Lustrolite have recently launched a new colour in the UK market, forest green.
Lustrolite Forest Green
Forest Green Lustrolite has been available in Australia, where Lustrolite is manufactured, and in the US for a number of years but hasn’t been available in the UK until now.
Lustrolite Forest Green wall panels are available to buy in the UK as of January 2015 and can be purchased/preordered now online.
About Lustrolite
Lustrolite is an award winning high gloss acrylic wall panel. It’s the perfect material to create stunning bath and shower walls, and kitchen backsplashes.
Lustrolite is a replacement to tiles and looks like back painted glass. With a special hard coated top layer for extra scratch and chemical resistance, cleaning and maintaining your panels is nearly effortless.
Photo from http://www.houzz.com/uk/pro/stephenfletcher/stephen-fletcher-architects
High gloss wall panels in bathrooms have become very popular over the last year with the introduction on Lustrolite and BNQs own version Vistelle. Over the last 6 months i have installed severial bathrooms (normally within a shower enclosure) with Lustrolite, and i have to say the over all look is amazing.
Lustrolite Glacier
The most popular colour by far seems to be the Glacier, so much so that Lustrolite and Vistelle have become out of stock of the larger 1200 x 2440 size boards. Fortunately I have been able to source an alternative product that is almost identical to Lustrolite of Vistelle called WetWall Acrylic made by the company who pioneered shower and bathroom wall boards…. WETWALL.
These board appear to have to same construction, can be cut in the same way and installed in the same manner. The only down side to the WetWall Acrylic is that there are no colour matched trims avaiable, but you can still use the Lustrolite trims.
So if you are looking for Lustrolite Glacier boards, then why not take a look at WetWall Acrylic Green Mist.
What is the difference between an Electrical Shower and a power shower?
This is a question I often get asked…
1) An electric shower heats cold mains water as it passes by a heating element, similar to a kettle. They are connected to a mains water supply and an electrical supply. Electric showers are perfect for home without a gas supply or homes with stored/tanked water supply. You can also use these in home with a combi boiler as no hot supply is required.
2) A power shower is a pumped shower which will boost the water pressure if the water pressure is not high enough for a good flow from the shower head. It connects to CISTERN FED hot and cold supplies and can be thermostatically controlled. It delivers the mixed water at a good pressure to a shower head. Power shower require a hot and cold water feed and should not be fitted to a combi boiler system.
I hope this helps people.
When im fitting a bathrooms, either with a shower or a bath or even a shower bath I always fit a AquaStrap to guarantee the installation.
AquaStrap is a leading up-stand seal used for sealing a shower tray/pan or bath tub. For those people installing a new shower tray or bath who prefer an exposed silicone joint to an extruded profile, AquaStrap will remain watertight in the event of the silicone seal leaking through joint movement or natural deterioration.
AquaStrap seals accommodate the technical challenges of modern hi-use hi-performance shower environments, the aesthetic preferences of our customers and the recommendations of recognised national building standard authorities worldwide.
As said I always use a Aquastrap to seal in both shower trays and baths.
The below video by about.com is a great watch and full of item and inspiration for designing a bathroom in a small space.
This video gives bath design in planning you bathroom and colours to use in a small bathroom and accessories to use to make the most our of the space in your small space bathroom.
Are you thinking of changing your bathroom? Don’t know where to beguine?
If your thinking of getting a new bathroom there are two ways you can go, you can either visit a bathrooms showroom and hire them to design and install your bathroom from start to finish, or you can DIY it.
These two main way each have there plus and minuses. The plus to going to a showroom is that you can get the job done in one place from start to finish with very little time or hastle for your self. You bathroom will also be backed with a guarantee if anything were to go wrong…. or leak. The minus to this is, this may be costly depending on the company you are dealing with. This cost is down to the time and effort the staff and team at the showroom put into your project.
The the other way is the DIY route. This can be less expensive than using a company/showroom to do your bathroom, however you will have to do allot of the leg work your self including buying the equipments, supplies, tiles, floor, bathroom suit, accessories etc etc etc before then removing your old bathroom, prepping the room, then fitting the new suite and installing the fixtures and fitting. You may also need to purchase a skip or van to remove the old suit and rubbish from your home. You also have no guarantees with your fitting and any leaks and damage caused may not be cover by your home insurance (unless you are a qualified plumber). So you may want to consider this when deciding to go full DIY.
