To ask what bathroom mistakes you have made

[Egoanono]

Doing up the bathroom at the mo, ripping it out and starting from scratch. Mid range budget but want a high end finish. I'd love to learn from your mistakes (and successes! please.

"you're not supposed to turn it off ever,"

Why?

Didn't entirely understand when it was explained to me but for some reason it breaks if its turned off for a long time and then turned back on again.

'hmmmmmm.

A wet system (moving parts, pump, motorised valves, blender) can stick if not exercised for a long time, and some boiler systems are designed to occasionally start up during summer.

But I don't see how that could apply to electric UFH.

Beats me, a builder told me.

Thanks to posters who suggested solutions to smeared glass shelf / electric toothbrush. Found a pot that fits all 3 and now I don't feel annoyance every time I look at shelf ! I don't know why I didn't think of it before !!

If you're doing all the fitting yourself, tiling et al then I can't stress enough the old adage of measure twice cut once! Also make sure you buy all the tiles at the same time with at least 1 or 2 extra boxes. I'm lucky to have been brought up with builders and DIY experts, among others, and engaged in similar processes from a very young age but I've seen some horrible results just from these mistakes which were completely unavoidable.

Good luck! Hope you'll share the finished work with us.

A 'glass' shower screen is so much better than a grubby curtain and can be kept nice with a squeegee after every shower. We had a corner bath with a sort of lower seat in the corner. I can't tell you how versatile it has been for children. It is nice and wide for the shower and took a plastic stool for a poorly family member who need sitting down showers for a while. A great touch was a dimmer pull switch for our ceiling spotlights a bit like this:
www.amazon.co.uk/Greenbrook-Dimmable-smooth-switch-DIMSW-C/dp/B00CX3U8LS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477155900&sr=8-1&keywords=dimmer+pull+switch
It goes on and dims INSIDE the room with downward pull/pressure.The wonderful thing is it is silent - no clonking on and off at night.

Just for all of you storing multiple user toothbrushes together in the same pot, my dentist and hygenist says it's a huge No No as the biome from one mouth transfers cross brushes. Each person needs to store their brushes separately, and Never use anyone else's brush.

Viruses like hepatitis can live for a week outside the body, plus cold and flu, as can the plaque forming bacteria that cause staining and periodontal gum diseases like gingivitis.
Not saying you have all these viruses, and diseases, but you definitely have an oral biome, so it's best just to keep everyone's brush/ oral hygiene equipment separate.

Replace brush heads regularly, (3months) and bin old toothbrushes after you've had a cold, mouth ulcer, or other virus.

As you were.

MrsDeVere you have just saved me an absolute fortune! Thank you.

Great thread OP, we're just about to get our bathroom at the start of November. Suite has been bought and it doesn't look like we've made any mistakes......yet!

Am about to do bathroom... Current toilet always has skids marks.. As if bowl is too narrow? How to avoid? Big wide bowl?
Omnitubs so am I right in thinking that you can't stretch your legs out... That does not sound relaxing!

Can you fit a toilet to a party wall, cos that is what architect drew so bath would fit across external wall. Builder doesn't think so and I want to sort it out before they start building [loft conversion]

For us in an incredibly hard water area, a shower curtain is infinitely preferable to a transparent shower screen. I also hate cleaning and there is no way in this very short life that I would clean a shower screen every day. Also we only have one bathroom, so we all appreciate the privacy of being behind the opaque curtain if someone needs to pop in to the bathroom whilst a.n. other member of the family is showering. This particularly applies as the children get older.

My biggest mistake was installing a bath that is too long for me to lie down in . I really miss baths and it is the first thing I do if staying in a hotel!

Hard water here too - shower curtain gets bunged in the washing machine from time to time

Has anyone got a humidity sensing extractor fan...I really wanted one as seems like a really good idea but bathroom fitter pretty much dismissed them saying an ordinary extractor fan was just as good

Great thread! I'm noting down these tips for when we put an ensuite in later this year.

We did our main bathroom last year. Things we got right :

Lots of storage - the plumber thought we were mad but we use it all and the bathroom looks so uncluttered
Sink with vanity unit and drawers - so much easier to get to our stuff than a standard cupboard with shelves
Grey grouting
Dimmer switch

Things we got wrong :
Very dark floor shows up toothpaste marks
Bloody shower screen gets in the way of bathing the DC, we should have got one of the concertina ones
Do not let me plumber and dp, who are both a foot taller than you, decide on the shower height - even on its lowest setting it's a bit too high for me

Yy to not letting tall people decide heights of things. Especially wall hung toilets.

Electric underfloor heating can be turned off. Ours runs off a digital programmer just like a GCH programmer, so it is set to be on for a few hours morning and evening. Nothing in the manual says we shouldn't turn it off. But it does take a long time to heat the room from cold, so maybe that's why you don't turn it off.

About the toothbrushes being stored together... Does this dentist never snog her OH, or kiss her family on the lips, or share a glass, or let each other taste from the same spoon? There's already plenty of biome-transfer going on within a family.

Has anyone got one of these? Any good?

Vertical bath looks well weird!

What about one of those fancy shower cabinets that have side jets and sauna settings and whatnot?

Actually forgot the key thing for me about a bathroom - must have a sauna! Although appreciate that's probably not so easy in the UK!

Think carefully about practicalities of cleaning (boring I know ) but it will save you hours of frustration. No nooks, crannies and gaps you can't easily clean down/between (thinking in particular shower screen doors/cubicles) and don't do tiny tiles in shower/bath area - so much more grouting to clean, particularly when it goes discoloured and mouldy. Also, if you plan to use any of those suction thingys for storage they will only stick on big tiles (not mosaic).

Just from my experience - hope that helps

Haven't read the whole thread so this may already be in there - but don't have a shower tray (or bath, I guess) that has a raised or 'proud' plug/waste hole. Ours has a steel waste that sits on top of the hole, and although the area around it is lower so the water will head in that direction, the last bits of scum just sit around the raised metal edge and create manky dirty marks with limescale build up....... I suppose I could follow my family around and clean it after every use - but as I don't, it is a nightmare and a serious design fault! I saw a similar one at a friend's new house, and just managed to bite my tongue........ (btw we have an ensuite with a much better design - so they can be let down level with the surface).

Not sure if you know this Life but the Bathstore posted that a while ago now....I am assuming right at the beginning of April -as they were expecting to have them in stock by the end of April.....

Re the toothbrushes.. Dp and I share an electric toothbrush! We have separate heads though.

Don't do any sort of tiles - glass is the way to go, eg.:
www.opticolour.co.uk/bathrooms_with_opticolour_coloured_glass_splashbacks_or_walls_installed.html

Get a spare box of tiles, if you ever need repairs for any reason you'll be covered