Bathroom Ideas

[rangerscott275]

I have seen a thread or two showing some people have put tile floors, new showers, etc in their heads. I have a 53 MY where the two bathrooms in the stern are linked together by one common shared shower. Both of my bathrooms are pretty much original with the exception of changed wallpaper, countertops and some wood flooring. I have been staring at them since I bought the boat and planning out how I would redo them. The main things I'd like to address are the lighting, the medicine cabinets and the shared shower.

In an ideal world, I'd love a marble or some other stone tiled shower, with glass doors on both sides that would really open up the feeling and clean up the dated look of my baths. I'd also really like to redo the lighting (currently I have that long plastic rounded tube that goes the lenth of the two medicine cabinets). Finally, I love the size and space of the existing medicing cabinets...but the mirrors are all chipped and hazy and I think when I redo the lighting and shower and flooring, I will end up redoing the cabinets as well (at a minimum I'd need new sliding mirrors).

I have read some posts about how using tile in the bath could be a bad idea due to the natural movement (twisting) of the hull as the boat is used.

Any ideas in doing this....lessons learned from others as they started ripping apart their baths....things you'd do or not do again...comments on the amount of space that dwells behind the shower seat...or other types of med cabinets that have worked for you.....pics you want to share, etc? Thanks!

 

[thoward]

I think it is hard to beat a teak/holly floor.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

I used "Plas-Teak" for the floor and everyone that sees it thinks it is the answer.

 

[Pascal]

teack and holly (real or fake) seems best... lighting is the most important thing, i'm planning on removing the headliner and that ugly fluorescent light and put a solid formica ceiling with 2 recessed lights.

counter top isn't bad.. just plain white formica.. wall paper is starting to show its age, I'll either replace it or maybe look into a light veneer..

 

[rangerscott275]

I'm with you on teak & holley.....what about the shower though....Has anyone removed the existing completely and redone? It looks to me like there is alot of unused space in there that I could maximize. I would love to put up clear glass walls & doors on each side (yes, I realize you can see from bath to bath if I do this). I think it would really open these two baths up and modernize it.

 

[Freebird]

Hey, I've had different thoughts going through my "head" ever since FLIBS! I too have two identical heads on my 58TC, one day head and one private head for the master. They are reversed in layout and are butted up against each other's respective shower stalls.

I like the way Hatteras used marble on the floors and mirrors on the ceiling on the new boats I looked at. Short of watching myself do my business, the mirrors really gave the illusion of a higher ceiling and really opened things up. That would be cool on my 58 and should be equally cool on a 53.

I boarded a '93 70CMY that featured his and her's heads in the master, port and starboard, and had a large tub/shower in the middle which was accessible from either side. I'm thinking I like that idea too as it will be very rare that I will have two unattached people showering at the same time on my boat! There's always the shower in the slave's quarters for such things as that.

Has anybody done such a thing to a 58 or seen one like that? It looks like it would be a fairly simple conversion as such things go. I like the idea of one big shower instead of two little ones, especially for the liveaboard thing.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Scott,
I have a few pics in my gallery of the Amtico "marble" tiles that I installed. You should also be able to see the new soffit where the old florescent light was. In that soffit I just installed those halogen undercounter lights. I also replaced the old toilets, mirrors, towel bars, headliner, and wall paper. It turned out pretty well. I changed the portlights to the frosted ones too so that we didn't need curtains in there. All in all, I think the biggest improvment was the lighting.

 

[garyd]

Bathrooms, do you have an upstairs and a basement LOL.

I've toyed with the idea of tile as well. I've seen a multi-million dollar motor coach with tile throughout. I believe they used a type of 4000 caulk. But the unique thing they did was seperate each piece of tile with a 1/8" strip of Stainless Steel. No grout! I thought that would work on our boats as well but have not had the chance to try it.

Have fun boating garyd

 

[J's Dream]

wall paper is starting to show its age, I'll either replace it or maybe look into a light veneer..

Pascal,

How do you think a veneer will handle the moisture from the shower? I just ripped down my wallpaper in a moment of anger...I saw it peeling and molding from years of moisture, so I just grabbed it and pulled. Now I am contemplating wood or wallpaper again. Still deciding.

Jason

 

[Captned]

The new Vikings all features Amtico in the heads. Talk about look good. They say it wont dent like teak and holley. I refitted my head with a corion counter and sink. Very happy with that. Also put in different lights, a new toilet and tile sole. Would love to switch to Amtico and to get rid of the old headliner and install reccessed lighting.

Pascal, you do it and post pictures...

Bathroom indeed! Use your head!

Captned
78 46' SF

 

[J's Dream]

Do you guys have any pictures of your redone bathrooms? I have seen in the gallery photos of a 45C, I believe, by GOLE IV. Really nice job. Always looking for ideas before I jump in myself.