The Third Option!
There is a third option when it come to bathroom installing and design…. You can do a mix of the two types. You can visit the showrooms and get inspiration then purchase the equipment your self either from a online bathroom retailer then design the bathroom your self using a program like the free frontline bathroom designer then have a qualified plumber come and install the bathroom for you. This way can also be more time consuming with searching for products, designing your room your self then finding a qualified fitted who gives you a good quote and is experienced and reliable. But the financial saving can be great.
Many of people say to me “I have an original Magnaclean Professional Filter fitted to my heating system, do I need to upgrade to the Magnaclean Professional 2?”, well in short NO YOU DON’T.
If you have a Magnaclean Professional Filter fitted on your heating system then your system is protected. The Magnaclean Professional 2 allows for faster installation and less clearances for cleaner/servicing of the filter. They both offer the same protection.
How ever if you have an old Magnaclean Professional that was fitted before the upgraded internal sleeve was developed, I would recommend fitting an upgrading the sleeve to your filter. The Sleeve looks as follows.
If you internal sleeve doesn’t have the larger area as shown on the bottom of this image, then you have the older Magnaclean and I would purchase a Magnaclean Professional upgrade sleeve which are available for both the 22mm filter and the 28mm filter for less than £20.
If you have read any of my other past posts, you may have read my post about the Magnaclean Professional Filter and how to fit one, well since writing that post, Adey who manufacture Magnaclean have since launched the Magnaclean Professional 2 which is even easier to install and fit and can be fitted in less than half an hour, well the actual fitting time is about 10 mins which you will read about further on.
The main difference between the Magnaclean Professional 2 and the original Magnaclean Professional if the fitting valves. They both perform as good as each other and perform the same task, meaning if you already have a Magnaclean Professional one fitted, you DO NOT need to upgrade to the Magnaclean Professional 2, how ever if you have an old Magnaclean Professional, read my post on upgrading your Magnaclean.
The Fitting of the MagnaClean Professional 2 required no soldering of pipes like the original required. The Professional 2 now only requires a pipe cutter and spanner to install it. The revolutionary slip fitting allows the installer to simple remove 150mm of pipe from the flow or return pipe (pref the return pipe) and slip on the fitting and olives and tighten in place. This only takes around 10 mins to perform. How ever before installing you are required to drain down the system and re instate once installed.
To reinstate your system Magnaclean advice using MagnaClean MC1 Protector Fluidwhich is designed especially for Adey’s MagnaClean for Central Heating Systems, but is suitable for other heating systems. MC1 Protector Fluid is a high performance chemical inhibitor that prevents system corrosion and scale that provides long term system protection.
I have personally fitted one to my own central heating system with ease and have seen a massive improvements in the temperature of my radiators and have removed a large amount of dirt from my system that would have just clogged my boiler and radiators.
The above photos shows the result of fitting a Magnaclean Filter to my central heating system for only 12 hours. In only 12 hours which only 4 hours of which the system was running (as was over night).
I have been on a big job in York in the UK where i have ben fitting bathrooms to 2 houses on the same street for a land lord. TBH the bathroom wasn’t anything flash but the jobs involved ripping out the old bathroom and replacing with a new P shape bath and shower screen, shower and toilets etc. The client / Land Lord purchased the full set for less than £550 including all the taps through a contact i have in my local area called Rubber Duck Bathrooms and he purchased this Cheap Bathroom Suite.
Anyways, the bathroom fitting went to plan and I did bath bathrooms within a week.
While I was there the client was also getting new driveways and paving installed at the properties through a company called Yorkshire Direct Services. They were installing something called resin bond. Basically to me looked like nice small coloured gravel, mixed with a glue (resin) which is pored over a concrete drive/base and smoothed out and allowed to dry.
I have to say the lads within for Yorkshire Direct were nice blokes and the driveways and paves looked nice when they had finished. I said i would give them a shout out, well done York Shire Direct for a great driveway and paving in york!
