Manufacturing of a threshold of an entrance door in a bathroom, its necessity, choice of material, preparatory stage of work, installation of concrete and removable structures. In brick houses of the old housing stock, the thresholds of the bathrooms are the lower bars of wooden door frames, and in panel-type buildings - concrete elements made simultaneously with the bottom of the sanitary block. The threshold of the first option can rot sooner or later from constant contact with the wet environment of the bathroom, and the second one looks rather unattractive without cladding. Therefore, the main criteria for choosing a particular product should be its strength, moisture resistance and appearance.
Preparing to install the threshold in the bathroom
Like any construction process, the installation of a threshold requires proper equipment of the performer, so as not to harm his health and minimize the risk of physical injury. Therefore, first of all, you need to take care of personal protective equipment. These include work clothes made of thick fabric, closed shoes, a hat in the form of a cap or bandage, safety glasses and special gloves.
If you have an old threshold and need to replace it, you will need a crowbar, hacksaw and hammer. Using a hacksaw, first cut out the wooden threshold along its edges adjacent to the side pillars of the door frame, and then carefully remove the part using a crowbar and hammer. After that, the freed base must be cleaned of wood residues, dirt and other debris until it is fully ready for further work.
We will consider the technological process of installing a new part of the bathroom opening using the example of a concrete sill. To make it, you will need wooden planks, which will serve as formwork, plastic wrap, cement-sand mixture, primer, tile adhesive, ceramic granite and grout for tiles.
To work with these materials, you need to stock up on a container for mixing binders, a building level, a small rule, rubber, notched and ordinary spatulas, a perforator and a grinder with nozzles.
Features of installing a concrete threshold in the bathroom
To create such a detail, you should follow these instructions:
- It is recommended to start with the installation of wooden sides, which are necessary to create the shape and limit the height of the threshold in the bathroom. To do this, you need to measure the width of the doorway along the base and prepare two boards of slightly longer length.
- After that, they should be fixed on both sides of the bottom of the door frame on its racks and wrapped in cellophane. It will prevent the mortar from sticking to the formwork.
- Then it is necessary to prepare a concrete mixture, pour it inside the resulting shape and level it with the rule, controlling the horizontalness of the screed with a bubble level.
- The formwork filled with mortar must be left for several days before the end of its polymerization. During this period, the surface of the hardening screed must be moistened a couple of times to prevent cracking when it dries.
- When the concrete mixture has completely hardened, the formwork must be carefully removed and the side walls of the concrete sill must be inspected. If there are irregularities on them, this can be corrected with a thin layer of fresh mortar or mechanical cleaning.
The initial appearance of the threshold to the bathroom leaves much to be desired, so it must be tiled. To do this, you need porcelain stoneware tiles. It can have any color and surface texture. It is advisable to select a rough and non-slip material for cladding, taking into account the specifics of the room.
The selected tile should be cut using a grinder or a special machine into parts suitable in size for the made sill, taking into account the seams between the tiles. Before laying, the finished parts should be tried on dry to the concrete surface, and then removed and treated on all sides of the threshold with a penetrating primer. This will ensure adhesion of the tile adhesive to the material of the manufactured part.
The glue is prepared from a special dry mixture. Its packaging for sale is different - from two to three to thirty kilograms. It is impractical to buy a large package for a nut, therefore, in this case, one can proceed from the calculation of 5 kg per 1 m2 cladding. That is, you will need about 3 kg of glue.
The dry mixture must be diluted with water and mixed until a plastic and homogeneous consistency. This procedure is conveniently performed using an electric drill with a mixer attachment.
The finished adhesive must be evenly applied to the tile with a notched trowel and pressed firmly to the base. The presence of empty cavities under the cladding is unacceptable. When laying the rest of the tiles, you need to keep the same distances between them. This is done using special plastic crosses, which are inserted into the gaps between the cladding elements, 2 pieces on each side of the tile.
When laying piece material on the surface of a concrete sill, it is necessary to use the building level more often. This will make it possible to perform strictly horizontal cladding without height differences, neat and beautiful. During the cladding process, the outer corners of the threshold can be decorated with special profiles - moldings. They will give the product an attractive look and hide possible flaws in the laying of the material at the joints of the surfaces.
After partial polymerization of the adhesive under the tiles, it is necessary to grout its joints. The material for it is a composite paste in the form of a paste, which can be matched to the tone of any cladding. Grouting is done with a rubber trowel, which makes it possible to fill the joints without scratching the tiles. Excess material should be immediately removed from the tile surface with a wet sponge.
The strength of the finished threshold can be determined by tapping. He must make the same ringing sound everywhere. Dull tones indicate the presence of voids under the cladding, in such places the tiles may soon crack.
The technology of installing removable thresholds in the bathroom
In addition to creating a concrete structure, you can install a threshold in a bathroom using ready-made products that are on sale. These are the metal, wood and plastic decorative elements described above.
If the sill has already been selected, it must be adjusted in size to the width of the doorway by cutting off the excess. Any product has holes for installing fasteners to the floor surface. Therefore, the prepared threshold must be attached to the place of its fixation and through these holes, marks on the floor for drilling for screws or dowels.
After that, holes should be made to the required depth and dowels should be inserted into them. The fastening of the nut must be started from its edges. After tightening the side screws, you should check the operation of the door. If it closes, you can continue securing the product.
Many modern sills are designed as a two-tier system. It consists of a lower bar, on which all the fasteners are located, and an upper one, which is decorative and snapped on from the outside. These sills are great for many floor coverings.
Important! If, after installing the removable threshold, a small gap has formed between it and the floor, it should be filled with a moisture-resistant plumbing sealant. Usually this material is white and has a vinegar smell. How to install a threshold in a bathroom - watch the video:
That's all. We hope that we have sorted out the question of whether a threshold is needed in the bathroom and how to make it. Having received the theoretical part of the material, now you can safely start practice. Good luck!
