Plumbers. I am after some free advice.

[cruisindub]

Hi Swaggers,

Any plumbers on here who have the time to offer some free advice regarding my laundry renovations a my subsequent bathroom reno.?

Need some advice regarding changing from twin taps to a single mixer tap on the new new vanity.

Thanksin advance
cheers Paul.

[POD]

Do it yourself. You'll save a motza!

[GGV8Cruza]

Not a plumber Paul but a builder who knows a bit about plumbing, what do you need to know??

GG

[areyonga]

I spent 25 years in the trade so I suppose that qualifies me, whats the go, have you any pictures.  You can PM me if you like.

Trevor

[prodigyrf]

Timber stud and plasterboard/Villaboard wall or solid brick and plaster and are the current taps in a wall breech above the sink/vanity or fed from below? If they are fed from below with 1/2"BSP threads exiting the wall or from the floor it's a simple job to connect various available length braided flexible feed lines up to the mixer. If you have an internal wall breech and taps you'll have to open up the wall to get at the hot and cold pipe feeds to replumb to 1/2"BSP pipe threads exiting the wall below the sink top from the rear of the cabinet, leaving suitable clearance from top and sides to work with fittings and spanners. You cut suitably large clearance holes to allow the cabinet back(or base) to fit over them having left adequate thread poking through for isolation taps and braided hose attachment after having fitted round covers to tidy up the large holes. It also pays to fit automatic shutoff valves in the event of a ruptured hose, particularly in kitchens for the obvious.

[cruisindub]

Thank for the replies, much appreciated.
POD, read your unedited thread reply first, fully understand and know where your coming from.

AREYONGA, thanks tor the offer, will PM you as offered.

GG PATROL, an old 70s house, plan to remove a small kids bath which is up against a wall and fit a vanity with single(or possibly double) sink with mixer tap.
remove old vanity and sink which is next to the bath, blank off the pipes and tile the wall, fit towel holder etc

PRODIGYRF sorry mate,lost me there on most of that.
I have double brick wall. With rendered brickwork in the bathroom. Can run channels in brickwork,but hoping I don't have to have welded/soldered copper pipe.
The taps are now sited where the suddenly of the vanity will be,so hoping Ivan run flexible braidedline inside the vanity.
Hoepfully I can explain a little here,
I was hoping that the bath taps, twin taps to a central spout, I can attach braided line to these taps and run this inside the new vanity to a mixer tap.

Can ieasily block off the original vanity taps outlets, which are twin taps.?
Is it possible to attach braided line to my original bath taps outlets, removing theoriginal taps?
what about the pipe that run between both taps to the bath filler? Will this be a ppoblem.?

[prodigyrf]

"PRODIGYRF sorry mate,lost me there on most of that"
Then get a plumber because you can't connect up to taps inset in rendered wall breeches which means opening up the wall and soldering new copper and fittings and you don't seem to have any idea what it's all about. Either that or look under the sink of any modern kitchen with a flick mixer and see what I'm talking about.

[gacoxd]

Water runs downhill. There you go. Now you're a plumber too! :-)

:ducking:

Damo

[LJs GU]

Prodigyrf,

I have to admit that you lose me a bit as well...

I don't think it's so much the technical detail, as you sound like you know your stuff, it's just that your posts are a bit like one long sentence.  I have to re-read them a few times before it sinks in.

Nothing personal mate, it's just a few extra taps on the 'enter' key wouldn't go astray.

LJ

[Wuzgonna]

Wow...

I read it all from top to bottom and I understand every bit of it!!

You   either   need a    plumber   or get prodygrf   around to fix it!!

You cannot connect to the in wall tap body.  (where the tap spindle goes)

There is a bit of work required to get it connected legally and correctly.

cheers Dave



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[prodigyrf]

Perhaps the best way of explaining it OP is for you to look at the bibcock on the wall feeding your toilet cistern. Notice it has a round cover plate at the wall in order to cover up what the plasterer is not too fussed about plastering up to the 1/2" BSP thread sticking out of the wall, or in the case of brick veneer the hammer hole the plasterboard fixer belted throgh the board to fix the sheet. If either modern tradey knew a vanity was going to cover it all then it could look like a dogs breakfast but no matter because you want 2 of those bibcocks sticking out of the wall, 1 for hot and 1 for cold and through the vanity back. (if you've simply got 1/2' hot and cold copper pipes coming through the wall they'll do nicely too but they'll need converting to 1/2" threads and hold that thought)

Now they need to be positioned in the wall so that you can connect up to them easiy under the sink once you've fitted the vanity over the threaded pipes. That means they're not behind the bowl, in the way of a middle shelf, or behind the drawers if the vanity has them as usual. It's right about here you can see why project home builders charge like wounded bulls for any client deviations from standard- ie the lil woman of the house decides she'd like the vanity drawers on the right instead of on the standard left in the project home's computer database. Ditto for custom builds with many such 'contingency' allowances for the doctors wives set as they make it all up as you're going along. You do get TimTams and filtered coffee rather than the instant and Yoyos however.

