gardening and bathroom questions.

[plasticpigeon]

Hello. I have two questions only related because I plan to be tackling these two jobs in the next few weeks.

1. I have a small front garden infront of my small terraced house. I plan to have a small bed in the centre of the garden directly in front of the bay window. Last winter I transplanted a topiaried box into this bed from the back garden, but it didn't move well. The front of the house gets lots of sun, and the clay soil gets drioed out and hard very easily so I think this is why it didn't take. I would be happy to buy another box ball or other type shape, but does anyone have any better suggestions? I would prefer and evergreen shrub of some sort.

2. I shall be putting in a new bathroom. My other half and I have come to an agreement on most things, but I don't know what floor to put in. At the moment it is horrid tiles on ply on floorboards. I quite like floorboards but the ones there will be gappy and rotten I'm sure and are also patched in with bits of ply so keeping them is not an option. I can see 2 options. Cover with ply and lino, or put down tongue and groove and varnish very well. I am leaning towards the latter as it is closer to the original and will look nice. Does anyone have any advice please??

 

[Zebra]

I have recently faced a similar dilemma, but have ended up giving in to convenience, as the bathroom is in the new part of the house, not the old part, and so I've gone for squishy warm comfy easy-to-clean lino. In a slate effect pattern. But I've also gone for a squeaky clean modern bathroom suite. A modern look to the whole room.
(I haven't actually laid the stuff yet, but will do soon. Pictures will be posted in due course, when it's finished...)
If your bathroom has a more period feel, then lino might feel like a let-down. What is the decor like in the rest of the room?
It also depends how splashy you all are while you're bathing. In my old flat, I laid a laminate floor in the bathroom, which is not recommended by the manufacturers, but with tidy bathroom habits and a bath mat, it was fine. I can't remember if you have offspring, pigeon. Don't you have a small one, if I remember correctly? In which case, one might think twice about anything which is a lot of effort and might get ruined.
No clue about shrubs.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes, mrs pigeon and I are raising a squab. You are right, if some poly or yacht varnished tongue and groove floorboards are not up to the job of resisting the splashes of a fledgling in his bath then lino might be better. Or lino over boards perhaps, so I can have what I want at a later date!!!! Anyone had floorboards in a bathroom?

 

[noj]

You could try https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-form and see what it suggests...

 

[tobydog]

We've just refitted our bathroom. We had squidgy lino before but we must have been having an off day when we chose the style! Although the bathroom is upstairs, and the house is old timber framed, we went for tiles. The subfloor was chipboard which we have had reinforced with ply to stop movement. The floor now looks a treat but the best part was the fitting of under floor heating. We have gone for electric which is currently draining the national grid until I play with the timer, however, the only heating in there before was a hopeless towel rail. We previously had to turn the house heating on just to warm the bathroom so I'm thinking that we are now saving a little on oil. It is superb and seriously snug. Well worth consideration.

As for the front garden, from the way you describe things, it sounds as though any plant would struggle in such a hostile environment. If the garden is as small as you say, you might want to look at better preparing a much larger area than the plant immediately needs. Dig out a space 1m square (larger if you want to include summer bedding) by 0.50 to 0.75m deep ensuring that you break up and remove any mineral barrier you come across. The mineral barrier is a hard and crunchy layer than can sometimes form below the top layer of clay. In my first house it plagued my whole garden and took a pick axe to remove. Drainage will be vastly improved. Mix the broken up spoil with plenty of organic matter (compost) until you have prepared what looks like a lovely loamy soil. Refill the hole and you can plant whatever you want that loves sun. Water it well but ensure you put down a moisture barrier before mulching over the top so you can't see the barrier. Keep it regularly well watered in the first year and periodically thereafter during the summer.

 

[mims&pip]

We stripped and waxed floorboards in a previous Victorian house PP. We purchased the house when DS was two and we sold it five years later. During that time we had no major splashing issues - and we fitted a roll top bath too, so the potential for this was pretty high - and we were happy with overall performance of the floor.

