Practical projects
Bob Connell’s bathroom makeover
After some 10 years of use the heads in our 46ft centre cockpit cruising cutter were starting to look a little tired.
The chrome plated brass taps and shower hardware were starting to show the green verdigris of the copper coating breaking through the pores in the chrome and becoming harder and harder to keep clean. The basins which were moulded in fibreglass within the moulded cupboards were starting to scratch and were getting more difficult to return to a nice clean shine.
After some research and deliberation we decided to upgrade the two heads to bring them back to a high standard and give them a much longer usable life.
We decided on a higher quality look and feel than the moulded fibreglass and settled on a stone/marble top look and feel as what we were after, but how to do this for a boat without adding too much weight?
In the end we decided on a porcelain top produced from 6mm thick porcelain sheet used for tiling bathroom walls and laminated this to a 12mm thick aluminium honeycomb panel to provide stiffness and support. The combination of these materials produced a top which is less weight than equivalent thickness of marine ply and laminate, much more durable and aesthetically pleasing.
We made templates from 5mm MDF of the tops which were an exact fit and enabled us to check we could actually get the new tops into position in the tight confines of the heads.
We chose an aluminium honeycomb panel with bonded laminate surfaces on each face to ensure good adhesion of the adhesives and provide some corrosion protection to the panel. A stone mason cut the complex shapes and the required plumbing holes in both the porcelain sheet and the honeycomb panels from the templates using a water jet cutter and laminated them together utilising neutral cure silicone adhesive.
After cutting the old basins out of the cupboard tops the new laminated tops were epoxy glued into place.
After some quite complex joinery (rather more than I’d planned for) an epoxy coated curved teak moulding was produced and epoxy glued to the front edge of each top.
The exposed timber surface was coated with several coats of PU clear finish. Narrow tiles also cut from the porcelain sheet were used to create a vertical splashback on sides and back. All joints were sealed with black silicone to provide a watertight finish.
We sourced very economical black ceramic above counter basins and stainless steel mixer taps online and these finished the job nicely.
The finished result has exceed our expectation, is light weight and should provide a very long life.