[cruisindub]

Dave/Ultra D, thanks. Nice and simple advice which helps. No problem to have a plumber do the job properly, if required.
If a simple connection of flexible braided line was possible andsave cost of plumber, that would help.
Trying to do the house renos on our old 70s house and if I can keep extra costs down, it all helps.
I was after advice from friendly myswaggers, freely, before to call a plumber for what ccould possibly be a straight forward conversion, and be stung with a potentially large invoice.
Of its not possible to simply blank off the current tap feeds to the sink at the point where the spindle/Washer-seal is by a blanking plug, and not possible to attach the braided lines to the current bath taps outlets(where the spindle is,) via a simple adaptor, now I know before I tear into it I have to make further provision for plumber's work. Unfortunately I don't know any friendly local plumbers I can get some advice from without charge and bunnings aren't alot of help at the best of times.
Its taken me a month to do my laundry,but done everything myself,fitting out,tiling,painting, grouting, cupboards etc.
andbefore I begin to tacklethe bathroom next,I should have a plumber arranged so I'm not without a sink for too long!

Thanks for all your patience.

[speewa158]

Water runs downhill. There you go. Now you're a plumber too! :-)

:ducking:

Damo

& pay day is Thursday , Pots are $2 at Happy hour . Now your over qualified 

[cruisindub]

Prodigyrf, thanks for follow up.
I can understand better now and also see where you referred to previously about shut off valves.
If I getthe plumber to make two of the bibcocks where the twin tap set up is currently, then I can do the rest myself(fitting vanity /tiles /drain connection etc.)
The plan is ffr a new vanity where the current kiddies bath is, hence hot/cold water and drain is already there, and remove old vanity toopen up bathroom and make room for towel holders, room to move around, and renovate a bit more modern our old house.
Was hoping I could just tap into the existing connection and run flexible braided line into the side of the vanity which will be up against the wall and up to the new mixer tap.
The s bend drain into the existing bath drain.

Thanks
cruisindub

[rodw]

I'm not a plumber, but for a DIY solution, could you clad the wall with versalux leaving enough room behind for the pipes? Relocating plumbing in a double brick wall is going to be expensive unless it could be run externally. Waste could also be an issue, don't share an outlet.

[Wuzgonna]

Hi Paul,

Turn all the water off first!

Step 1. The complete inwall tap set need to be removed. Need grinder and small jackhammer if in brickwork.

Step 2. The hot and cold water pipes need to be adapted to feed into to base of the new vanity. This could be tricky but ideally would require a number 19 brass fitting to be soldered on to the top of the pipe. It essentially a brass elbow with a 100mm of half inch BSP thread, or you could use a copper pipe elbow and a number 3 straight connector! (this is where you will attach the minicock tap and flexible braided hose).
You could use compression fittings if you can't solder, but these are prone to future leaks! I would assume all existing copper pipes are half inch.

The drain could be an issue as it was a bath and is most likely already a 'trap' like an s or p trap air lock. Is the room on the ground or first floor or higher??

Cheers Dave.

Ps. if you post photos, I can explain further.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[prodigyrf]

I'm not a plumber, but for a DIY solution, could you clad the wall with versalux leaving enough room behind for the pipes? Relocating plumbing in a double brick wall is going to be expensive unless it could be run externally. Waste could also be an issue, don't share an outlet.

It might be 'expensive' as you think but if the copper is 25 yrs old I'd be replacing the lot at least to the external perimeter of the building because nothing lasts forever. You won't believe the number of tales I hear about new bathroom renos and a year ot 2 later there's a leak in the old copper in the walls and sorry we don't know where to get those fancy tiles anymore. That's also the reason you add blowoff valves after the bibcocks and before those braided hoses under sinks, particularly in kitchens. Vanities are cheap with wet area floor drains but whole bloody kitchens and adjacent floors, etc aint.

In any case you seldom do a bathroom reno without new tiling which includes complete and proper waterproofing to puddle trap floor drains as per BCA Code nowadays and old copper in walls needs to be given the flick. If it's worth doing it's worth doing well with the future in mind unless you're a bog and flog merchant

By the way they don't even solder copper nowadays- http://www.sharkbite.com.au/aus/
although they can't use copper in new housing estates nowadays because the thieves will cut it out before the second fix.

[cruisindub]

Thanks for the replies,

This is the kiddies bath that I want to remove to make room for fitting a new vanity. (Removing the old vanity right next to it making room for getting dressed /swinging a cat.)
I understand the easiest would be to replace the old vanity with a new one in its place and hide the existing bath taps inside the cupboard, but we have a window there above the current vanity and no mirror in the bathroom, so was hoping to have a mirror above the new vanity on the wall and the corner ffr towel rails/wash basket etc.