Bathroom tiles - removing one or two only / Taking only shower out

[lizziecupcakes]

Hi all,
I have two queries:

Firstly, In my Edwardian house, the previous owner "renovated" the tiny bathroom, which I kind hate, but it's ok and functional and is the only part of the house that looks finished even though I dislike the finish. Luckily, they didn't use ugly colours, so I can live with this. A couple of quotes to re-renovate fell in the £5k mark and I just don't want to do it since it's functional and I need the money lol.

They also added a couple of handrails - one in the shower and one by the toilet.

It's not a huge problem but I can't stand them. They're screwed into the tiled walls, so the screw is going through the tile. The tiles are quite large ones, about 30cm x 25cm (ish). I also found lots of spare bathroom tiles in the garden shed!! Phew!

Do you think I can remove single tiles carefully without breaking or cracking the neighbouring ones? Youtubers say I can, but I don't trust I'll do it right. I am not sure how easy/hard it will be.

My other solution is to fill the hole with silicone or something - do you have an waterproof ideas?

My last question is about my shower - this is the part of the bathroom I hate. It's basically a walk in one that take the entire length of one side (1.7m x 80cm). It's glass on one side and has an "open door" side, which the toilet sits infront of (with about 30cm space). So, you can get on and off the toilet comfortablybecause the "open door" provides some space to do so, but you are literally stepping into the shower at this point because it runs along the whole length. Here's an example of the shower, and I hope it's easy to imagine where the "open door", about 30cm infront is where the toilet is.

I want to rip this shower out completely and replace it with a quadrant one so it's in its own corner rather than taking up the entire length. It means that it'll be about half the size of the current shower, so the space in front of the toilet will be completely free.

I got a builder to come round by a neighbour's recommendation, and he said he can't just take the shower out for another one, that it won't work like that. He said he'll need to do the whole bathroom I'm not convinced.

I'm just wondering if it's possible in your opinion that I can swap a shower out for another, without a full reno??

Thank you!!

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Life would have been a bit more comfortable if this type of walk-in shower was put in instead, but these are the cards I have been dealt

 

[fernicarry]

I've successfully replaced individual tiles when I had to change a shower riser rail. They were quite small about 5cm x 5cm though. The technique I used was to first rake out the grout. You need to get every last scrap of it out of the joints because inevitably it will cling on to an adjacent tile and break it. Do this very, very carefully so as not to chip the glazing of adjacent tiles. I then chain drilled the tile I was removing so that it basically broke up into pieces that could be picked out. This pretty much destroyed the plasterboard behind it so that had to be patched before popping a new tile in. In your case you could be in for some amount of drilling to break up that size of tile. If its on a hollow stud wall you could just deliberately take a section out complete with the remains of the tile. Whatever you do don't lever against adjacent tiles -- unless you want to replace them as well...

So far as replacing the shower it would depend on where the services are. If the water feeds and waste are in the corner where you want your new quadrant cubicle then its a bit more doable but the waste especially would need to line up. Moving the waste would mean lifting the floor and possibly cutting joists. You can put the shower tray up on stilts to get around routing problems with the waste but to my mind that looks a bit B&B ensuite i.e. rubbish. Might be your only option though. The old cubicle frame will probably also be screwed through the tiles so another replacement job as well as removing old mastic etc. All much too fiddly for a tradesperson to bother with when they can just nuke it all out and start with a clean sheet of paper. There's also the fact that you don't know what sort of boards are behind the tiles or how well they were sealed when fitted so a tradesperson won't want to inherit the possibility of it not being water tight.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Thank you @fernicarry . That makes sense if that’s what’s putting off the builder. I’m so annoyed about this and really want to go back to the previous owner and request half the reno amount. I don’t know of i’m being reasonable and also they will likely just say no anyway, but I’m just so annoyed by this ridiculous toilet say infront of the shower “open door”. In my naivety i thought this was an easy fix. I guess I’m just feeling very frustrated with such a poor design and the bathroom just doesn’t feel like a space that’s fully working for us as we are finding it difficult to wash brushes and buckets in there too maybe i’ll feel differently after we’ve completed most of the house work??

I could “turn” the toilet around 90 degrees, but that might block it to the side , and there’s a sink and vanity on its side too (which I want to replace with a smaller one - i don’t think that needs any major pipework work).

Do you think the toilet has the same issue as the shower? Me and the builder could clearly see the piping for the toilet was above the floorboards (it’s totally visible). It’s a waste pipe connected to the old cast iron one going outside to the vent pipe. In my mind, i think changing the direction of the toilet might be an easier solution with less pipwork fiddly bits, if only I can figure out the design that will work.

 

[fernicarry]

Whats the current route of the toilet soil pipe? Straight out through the wall?

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Yup, basically the toilet is basically next to the external wall, so there's a waste pipe going from the toilet and connecting to the cast iron waste pipe that protrudes into the wall from the outside, and that leads to the vent pipe.

 

[Mrs McG]

I recently arranged to adapt my elderly mother’s bathroom into what you probably now have, I agree that as an able bodied person you would never choose to make these sorts of adjustments but the previous owner obviously did need to so I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting their help with costs to change it back.

Anyway, onto more positive suggestions. I also had many small holes in tile where handrails had been fixed and as a cheap fix the plumber simply filled these with a silicone that matched the tile colour. Honestly you would have to look really hard now to see where the holes were.

