Caring for your bathroom

Everyone involved wants your new room/s to look great and wear well for the long-term.

However, we see a similarity with buying a car. Cars are now more complex and detailed than older models and they need care in use. Sometimes a part may require a tweak in the first few days, some parts are serviceable and while some people may buy a car to be used heavily as a ‘work-horse’, a car will also remain looking and working like new if you cherish it more and keep it maintained.

A bathroom can be quite similar in that respect. We see some bathrooms a month old that look as if we’d supplied them years ago and others years old looking as if they were purchased yesterday.

To add to anything the manufacturers or the installers may have told you, here’s a few extra helpful points worth referring to:

Cleaning

Many manufacturers stipulate in their paperwork that they advise against the use of household cleaning chemicals or abrasives. Limescale and soap scum are the two key things that can make your bathroom look old quickly. Subject to manufacturer's guidelines, the best thing is to wipe or squeegee as much of the water droplets from glass panels and enclosures as often as possible. Occasionally dry and buff chrome taps and metal trims with a damp towel after using the bathroom and it will usually keep it all looking like new for many years.

If you don’t keep on top of limescale build-up on taps and showers then you may be tempted to use limescale removing chemicals which can often do damage to the chrome plating.

Soap scum doesn't sound nice, but it’s just the product of every bathroom and it’s the colourants in shampoos and soap products that can build-up in the corners of silicone areas or ends of grout lines. If you keep on top of this it can also help to prolong the beauty of the room.

Modern cast basins

These are made similar to shower-trays. They are solid, but cast mineral, resin-capped and polished to achieve shapes difficult to achieve with traditional pottery. Whilst tough, they can scratch more easily so please be careful not to use scourers to clean them. The same of course applies to acrylic baths and shower trays.

Leaking shower enclosures

Don’t panic if you see a bit of water seeping from either a bath screen or shower enclosure. If its the bath screen, it’s usually down to the rubber seal that connects with the bath moving out of position and this can be pushed back in place in a second. If it’s the shower enclosure, call your installer who should pop back to adjust it or seal the small gap with silicone. Installers these days try to keep silicone minimal in certain areas for aesthetic reasons and minute gaps can only be identified through proper use of the shower.

Please note however that most manufacturers of enclosures and more-so bath screens do not design them to contain direct sprays from shower handsets.

General settling

Please call your installer if you see significant cracks appearing in grout lines usually due to the room settling. These wont usually cause any problems but it’s worth getting them to refill the cracks.

Water on tiles

Unless you have a wet-floor installed with a ‘tanking’ system, your tiled floor should be expected to be water resistant, but of course not waterproof. This is considered normal and manufacturers expect and advise that main water puddles on tiled floors after bathing or showering be wiped-up and not left over time to degenerate the long-term properties of the grout or adhesive. Remember that unlike swimming pools, bathroom floors are subject to vibration and movement.

Bleach yellowing of toilet seats

It is best to avoid bleach blocks in modern toilets as these can yellow the underside of the seats or lids with the vapour/spray. If you do use bleach type products some manufacturers advise you flush first of all with the lid and seat up. This potential issue though is very very rare (happened only once!).

Wobbly toilet seats

It’s not usually a product or installation fault if your toilet seat becomes loose after a few days.
After first use of the new seat and lid, the fixings can sometimes require tightening, often this is done by simply turning the finger nuts under the hinge or with an alan-key or screwdriver. If you can’t find your instructions then we’ll be pleased to help with any information we have available.

Airlocks

If you've had a radiator or heated towel rail installed, you may find a cold spot on ether the new radiator or an old one elsewhere in the house. This is due to air that has unavoidably entered the system. The air can be quickly and easily released by following the instructions that normally involve the simple turn of a screw-type outlet on the top corner of the radiator/heated towel rail. This process is apparently advised as part of regular heating maintenance throughout the home, subject to your individual design. If you are still unsure about what to do, we advise consulting a central-heating engineer. Alternatively the bathroom installer may also be able to advise or pop by.

COMMON: Every few months we have customers thinking their heated towel rail isn't working, when they didn't realise how to operate the on-off rad valves. If unsure, please call your fitter or us and we will try to help as quickly as possible.

Dirt and grit in water systems

Most water systems, particularly in old houses hold grit and sediment in pipes, tanks and cylinders that can shift, particularly after any part of the water system has been turned-off or amended. This is very rare and some past cases have related to dirt falling into storage tanks etc. We have seen one case where a ceramic tap valve had to be replaced due to grit jamming it and two cases of grit jamming non-return valves. Fortunately these have been designed for DIY maintenance and have proven to be relatively simple to be remedied.

Accidents with baths

We've had a couple of past customers initially heartbroken after accidentally scratching or chipping their new bath. It’s best not to panic as 99% of marks can be made invisible and baths brought back to new by specialists such as Renubath 0800 138 2202 www.renubath.co.uk

Wastes

If your pop-up, or ‘click-clack’/push type wastes become stuck, be careful not to force them too much as the internal springs or clips can break, or the rods could bend. Don’t let the bath waste adjuster screw come loose and fall out either. Give the installers or us a call and we’ll try to advise the next steps. Basin wastes can often be fixed quickly, but although to this date we haven’t seen a bath waste jam, it would be expected to be a considerably complex job to fix or replace, so it’s worth taking care of those.

Blocked wastes

Modern wastes are normally better designed for efficiency, but not so forgiving of large hair build-ups so baths, basins and showers are best checked regularly for any waste clogging. All joints and wastes are checked for full flowing operation during installation.

COMMON: The fitters have had more than one call this year... 2 or 3 months after installation “the bath/shower is draining very slowly and has been like that from the beginning"... or "we are getting strange sewage smells”. Afterwards they've pulled-out large amounts of hair from the waste. The customers have on occasions later admitted to washing dogs or old rugs in the bath or shower!

Remember that new toilets flush using less water. This means that manufacturers advise increased care with large amounts of toilet paper. In any case, Thames Water and drainage companies strongly warn against the flushing of non-quickly-degradable items such as cotton buds or baby wipes.

Bath handsets

These hold water inside as soon as the flow is turned-off, so please give your handset a good shake before you put it back into the holder.

Children!

We've had some customers with children who will suddenly find a new shower handset or pop-up waste a new source of interest. The most worrying thing they do is frequently play with the bath pop-up waste or swing on a wall-hung basin! It’s your bathroom and perhaps not our place to comment, but it’s worth us reminding you of potentially the biggest danger to your new bathroom!

I, the manufacturers and surely your installer/s all want bathrooms to be enjoyed and to be simple and trouble-free. In almost all cases they usually are and we rarely hear of any problems. Issues relating to these points are very rare so please do enjoy your new bathroom!