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Racy Building Strategies-47 |
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In addition to the essential fittings like Wash Basins, WCs, showers, mirrors, cabinets and taps, optional bathroom fittings include towel rails, towel rings, towel racks, soap dishes, tumbler holders, glass shelves, double coat hooks, robe hooks, corner glass shelves, toothbrush holders, lotion dispensers, WC brush holders and paper holders. Manufacturers keep inventing such fittings. Choose required fittings, trying to keep there number as minimum as possible. Instead of a simple towel rail, choose towel rack cum rail integrated unit. Bathroom shouldn’t look like a store. Take extra care in matching their colour with main sanitary fittings. Prefer to have all major and minor fittings of a single colour or matching shades. This step will add a royal look to the bathroom. Always prefer to choose light shades. Dark shades don’t remain attractive for long.
2 Position lights in bathrooms in a manner that these shine over the face and not on the mirrors. Prefer recessed or flat electric lights if ceiling is low. If you are in habit of reading in the bathroom, get provided a spot light. Ensure that it is well away from the shower area. Provide pull cords for switching on or off all bathroom electric fittings. This is a must to avoid touching switches and fittings with wet hands. If you plan to provide an usual on/off switch, locate it outside the bathroom, near the door. Don’t provide a socket in the bathrooms. If you wish to provide a heater in the bathroom, choose a ceiling fitting model that combines light and a circular heater. Always provide an exhaust fan in each bathroom and make it operational by pull cord switch.
3 For washbasins and bathtubs, choose pop up wastes. These can be operated at the flick of a lever and all dirty water drains out completely. And never forget to provide ‘mosquito nets’ on the mouths of overflow pipes of cisterns. Generally, these pipes are of 20 mm diameter and mosquito nets are available with the dealers. These will not allow the mosquitoes to breed over standing water in the cisterns when the flushes are not in use.
4 Here is a summery of preferred fittings:
Cisterns : Dual flush, Low level
EWCs : Wall hung
Bidets : Wall hung
Wash basins: Counter top (over or under).
Lounge mixer : CP, Sensor operated.
Shower : Overhead as well as hand shower.
Shower space: Cubicle.
Mixers : CP, Single lever, quarter turn
Bath tubs : Extruded Acrylic (if essential)
Wastes : Pop up wastes.
Towel rails: Rack cum rail unit.
Electric fittings : Pull cord operated.
5 Next few episodes will be devoted to various types of floorings prevalent these days. Take up flooring work only when all plastering work on inside of walls, outside of walls and ceilings has been completed. See that at least 15 days have passed since the completion of plastering work. See that all door and window frames have been fixed in position. Also see that all concealed pipes and conduits have been laid and tested. See that all chases cut in the walls have been closed and finished. See that all floor traps are in position. Also see that all floor levels and slopes have been decided. Take up flooring work only thereafter.
6 On the sunken floors of toilets with Indian seats, apply flexible water proofing membrane instead of traditional bitumen layer. First, check the slab surface for any cracks. If there, cut them into small ‘V’s and fill them with a polymer like ‘crack fill’. Now mix 1 part of acrylic emulsion (liquid) with 2 parts of polymer modified cement (powder) by weight to form a cream like paste. Apply 2 coats of it with brush on the slab surface. It can be applied even on wet slab. Apply it on the walls also and up to a height of 6 inch above the bathroom floor level. On drying, it will form a flexible water proofing film and that is exactly what we need. One litre of this paste covers 7 to 8 sq.ft. area in one coat. Pidifin 2K, Fosroc Hydroproof and ROFF HYGUARD EX are good brands. There are ready synthetic membranes also available in the market which can be used instead of this application. These membranes need to be notched into the walls. Now apply a ½ inch thick 1 : 3 cement sand plaster layer over the membrane or slurry layer. Now, fill the sunken area with clinker or foam concrete fill till you get the screed level. Now, lay the floor like other floors.
More tips will follow next week. Till then, happy building!
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Tip of the Moment
Prefer Thermo-Mechanically-Treated (TMT) bars. These bars have a soft core but hard outer surface, have same strength as HYSD steel but take better stress before yielding.
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