As fernicarry said, replacing the shower with something smaller isn’t necessarily simple but what you could do is just replace the shower screen with one that isn’t the whole length of the shower so that you don’t feel you’re moving from the WC straight into a shower. It depends where the shower head is of course as you don’t want it throwing water onto a section of screen that’s no longer there! It’s not a full solution but it may make you feel less irritated every time you use the bathroom at least until you can justify/afford the cost of a complete refit.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

I recently arranged to adapt my elderly mother’s bathroom into what you probably now have, I agree that as an able bodied person you would never choose to make these sorts of adjustments but the previous owner obviously did need to so I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting their help with costs to change it back.

Anyway, onto more positive suggestions. I also had many small holes in tile where handrails had been fixed and as a cheap fix the plumber simply filled these with a silicone that matched the tile colour. Honestly you would have to look really hard now to see where the holes were.

As fernicarry said, replacing the shower with something smaller isn’t necessarily simple but what you could do is just replace the shower screen with one that isn’t the whole length of the shower so that you don’t feel you’re moving from the WC straight into a shower. It depends where the shower head is of course as you don’t want it throwing water onto a section of screen that’s no longer there! It’s not a full solution but it may make you feel less irritated every time you use the bathroom at least until you can justify/afford the cost of a complete refit.

Thank you for these suggestions.
I think I'm just tired from all the different work, and also working full-time, but these are luxuries these days, considering how bleak the world feels.
I totally understand the previous owner's needs, which is typically a natural part of aging. I'm just a bit miffed as a young person who is trying to deal with these rising costs that I've had no say or fault in causing and have been passed on to my generation who are barely getting by. I have bought this house solely by myself with my partner with no help of anyone, no bank of mum and dad here either. In addition, they bought the house over 45 years ago for not much and obviously made a fortune on it from mine and my partner's hard work. Sometimes I hate our country and the way things are.

I think I'll get a few more quotes and if the cost is the same, I'll be going back to the previous owner because I think there's no harm in trying. They were reasonable during the sale about a few things, but we also still get some of their mail which is annoying, even though it's been over a year since we bought it.

I'm obviously having a rubbish few days, so please bare with me as I just vent through this which we didn't expect to be so costly and tricky to fix

 

[lizziecupcakes]

I recently arranged to adapt my elderly mother’s bathroom into what you probably now have, I agree that as an able bodied person you would never choose to make these sorts of adjustments but the previous owner obviously did need to so I wouldn’t hold out much hope of getting their help with costs to change it back.

Also, sorry to hear about your mother. I hope she's doing ok.

 

[Cubist]

Removing an individual tile can be difficult and sometimes dangerous. Theres a risk of sharp tile shards flying off in all directions and, depending on the walls underlying construction, theres a risk of knocking big holes in the wall. Theres also a lot of uncertainty associated with how well the tiler fixed the tiles and how strong the particular adhesive may have been. To remove an individual tile the best approach is a smart blow or two to a bolster chisel held at a shallow angle to the line of adhesive behind and below the tiles edge. Obviously the one tile you want to remove is always surrounded by other tiles but, if you have enough spares of the same pattern and colour you can usually get to the one you want out by removing its immediate neighbours above or to one side. Be ready though; its almost certain that you will need to 're-level the walls surface with a little plaster before replacing the tiles.

If you want to just get rid of a few unsightly fixing holes you could use a little tilers grout push onto the holes, after removing the heads of any plastic plugs or dowels. Many white grouts will accept a little colour from a felt tip pen once dry to camouflage and deceive the eye.

A photo of the shower and bathroom arrangement would help us to offer some advice on alternate arrangements.

 

[lizziecupcakes]

Thanks @Cubist ! Sure, i’ll get some photos up when i’m back home

 

[Flyfisher]

Thank you for these suggestions.
I think I'm just tired from all the different work, and also working full-time, but these are luxuries these days, considering how bleak the world feels.
I totally understand the previous owner's needs, which is typically a natural part of aging. I'm just a bit miffed as a young person who is trying to deal with these rising costs that I've had no say or fault in causing and have been passed on to my generation who are barely getting by. I have bought this house solely by myself with my partner with no help of anyone, no bank of mum and dad here either. In addition, they bought the house over 45 years ago for not much and obviously made a fortune on it from mine and my partner's hard work. Sometimes I hate our country and the way things are.

I think I'll get a few more quotes and if the cost is the same, I'll be going back to the previous owner because I think there's no harm in trying. They were reasonable during the sale about a few things, but we also still get some of their mail which is annoying, even though it's been over a year since we bought it.

I'm obviously having a rubbish few days, so please bare with me as I just vent through this which we didn't expect to be so costly and tricky to fix

Hmm, I'm probably tip-toeing onto politically sensitive ground here, but even ignoring the generational entitlement sentiment, the concept of asking a previous owner to pay for remodelling a bathroom because you have different tastes or needs seems a bit cheeky in the extreme, especially more than a year after you bought the house in full knowledge of what you were buying. You may think there's no harm in trying to get the previous owners to pay up, but please consider how they might feel about such a request out of the blue. Perhaps also consider how you would feel if the next generation of owners ever try the same thing on you.

I'm sorry you're having a bad day. House renovation can do that, especially when other things demand your time and effort as well and everything seems to be getting away from you. Try to keep a sense of perspective though; at least you have a working bathroom, which was one of the first things I had to get together for our project! Given all the other things that need attention, is a bathroom handrail really so unacceptable for another year or two (heck, in another year or two I might be fitting one for myself! ) or a few screwholes in a tile if you really have to remove it?