Jason

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Do you guys have any pictures of your redone bathrooms? I have seen in the gallery photos of a 45C, I believe, by GOLE IV. Really nice job. Always looking for ideas before I jump in myself.

Jason

Here is the Marble Amtico

Here is the new lighting

 

[jim rosenthal]

Couple of points: if you are going to do the floors, use Amtico or PlasTeak etc. No point in using wood in there, forget about it. Why use wood if you can get the look etc and not have any of the problems that go with it.

MikeP posted quite a bit of info and photos on the Amtico redo of his salon floor. It is not the same area, but should be helpful. Looking at the photos, it came out superb.

The long tube flourescent fixtures are still made and available from Sam's. A new fixture with a modern warm-white flourescent tube looks a great deal better than what is usually in them. You might try that.

Shower stall: if you pull all that out, I would plan on redoing the entire head- Corian counters, sinks, fixtures, wall coverings, floor, shower stalls- the Full Monty. Make sure the rest of the boat also looks fantastic, otherwise then you'll have to redecorate the entire boat just to match the heads....not a good slope to start down....

What I did (36C only has one head): Corian countertop and white SS sink, and new Scandvik faucet (by the way, I would not buy Scandvik again, look at Shurflo or land-type fixtures like Delta and Moen etc etc); new head of the same design as the one that came in the boat, a Jabsco. I needed it in a hurry and didn't have time to revise all the plumbing; rebuilt the shower door, with new Plexiglass and rubber seal. Still to do: repair wallpaper, new flooring in head. I would have changed to a better quality toilet if I had had the time to research it and work out the install.

Rather than rip out all the wallpaper, I will probably just make teak moldings for the areas that are damaged and cover them. Flooring? Amtico or Plasteak-and-Holloid. Of course it's fake but it looks nice and can't rot.

As with most things in boats, it's the while-you're-in-theres that get you. The trick to avoiding the WYITs is to go in as little a distance as possible...

 

[MikeP]

Here's a pic of the Amtico on the head floor just after being installed. I had just bolted down the head pedestal when I took this.

Sky, I like your lighting. What model lights are those?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Sky, I like your lighting. What model lights are those?

Those are the Homeless Depot specials. Just under-counter puck lights that are line voltage. Then I cut the specified hole size so they could be flush mounted. The soffits were already there. The PO put them in so that he could put a home type vanity light bar on the face. That was a problem since the bulbs were exposed too close to the headliner and scorched it. The finish on those was also not what you would call marine grade and they were corroded pretty bad.

 

[Paul45c]

Wow, Sky, those heads looks great. Yours too, Mike, with the Amtico wood. I gotta start thinking about something like that.

 

[REBrueckner]

Prefinished flooring from Home Depot or Lowes (or the like) is an easy quick inexpensive flooring solution. I just laid it down in my gally last year....no fastening, so I can remove/replace,discard ...pieces just lock together during installation. I like it. Took about an hour because I chose to cut and fit carefully around frig feet,cabinet corners,etc. I chose a blond color about the tone of holly in teak/holly...it contrasts nicely with the dark aformosa color.

For headliner you can use "formica" (many other brands available) countertop laminate...Home depot/Lowes carries a variety in gloss and matt finishes in a variety of colors and patterns. it's maybe 1/32" thick.
Cleans easily with a damp sponge, shami,etc. Use a fine tooth saw and cut with the finish side up..a light touch is required....don't try to hurry the cuts as chipping can occur.

Home centers also carry heavy duty stick on shelf liner....I got some white and used it in my galley for brightening the dark cabinet undersides over the countertops...boy did that brighten the galley. But the instant stick would make it tought to use over a larger area but fitting with a scissors as fast. . Countertop laminate is another alternative but requires saw cuts.

I also added some 12v halogen under counter lights in the galley as others noted above. Three cost about $25 at a home center. I replaced the 20 watt with 10 watt bulbs for a softer tone and less current draw.

For wallpaper, use vinyl not paper for long life,durability and easy cleaning. The synthetic vinyl resists mold/mildew etc and stand up to thorough cleaning as required.

 

[CDB101]

I used plasteak this past spring in the galley and head. IMO it was easy to install. Here are some pics- I'll see if I can figure out how to post them. My next step is to incorporate the plasteak into new stairs to the salon.
Chad

 

[jim rosenthal]

CDB, that's an inspiration; I have the same boat and that floor looks great. I am going to do that. It will last forever and look great. I still have the original vinyl floor- about time it came out.

 

[Calcutta]

Hey Chad,
I also installed the Plas-teek in my boat. Once you figure out how to cover the salon steps, please share...I have the one-piece step system in my boat that needs to be redone. I have not been able to figure out how to incorporate the 'teek' short of adding a new bullnose on the steps edges.