New bathroom

[showqa]

Hi chaps - me again to pick your brains,

At present our bathroom is shoved under the stairs (which once came out of the sitting room but have been boxed in with stud walls). The bathroom is very ugly and awkward.

So, we wanted to open the stairs up again, bringing them back into the sitting room. We have a small room at the end of the house, but convenient for the bedrooms, that isn't used for anything at present, and so we thought we could make that the bathroom. It's a little dark, but we can live with that.

We had a builder come and have a look, and he said that the walls would have to be plaster boarded because stone walls in a bathroom will run condensation. Thing is the walls are so lovely - the stone beneath the plaster beautifully undulating - and I couldn't stand to have them plastered over becoming a Barret's square room.

Any ideas/thoughts/opinions guys? They'd be welcome. Thanks!

 

[Ian Bond]

The stone beneath the plaster?

Is the room already plastered, perhaps with lime or something?

Ian

 

[MdB]

Warm moist air will condense when it hits a cold surface. A stone wall, especially an outside stone wall will be cold and hence will cause a lot of condensation to form. Plaster board with insulation behind it will heat up quickly so the condensation will be less.

 

[Ian Bond]

If it's already plastered I'd leave it alone.

Condensation won't be such a problem with adequate heating and ventilation.

My bathroom has an outside stone wall, plastered with lime. Condensation hasn't been a problem on the wall, even though I bathe regularly...

I have a bath once a year, on my birthday. Whether I need one or not.



:lol:

 

[biffvernon]

For sure you'll get condensation after a long hot shower on a cold day. So what? Open the window and it will soon go. There's no plasterboard in our bathroom.

 

[showqa]

Hmm, Ian, do you have many freinds???

The room is made up of two external walls, and from the outside they are just stone - not rendered. From the inside I think it's lime render (how can I identify it as specifically lime? I'm assuming it's that because I know nothing has been done to the room for many, many years).

It feels very dry at the moment, no signs of damp, and very warm when the rad is one (compared to some of the other rooms). So you don't think a bathroom is such a bad idea in this space then? Are there any extra special measures that I should take, bearing in mind the stone walls? Cheers folks!

 

[Ian Bond]

It's not easy to tell if it's lime plaster or not if it is covered with layers of paper or paint. Who knows what's been done in the past - it could be the original lime plaster, or gyspum, or even cement based stuff - or a mixture of various materials used for repairs.

Lime plaster is usually quite soft, and if any of the original stuff does come off, you may find it has a coarse, sandy texture, with bits of stone and clumps of hair in it. There may be a fine, whitish finish coat on it too, which you'll see as a separate layer.

It sounds as though your walls are already plastered on the inside - is the builder recommending hacking all of the plaster off and applying plasterboard?

Plaster applied direct to masonry, whether internal or external is sometimes described as rendering, just to confuse you.

I don't know enough about your house to know if the existing plaster is likely to be original. If someone's done a thorough strip out job in the past there may be very little of the original finishes left to compare with.

To give an example, my house is a very plain terraced cottage, of about 1830. Most of the original plaster remains, and it follows the contours of the stone walls somewhat, but is still reasonably smooth, albeit without a square corner or flat surface anywhere. Modern repairs stuck out like a sore thumb - unremittingly flat, with sharp corners, done in hard, pinkish gypsum.

Unless it's a barn or mill or something, I'd keep the internal plaster if it looks like it might be original historic stuff. I wouldn't let anyone persuade me to replace it with plasterboard.

 

[Ian Bond]

Hmm, Ian, do you have many freinds???

Oh, nearly forgot that bit...

The short answer is no - I wonder why?!!!!!

 

[Ian Bond]

For sure you'll get condensation after a long hot shower on a cold day. So what? Open the window and it will soon go. There's no plasterboard in our bathroom.

Succinctly put Biff.

I seem to remember seeing a pic of one of your bathrooms that didn't have any walls at all - an ingenious facility for the yurt wasn't it?

 

[Ian Bond]

So you don't think a bathroom is such a bad idea in this space then? Are there any extra special measures that I should take, bearing in mind the stone walls? Cheers folks!

Why not, providing you can run all the necessary plumbing to the room without too much trouble, and make the required connections for drainage.

They did something similar to my house, probably in the 1930s from the look of it. Partitioned the back bedroom with a plank wall (floorboards), stuck a new window in, bath, wc, basin, a few tiles and that was it. Still seems to be working OK to date, although only the bath remains from the original suite.

And there's no extractor fan either, so we just close the door and open the window for a bit after my annual bath.

 

[showqa]

Yeah, the builder was talking about ripping off all the plaster and putting up plaster board.

Actually, my house sounds quite similar to yours. It's about 1830 - 1850, stone farmhouse, and the contour of the walls is very much as you describe. Lumpy and bumpy, but in a gentle, undulating way with a smooth finish of plaster accentuating the contour. I know that elsewhere in the house there is lime plaster, because there's a mysterious hole upstairs (looks as though a door has been ripped out or something) and the plaster around it is very crumbly, chalky with a mixture of hair in it.

The room has two opening windows - instant ventilation!

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Ian Bond]

The similarities end at the stone construction and the date - mine is just a grotty terraced house in a West Yorks town (but I like it)!!!

I love North Wales, and my mother's side of the family are from the Tregarth area.

Hmmm - naughty builder. It sounds like you have a lovely vernacular farmhouse - no place for plasterboard, certainly not at the expense of original plaster (if that's what it is). No need to remove it either, even if it sounds a bit hollow when tapped. It does that. As long as it doesn't fall off when you tap it, it's OK.

 

[biffvernon]

I seem to remember seeing a pic of one of your bathrooms that didn't have any walls at all - an ingenious facility for the yurt wasn't it?

It does have walls, but being made of a shrubbery it's opacity varies with the seasons. No condensation problems but the roof seems to leak.

 

[Ian Bond]

:lol:

 

[Penners]

we just close the door and open the window for a bit after my annual bath.

I imagine the rest of the family open all the windows before your annual bath.

 

[Ian Bond]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[showqa]

Mmm - how might that affect climate change?

 

[Penners]

I suppose that depends on how close you live to Ian Bond... and whether you're downwind or not.

 

[Nemesis]

We have a smiley for that:

 

[Ian Bond]

Well, my Birthday is coming up in a few weeks, so I'd better finish the bathroom project by then!