Tile Effect Wall Panels - Now Available In Grey

We have recently added a new panel to our range.

Mineral Beige Tile Marble has long been a popular panel with our customers that provides the best of both worlds, the look of tiles with the benefit of wall panels - no grout, no maintenance, wipe over surface, easy installation.

The manufacturers, Grosfillex, have now produced a grey version of this panel which we think will be a great addition to the range.



The panels appear to be 2 tiles wide and the finished effect gives a staggered pattern with each tile joining half way up the adjacent tile (click the above image to see in more detail). This means that horizontal lines do not have to be lined up perfectly, making installation a lot easier.

Visit the following page on our website for more information:
Mineral Grey Tile Marble

Bathroom Ceiling

One our customers recently refurbished his bathroom ceiling with Blanca Ultra White ceiling panels. He sent in some photos with the following note.

"Just to let you know, the delivery arrived as stated and all was in good condition. Finally got around to fitting the ceiling panels over the last couple of days and was amazed at how easy they were to work with and how smart they look. Went for a floating effect with remote controlled RGB LED backlighting, also added some speakers."


click the image to enlarge

I sked him how he achieved the effect and this is his description of the work he carried out.

"Hi Mark,It's pretty simple really; the ceiling was battened with 34mm timbers leaving an 8cm gap (5cm perspex around the edge, plus 3cm overhang for the trim to clip onto the panel edges) between the timbers and the walls. RGB LED tape such as this:

http://www.litewave.co.uk/rgb_led_tape_home.asp

was stuck around the perimeter of the battens. The tape is then wired back to my in-wall airing cupboard and connected to this controller (in an IP56 rated enclosure, just to be safe)

http://www.led-tech.de/en/LED-Controlling/LED-Controlling/MultiLine-RGB-Controller-V2.0-LT-1001_118_31.html

This is powered by an old 12v laptop power supply capable of providing 5amp (as required by the 8m of LED strip I used) To go with the controller I also use an IR extender which is mounted in the hollow edge of a ceiling panel with an aligning hole drilled in the edging trim to receive commands from the remote which allows mixing of around 16 million colours, all of which can be dimmed in 100 step increments.:

http://www.led-tech.de/en/LED-Controlling/LED-Controlling/MultiLine-IR-sensor-LT-1003_118_31.htmlhttp://www.led-tech.de/en/LED-Controlling/LED-Controlling/MultiLine-IR-Remote-Control-LT-1002_118_31.html

I left a 5cm gap around the edge of the ceiling panels to allow the light from the LED's to show, to diffuse the light and give a soft glow I used strips of 050 white opal perspex (this just looks like an extension of the edging strip when the LED's are off), this all had a bead of silicon sealant added to the edge during fitting to ensure the LED's were sealed away from any steam.The in-ceiling speakers are just bog-standard QED systemline 0.5's (suitable for bathroom use!) which are powered by a sonic impact t-amp with the audio source being a logitech squeezebox (outside the bathroom using an RF remote to control) to stream music from my music server. I use these all over the house (lounge, bedrooms, kitchen, study) and can listen to independent music in each room, or synchronise every player or specific players around the house. All-in-all it took me about 2 and a half days by myself to complete and turned out better than I planned (half a day of this was testing by a qualified electrician as any new electrical work in a bathroom falls under part P of the building regs).

Video of one of the many colour change sequences here: http://tehjunk.com/bathroom.MPG"


The following image shows how the bathroom ceiling looked before the work was carried out:

Outasight Replacement Curtains

Outasight are currently out of stock of replacement shower curtains. New material is due in but it is estimated that curtains will not be available until 2nd or 3rd week of April.



There has been a slight increase in the cost of the shower curtain material which has resulted in a price change - curtains are now £47.50

Spabord Panels - Colour Deletions

Some of the Spabord range of shower wall panels have been earmarked for deletion

The colours to be deleted are:

• Beige Mosaic


• Cappuccino


• Luxor


• Warm Coral


• Oasis Blue

Some of these colours have been slow moving so stocks of these are being run down and will not be replaced by the manufacturers of Spabord, Wilsonart. Stocks of Oasis Blue have already been exhausted. Please check with us before ordering any of these colours to ensure there is sufficent stock to fulfill your order.

There will be new colours added to the range soon but we do not have any definite details as yet.

