Projects in Koksijde and the West Coast

What a bathroom renovation involves: pipework, drainage, sanitary fittings and the finish, in the right order.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Most of the work is bathroom renovation: renewing pipework, adapting the drainage, fitting the sanitary ware and coordinating the finish with the tiler. It is rarely only about what you see. Behind a new wall there is often a waste pipe that never had enough fall, or a pipe from the sixties that would have needed replacing anyway. Dealing with that straight away means the wall does not have to be opened up again later. In coastal apartments the work also has to fit between two rental periods, which makes the planning tighter than in an ordinary home.

The order of the steps is largely fixed, and that is where most surprises come from. Everything is opened up first and the pipework and drainage go in, because after that it sits under the tiles. Only then does the tiler come, and the sanitary ware and taps come after him. If one of those steps overruns, everything behind it shifts. That is why the schedule is agreed at the quotation stage rather than sorted out halfway through by phone. For a flat that is let out, the rental calendar goes on top of that: the work has to fit between two lettings, and that often determines the start date more than the tradesman's diary does.