Once you have decorated your bathroom you will no doubt need to add a few accessories. It is surprising how much these can cost as there always seem to be a few more needed than you originally planned. If you have a tiled bathroom fitting a pile of accessories can be a real pain as fitting each one will involve drilling a series of holes through your freshly installed tiling – always a bit like a game of Russian Roulette as tiles have a nasty knack of cracking if you don’t employ the right technique. We won’t go into the details here of the correct methods – you shouldn’t have put tiles up to begin with!
If you have installed our cladding in your bathroom then you don’t have to worry when it comes to fitting your accessories as the surface is not prone to cracking (unless you are extremely rough).
The panels will drill very easily. Many people ask how do they fit their accessories with our panels – the answer is very simple – the same as you would with tiles: you do not fit accessories into tiles, you fit them into the wall behind the tiles, so the same applies when attaching them to walls that have been clad.
Choosing The Right Type Of Fixing
When fixing bathroom accessories onto cladding the type of fixing that you use will depend on the type of wall behind the panels.
If it is brick, block or some other form of masonry then a standard wall plug can be used in conjunction with a hammer drill. If it is of plasterboard construction then some form of hollow wall fixing will be required. Remember that the cladding is 8-10mm thick so this will need to be taken into consideration.
Here is a little tip tip that can be employed if you are re-using your accessories and are going to re-fit them in the same place. Remove the accessory and its fixing screws but leave the wall plugs in place. Cut the panel that is going to be fitted where the accessory is to be sited but do not fix it just make sure it is the correct fit and get ready to glue/screw/staple it in place. Before you fit it, put the screws for the accessory back in their plug and heat them up with a blowtorch. Fit the panel and let the screws melt their way through the cladding – the resulting holes will be in exactly the right position for fixing your accessory.
As with tiles, you will need to seal behind the accessory with silicone sealant if the accessory if being used in a wet area – so items like soap dishes, shower slider rails, shower curtain rings etc.
There are loads of retailers selling different fixings online – Ironmongery Direct are just one example. You can see there are a whole host of different fixing available to suit every type of job