Fitting a bath - won't fit.

[Hooblue]

Hi All,

First post here and not very experienced at this sort of thing so please bear with me.

I've just moved into a new house (first time buyer) and want to replace the bathroom suite. The bath is situated in a recess, so will have a wall at either end. I've seen one which I like and the dimensions are 1700mm (L) x 700mm (W). However, the length of the current bath appears to be 1660mm. I measured this from tile to tile, so know that the actual space for the bath may be a bit bigger. However, I was wondering if it's possible to skim the end of the bath so it'll fit or is the best option to channel out abit of the wall so it fits? The only other option would be to find a smaller bath, but I assume most of them are a fairly standard size?


Any help would be appreciated!

Many thanks.

 

[Diyisfun]

What material is the bath made from?
Also I dont think you will be able to remove much from the tap end. Probably easier removing part of the wall if it is brick work.
I think you would be beter of looking for the correct size bath.

 

[Hooblue]

It's an acrylic bath (see below)

I've been told it would be fairly easy to just take a few cm's out of the wall on each end. Would this work? I think it's brickwork.

Most of the baths that I have seen seem to be a standard length of 1700mm. If I had to get a smaller one it would vastly reduce the options in terms of what I could get, so I'm rather keen on getting this one to fit!

 

[Diyisfun]

I think if this is the bath that you want then trimming the ends wont be difficult as long as there is enough 'meat' to support. I think I would look at taking some from the bath & some from the wall. Once done it should last your lifetime.
The plus side of a smaller bath are less water required & also you can make a feature of one end with a shelf, & if you ever need to replace it, it will be an easy job.

 

[Hooblue]

Thanks Diyisfan.

Well to be honest I'm not too bothered about what bath we have, it's the missus that wants this one! To be fair it would be beneficial as the bathroom is quite small, so having a tapered one like above would create more space at the end were the basin will be.

I think you're right about having a smaller one, but I can't find too many that I like and certainly not one like the one pictured above. Therefore I may just have to do as you suggest and trim abit of the bath and take some of the wall.

 

[big-all]

i would think you old bath has a fair chance of being the same size as its only 20mm each end and 12mm of that will be coverd by the adhesive and tiles so once youve removed the old bath have a look
youll probably be fine just removing the plaster back to the brick

i personaly would avoid cutting the lip as it adds a lot to the rigidity/strength and may assist or proppigate a crack if it flexes to much

 

[noseall]

definitely chase the bath into the wall. i would chase it in deeper at the non tap end too, that is if the taps are at the ends.

 

[ipjodan]

Yeah i bet the old bath is 1700mm to, but already chased in. Might make a mess of the tiles if your gona rip it out.

 

[Nige F]

1660=5foot6 imperial bath presuming the house is new to you , not new build

 

[TicklyT]

The flange on the rim of a bath contributes a lot to it's rigidity, so if you trim it down, you may well end up with a wobbly bathtub that you can't seal to the walls because it keeps flexing.

 

[TEC]

We had exactly the same problem when changing the bathroom in our new (to us) house a couple of years back. We chased it into the wall at the non tap end (by about 50mm), made the wall good and retiled (which we were anyway), looking at it now you wouldn’t know. I defiantly would not trim the bath down for the reasons outlined above, the lip will be giving a great deal of rigidity to the bath, and it you take it back it’ll flex like a mofo.

 

[Nige F]

I had a flexi mofo once ........but the wheels fell off