DIY projects are growing in popularity, and recent studies show the US DIY market will hit $13.9 billion by 2021.

You may want to contribute to this growth, by plumbing your own bathroom and giving it a completely different look.

But if you’ve never worked on a bathroom before, you may not know how to get started. What does it take to replace a sink? How do you dispose of old bathroom items?

Read on to learn more about plumbing a bathroom and how you can approach the task as a beginner. Though you may currently have doubts about your ability to update your bathroom, these tips should help you become a plumbing pro.

Let’s begin!

Clear the Bathroom Out

Before you can begin working on your bathroom, you first need to get rid of all the old items.

While you may be eager to start ripping stuff out, make sure you turn off the water supply before you remove anything. Failure to do this will result in a leak which could damage other parts of your home.

Disposing of old bathroom stuff can be a real pain, and so to make things easier on yourself, you might want to look into renting a dumpster. Once you fill it up, the company providing the dumpster will take it away for you.

Create a Plan

You need to develop a plan that details how you’re going to renovate your bathroom.

Figuring out this stuff is essential as it helps you understand what you need to buy, but also how you should prepare certain areas. For instance, if you move the location of the bath, you’ll also need to cut new holes in the floor to make room for drainage pipes.

You may want to mark the floor so you can easily identify the placement of specific items, and therefore where certain the pipes need to be.

You should also measure the size of your bathroom door. In doing so, you can avoid a scenario wherein you buy something that will not fit into your bathroom. This is a problem many people run into when buying a bath.

Installing a New Sink

It’s worth noting that different sinks will have different installation requirements. Fortunately, most sinks come with a detailed set of instructions, and you can use these instructions to help you get the job done.

During the installation process, pay close attention to the way you caulk your sink.

If you don’t caulk the sink correctly, it’s going to lead to the development of damp. Aside from the fact that damp isn’t very nice to look at, it can also lead to health problems if it gets out of hand.

Once you’ve installed the sink, you need to install the drain and water lines. You may want to use some caulk or putty, to help seal the bolts that are holding the pipes in place. In doing so, you can limit the odds of a leak later on down the line.

Installing a New Bath

It’s important you check the ground is level before you install a bath. That said, the entire bathroom floor doesn’t need to be level, but only the area where you’re going to install the bath.

If that area isn’t level, you can use a plank of wood to even out the ground. You can then verify if the ground is level, by using a spirit level.

Once you have positioned the bath, you can then go about reattaching the pipes, so the faucet and drain outlet works properly.

Installing a New Toilet

Before you install a toilet, you need to make sure the ground is clean and free of any debris. This’ll ensure the toilet is going to sit nicely on the ground and will not ‘rock’ once it’s installed.

Once you’ve done this, you then need to fix the toilet to the ground.

Most of the time, the toilet will come with the bolts that’ll allow you to get this done. But if there are no bolts with toilet, you’ll need to measure the holes in the base of the toilet and then get some bolts that are the right size.

The next step is to attach the soil pipe.

When attaching the soil pipe, you may want to add some caulk. As with the sink, adding caulk to the pipe fitting can help limit the odds of a leak.

The final thing you need to do is put the cistern on the toilet.

Some toilets come with special seals you’re supposed to use when connecting the cistern. Attaching these seals is important, as doing so reduces the odds of a leak. If the toilet didn’t come with any seals, you might need to buy some from your local hardware store.

Think This Might Be Too Much Work?

At this point, you may find yourself questioning whether you can manage all this work.

This is a fair point, as replacing a bathroom is no easy feat. If you think this might be too much work for you to do, there’s always the option of using someone like this plumber to help you get the job done.

Before working with a plumber, you may want to ask them for some references. You can then contact these references to get a sense of how happy past customers are with the plumber’s work.

You might also want to speak to many different plumbers so you can find a cost effective quote. Of course, make sure you verify what’s included in the quote.

For instance, if a quote seems cheap it might be just because it includes labor, but not parts. To avoid any nasty surprises, get the plumber to write down everything that’s included in the quote before you work with them.

Is Plumbing a Bathroom Easy?

After reading this post, you’d be forgiven for concluding that plumbing a bathroom is difficult. That said, the tips in this post should help you overcome some of the initial challenges.

It’s worth noting you don’t have to do everything at once. One week you might just want to replace the sink, and then the next week you could replace the bath.

There’s no rush, and the most important thing is that you do each task properly. As long as you don’t let this kind of project intimidate you, it shouldn’t be long before you have a bathroom that looks brilliant.

Want to tackle another project after you’ve taken care of your bathroom? Read this post to learn how you can go about remodeling your kitchen.