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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what bathroom mistakes you have made

321 replies

Egoanono · 20/10/2016 14:54

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
DonaldStott · 20/10/2016 15:21

We have a small bathroom and i am not a fan of towel rails. Instead, we got a vertical radiator. It looks really effective and we always get comments on it. It goes nicely on the wall behind the door too, so saved a good bit of space.

deeedeee · 20/10/2016 15:24

We used grey grouting ( with dusk egg blue tiles) and what a complete relief to not still be living with discoloured white grouting (unless you scrub the grouting every day).

Every other place I've ever lived has had discoloured mouldy grouting! no more! Hurrah!

deeedeee · 20/10/2016 15:26

If you have a small bathroom consider doing what we did and fitting a japanese soaking tub! www.omnitub.co.uk Means you can have a deep bath up to you neck in a small space and also makes a huge luxurious shower cubicle!

Cellardoor23 · 20/10/2016 15:27

I live in a flat and we have a small bathroom, so we went for a small cloakroom sink with a cupboard underneath.

I didn't see the point in having a huge sink when there was a perfectly good sink a few meters away in the kitchen!

BorpBorpBorp · 20/10/2016 15:27

These things I learned from the bathroom when we moved in:

Never ever ever have a built in toilet. Our toilet sometimes does a thing where the cistern constantly tops itself up, which would normally be so simple to fix, but the way the toilet is built in means that although you can remove a panel to access the cistern, you can't pull the thing up high enough because there's not enough room under the counter, and the counter can't be removed without taking the basin out. So we are living with the extra water costs and annoying noise of the cistern refilling.

Don't get matte black shower tiles. They show all the limescale really badly.

cjt110 · 20/10/2016 15:27

Do not let them rip you off and put a substandard shower tray in. Have seen many neighbours in our block of flats having to have their bathrooms ripped out because the cheap arse builders but an MDF shower tray under the tiling which, after the water had soaked through the grouting, soaked the MDF and the whole bathroom needed destroying.

We now don't use our shower room for showering. Thank goodness we have an ensuite!

ElspethFlashman · 20/10/2016 15:31

Yes to cloakroom sinks. They're plenty big enough for washing your hands, which is all you do with them anyway. Big sinks are madness.

AnneGables · 20/10/2016 15:31

Don't have a white tiled floor, looks fab for 30 seconds a week and dirty the rest of the time, I hate it, but as it was expensive have to live with it.

Thingmcthingyface · 20/10/2016 15:32

PLACEMARKING like crazy great thread.

healthyheart · 20/10/2016 15:33

If you're shower is in the Bath (loving the Omni tub btw I may have to go for that next time!) then make sure your shower screen is a good wide one- so the floor does not get sprinkled - our bath mat is permanently drenched.

SuburbanRhonda · 20/10/2016 15:34

Make sure you out waterproof plasterboard behind the tiles in the shower.

PigletJohn · 20/10/2016 15:36

don't have a popup waste anywhere.

It will leak.

Don't get a Saniflow. Better to buy a bucket and dig a hole in the garden.

RebeccaWithTheGoodHair · 20/10/2016 15:37

Don't have black marble, the water marks will drive you insane.

Box in all pipework so you have handy ledges to store loo rolls etc plus less places for dust to collect.

MuseumOfCurry · 20/10/2016 15:38

Never ever ever have a built in toilet. Our toilet sometimes does a thing where the cistern constantly tops itself up, which would normally be so simple to fix, but the way the toilet is built in means that although you can remove a panel to access the cistern, you can't pull the thing up high enough because there's not enough room under the counter, and the counter can't be removed without taking the basin out. So we are living with the extra water costs and annoying noise of the cistern refilling.

We put in a built-in toilet in a not-huge bathroom and are very happy with it - and it saved us quite a lot of room. I can't quite visualise this problem! I would vote for a built-in toilet but be sure you have good access.

LizB62A · 20/10/2016 15:39

My sister had a fixed shower head installed in her new bathroom, rather a removable shower head attached to a hose (if you see what I mean)

She only realised the problem with that the next time I coloured her roots for her and she had to rinse her hair under the bath tap.... (as she doesn't want to get the hair colour on her skin)

We colour her hair at my house now :-)

IToldYouIWasFreaky · 20/10/2016 15:40

Ode We moved house! Grin Sorry, not helpful...

charmund · 20/10/2016 15:41

A soft close loo seat is great- means you don't get woken in the middle of the night by DC/DH banging it down

Less great is our plastic bath - we'd run out of money so bought a cheap one on the basis that we'd change it when we could. Now can't be bothered to have it done but it feels horrid when you're in it and is difficult to clean

YelloDraw · 20/10/2016 15:43

PigletJohn do you mean water will leak out of the bath down the waste, or that water will leak out of the waste and cause bad times?

What you would you use instead?

mintthins · 20/10/2016 15:44

Yes, if you have a fixed shower head, get a flexible one fitted too.

Matt tiles are a bugger to clean - just avoid.

Make sure your towel rail is big enough for the number of towels you want.

atticusclaw2 · 20/10/2016 15:44

We have a fixed head and a separate head on a separate hose.

Get a back to wall toilet so that you don't have to clean behind it.

We sold our last house which had a tiled in bath panel courtesy of our builders (which admittedly looked lovely). We'd never even thought about the fact that it might be problematic. Three weeks after we'd moved the new owners called asking us how to get it off because they'd done something to the taps and now had water spraying everywhere. There was no way to get to it other than removing the whole panel which was all screwed and then tiled and grouted Blush

FlyingElbows · 20/10/2016 15:44

If you have a stupid teeny bathroom then make sure any shower screen over the bath is foldable. I do not know what possessed our housebuilders to think that a big bit of solid glass wanging about in the bathroom was a good idea. How we didn't break the damn thing on the cistern I have no idea.

ElspethFlashman · 20/10/2016 15:44

Nothing shows dirt less than a patterned floor E.g. a Moroccan tile or similar. Also visitors will compliment Moroccan anything, I've noticed.

OhMrBadger · 20/10/2016 15:44

If you get a lovely stand alone bath like we did, make sure it has an access panel round the back. Otherwise to investigate leaks, you have to lift the entire bath out of position. Reduced our plumber to tears, it did.

seminakedinsomebodyelsesroom · 20/10/2016 15:45

Oh yes totally agree about a plastic bath. We had one and it got scratched easily and looked grubby.

GinAndTunic · 20/10/2016 15:46

Get a shower cubicle with double doors that slide to the sides: they have a smaller footprint than doors that open outwards and are easier to open if someone falls within the shower cubicle itself.