More recently we've had one bathroom with porcelain wood-effect tiles and two with karndean, all of which I would highly recommend. Have never had Lino in a bathroom so can't comment on that, although currently we have carpet and I can't imagine anything worse than that, lol :lol:

Mims x

 

[Keith Bowman]

When you (ie contributors to this discussion) say "lino" do you really mean genuine period linoleum? If so where do you get it? I need some as the correct floor covering in my vintage car.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Digging out and mixing with compost is definitely advice I shall take heed of. Mims, it's good to know that waxed floor boards survived in a family bathroom, so I'm sure a well varnished tongue and groove floor will survive too. I am leaning towards this option. When I said Lino, I meany some type of vinyl not real lino, I wouldn't know where to get that from.

 

[Zebra]

When I said Lino, I meany some type of vinyl not real lino, I wouldn't know where to get that from.

Same. Sorry if terminology is incorrect.

 

[88v8]

When you (ie contributors to this discussion) say "lino" do you really mean genuine period linoleum? If so where do you get it? I need some as the correct floor covering in my vintage car.

http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/products/linoleum

and

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,202857,00.html

but the lovely patterns of yesteryear seem to have been replaced by modern blandness.

Shrub.... bay is happy in dry soil and sun, and can be kept clipped quite small.
Also hebe.
And others. Shrubs with yellow foliage like the sun, but perhaps not very 'period'.

We had oak bathroom flooring in our previous house, coated with two-pack. It was fine for 21 years, but we aren't splashers.
Only problem was shrinkage over the run of heating pipes, although that was limited as the flooring was already old when laid.
I'd go for lino, you can always put down boards later... except... you need to stand everything on plinths the thickness of your intended boards.
Or... put down the boards now and cover with lino which you can take up later.

Ivor

 

[xanthe]

Bamboo flooring is fantastic in wet areas. I had it in our first property - 1930's ex-LA flat in London Bridge. It looks really nice if you want a nice wooden flooring that wears well (comes in lots of colours and finishes) but isn't very period.

My parents had varnished cork tiles in bathrooms which are still going strong after nearly 30 years and are pretty inoffensive looking.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Box doesn't mind clay but will need watering if in a sunny spot. For a sunny front garden you could put in aromatic plants such as lavender or rosemary. Lavender can be formed into a low hedge. Both lavender and rosemary can be attacked by the Rosemary beetle - a relative newcomer to this country and currently rampaging around London. My rosemary plant was attacked is looking very sad but is recovering. Every morning I look for new arrivals and squash any I see. They are about the same size and shape as ladybirds but have dark wings with an almost metallic sheen. There are pretty docile however and are easily killed. They are much less interested in my lavender.

Irises like it sunny and dry. My last house had a south facing front garden had both rosemary and irises, which I think looked good together.

 

[Nigel Watts]

My wife's bathroom is in a former bedroom in our early Victorian house. I covered the floorboards with plywood (3/8" from memory) and then had lino laid on top. The effect was pretty good. The problem came when the shower tray's U bend started to leak and damp patches appeared on my drawing room ceiling. The U bend extended under the floorboards so the only way to get at it was to cut through the lino and plywood to make an access hatch. I believe it is possible to lay waterproof membranes under the flooring in these situations (although this wouldn't have solved the U bend problem). My elderly mother had a wet room created by a firm specialising in bathrooms for disabled people so that her carer could shower her more easily. This was installed in a room with floorboards and incorporates such a membrane.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Rosemary hedge:

Lavender hedge:

 

[TheRoost]

Nice, how do you get rosemary to grow like that, lots of cutting back?

Ours was a straggly, gnarly, woody thing! A great herb to have in the garden though, and useful all year round

 

[Nigel Watts]

I have to confess that neither picture is from my own garden - I found them on the web!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Thanks Nigel, I really like the box bush, so if the present one completely dies (it looks very dry and yellow) then i shall replace it with another and dig compost into the clay and tend to it better. I was also planning a lavender hedge up the path, and have 2 weeks ago bought 20 lavender plugs for this very purpose!!!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

What a stunning Rosemary hedge--just what I am looking for.