Grosfillex Panels - Easter Availability

The importer's warehouse for Grosfillex panels will be closed for Easter for a week. As the panels are despatched directly from this warehouse this will affect any orders placed with us during this period.

The warehouse will be closed on Friday 10th April 09 and will re-open on Monday 20th April.

Order for all other products sold by The Bathroom Marquee will be unaffected.

Bathroom Marquee Closed 25.05.09 for 1 Week

The Bathroom Marquee will be closing on Monday 25 May 09 for 1 week and will re-open on Tuesday 2nd June at 9.00am

You will be able to place orders via our website while we are shut - orders will be processed on our return on the 2nd June.

Sealing Wall Panels In The Corner of a Shower Cubicle

We very often get asked about the best method for fitting the panels into the corner of shower cubicles.

There are three methods for fitting panels into the corner of shower cubicles:

1. Use a corner trim supplied by the manufacturers of the panel


2. Butt-joint the panels in the corner and seal with a good quality silicone
   
3. Score the back of the panel and bend the panel 90 deg to form the corner

Most fitters tend to use option 2 as it is the quickest, easiest and neatest method - providing you cut reasonably accurately.

If you are concerned about water ingress you can dry fit the panels first, then run a thick bead of silicone into the corner and then push the first panel into the wet silicone, embedding the corner of the panel in sealant. Run another bead of silicone down the corner and push the second panel into the wet silicone to form the corner. Wipe off any excess on the front of the panel and run thin bead of silicone down the newly formed corner to completely seal it off.

This method is ideal for patterned panels such as mosaic or tile effect panels as corner trims tend to break up the pattern.

This method can be used where there is a shower over the bath or in shower cubicles.

Christmas Opening/Closing Times

We will be closing for two weeks at Christmas. We shut at at 3pm on Friday 19th of December and will re-open on Monday 5th January 2009.

We would recommend Monday 15th as the last day of ordering for wall panels to ensure that you receive the goods in plenty of time before we close. It will be possible to order up until we close but we will not be around to deal with any queries, should there be an issue with your delivery. Outasights can be ordered up until Wed 17th Dec and deliveries will be made on Friday 19th.

You can orer online while we are closed - any orders placed online over the holiday period will be processed on our return in January.

Panel Joints

All of the UPVC panels that we sell are tongue and grooved enabling the panels to be joined together and making them suitable for use in showers, bathrooms and wet rooms.



The visible join on the surface of the panel will vary depending on the joint style of the panel:

• flush joint
• contrast joint
• v-groove joint

There are pages with information regarding these different joint types on the website and the flush joint page has just been re-vamped with some new images to show in more detail the appearance of this type of joint.

The joint types refer only to the visible surface and do not affect the performance of the joint. We would always recommend running a thin bead of silicone inside the groove prior to installation in a shower area just to ensure no water is forced through the joint (the joint relies on the springiness of the plastic so if you took a power shower spray head and pointed it at the joint you could force the joint apart with a powerful enough jet)

Spabord Stocks Back To Normal

The manufacturers of Spabord recently changed one of the production facilities for their panels.

While this was occuring they ran out of stock of many of the more popular colours. The new facility is now up and running and stock levels are now returning to normal.

Bathroom Ceiling Panels

When wall panels are installed the weight of the panel rests on the floor, bath or shower tray so the panels are effectively just "leaning against the wall" Consequently the bond between the panel and the wall does not have to be that strong to be effective. When panels are fitted to a bathroom ceiling however the bond is much more critical.

Most filters that we have spoken to use a combination of adhesive and a staple gun. Solvent-free adhesive tends to be slightly less effective that those with solvent (if using adhesive with solvent be sure that there is plenty of ventilation when you are fitting the panels). The staples help hold the panel in place whilst the adhesive sets.

The panels that we sell are very easy to cut so we always recommend taking your time cutting them to ensure a good fit. The joint between the ceiling panels and the wall can be sealed with silicone. If you are not confident of achieving a neat cut finish you can use trims to help cover the edges of the panels. The problem with most of the trims sold by the manufacturers is that they are designed to be used with wall panels rather that ceiling panels. They can, however, be adapted for use with ceilings by trimming away the back section that would usually clip over the top of the wall panels. The trims can then be mitred and stuck up once the panels are in place. Any trim could be use for this purpose, not just the trims that we sell. Tile edge trim, quadrant or scotia moulding could be fitted once the ceiling panels are in installed.