FREESTANDING BATH TAPS are wobbly

[discostewart]

FREESTANDING BATH TAPS ARE WOBBLY

Whilst Im in a "fixing things that im not happy with in my bathroom" mood. The stand pipes attached to my bath taps feel wobbly. They dont move too much but any pressure and i feel you could snap them. Im not sure if its a design fault or just bad fitting?

Ive asked the plumber to try refitting them twice but they are the same. The fitting kit supplied by Crosswater is for concrete (I rang them and they confirmed this, not many upstairs bathrooms that applies to was my reply). So, he has screwed down (wood screws) into the 12mm plywood and then throught the floorboards below. And attached washers to steady them. He says we cant go much further down due to pipework beneath.

The tiles havent gone in round around my standpipes for my bath yet. So im hoping i could find a way to solve this. Is this just the accepted problem with standpipes (ie they are high and thin so will always have leverage) or can something better be done? I looked for some kind of bracing kit but found nothing.

 

[TicklyT]

I would consider fixing very substantial timber noggins between the floor joists to take the fixings.

Fit basin fixing studs through floor into the noggins, and finish them off with stainless or plated dome nuts.

If the pipework would get in the way, I would consider bolting substantial brackets, cut from something like 75 X 75 X 5mm angle iron about 3 or 400mm long to the joists below the floor, and bolting the thing down to tapped holes or studs locknutted into them.

The idea is to transfer the loads directly to the floor joists, taking any flexing of the floorboards out of the equation.

A friendly chat with a local steel fabricator may yield a suitable offcut of angle iron, or they may be able to cut and drill a bit for you if you give them all the dimensions.

 

[discostewart]

cheers. this mighe be a bit outside the remit of the plumber (he seems more of a pipes and corgi man) which trade would i contact to work on this for me ? carpenter ? a different plumber ?

i should imagine its a fairly common problem