it out for some reason.

Tony Beetroot

biketard wrote: »

Ahh, sorry. My work's firewall must've filtered it out for some reason.

Must have thought it was nudey stuff.

biketard

Tony Beetroot wrote: »

Must have thought it was nudey stuff.

Not to take this thread off-topic, but it really does filter out the most ridiculous stuff. I once got a warning message that a link to a picture contained nudity, so I checked it out at home (just for research, you understand). It was a picture of a tree.

Tony Beetroot

Its a disaster, any way in solving it?

quazzy

K.Flyer wrote: »

Personally I would just fully recondition the shower valve with new parts and get another 15 or so years out of it.
Change the white plastic cover on the connection coming out of the wall for a chrome one and fully replace the hose and rail set .
Re-use the bottom fixing hole when fitting the new rail set and worse case scenario you will only have one small drill hole to fill.
Easy solution, relatively cheap, ultra reliable shower valve and no tiles required, simples

I'm gonna look into this option.

It seems a good way to go and less chance of tiling disasters.

quazzy

Found this Mira unit that looks like it would work well for me

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mira-1-1736-423-Thermostatic-Shower-Mixer/dp/B00C51D1DK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433485678&sr=8-1&keywords=mira+agile+eco+ev

Gonna keep looking around

Sleeper12

quazzy wrote:

Found this Mira unit that looks like it would work well for me

Mira are famous for the quality on their shower valves.

quazzy

One additional question.

If I just upgrade the shower fixings (based on the original pic) can I add a shower pump (in attic or hotpress) without interfering with the new en-suite shower.

My assumption is that the pump just connects to the hot and cold feeds and outputs to the pipes that head to the en-suite shower.

OR is some modification required

K.Flyer

quazzy wrote: »

One additional question.

If I just upgrade the shower fixings (based on the original pic) can I add a shower pump (in attic or hotpress) without interfering with the new en-suite shower.

My assumption is that the pump just connects to the hot and cold feeds and outputs to the pipes that head to the en-suite shower.

OR is some modification required

Generally some pipe-work adjustment will be required in the hot-press to facilitate the correct fitting of the pump.
There should be no need to modify the pipe-work at the shower. If you are going to stick with your original valve, the valve is designed so that all of the internal components can be replaced, effectively leaving you with as good as new shower valve.
I still know of a few of this model shower valve that I fitted over twenty years ago still operating with no problems, virtually bullet proof compared to some of the rubbish being sold today.

quazzy

K.Flyer wrote: »

Generally some pipe-work adjustment will be required in the hot-press to facilitate the correct fitting of the pump.
There should be no need to modify the pipe-work at the shower. If you are going to stick with your original valve, the valve is designed so that all of the internal components can be replaced, effectively leaving you with as good as new shower valve.
I still know of a few of this model shower valve that I fitted over twenty years ago still operating with no problems, virtually bullet proof compared to some of the rubbish being sold today.

House was built in 1997, so your spot on with the dates

We bought it from the original owner so I assume it is the original one.

Thanks again for the reply