Advice: bathroom in loft conversion

[sailingby]

We are about to commence with a loft conversion - to provide a bedroom and bathroom. Our current bathroom is very small, tiny bath with shower above and shower curtain, and wooden flooring - and this is for a family of 4.
So in the loft we want a proper sized bath with a more substantial shower above the bath, toilet and basin. Not sure what flooring to get, and just generally want the room to feel a bit "luxurious" - without going mad with ££££!
Suggestions/advice on what to do / what not to do much appreciated.

I don't much care, as long as you don't get a poo blender saniflow.

if you have room for a shower cubicle it will be better than a squirter over the bath.

Basin and WC can go somewhat under the slope of the roof.

you will need a combi or a megaflo to get any water out of the loft taps. This would be a good time to run any water pipes up to the loft in new 22mm if the flow is not strong. Please don't put the boiler up there.

Tile the floor is the best. Have a look at a few loft conversion sites. They show the best off. Have a look at this one. www.econoloft.co.uk/hip-to-gable.php

Thanks, I had hoped we could fit in a shower, but we have a terraced Victorian house, so not much room. We may wait to see what the space feels like before planning the bathroom.
Will have a look at the website, thanks. What sort of tiles are best?

I'm not sure there is a type that's best. Go to a local tile shop like topps tiles I have a good few deals. Ask your tiler too as he may get a discount for you.

I'd avoid limestone, especially travertine, as it stains easily and will be eaten by bathroom and WC cleaners which have limescale removing acids, as will bodily fluids.

Limestone and limescale are the same thing.

And limestone (as we discovered from another thread) dissolve if anyone is sick on them!

The very most important thing is to get the attic floor properly strengthened. Baths full of water weigh a lot, and you don't want one falling through to the room below! And your house insurance won't cover you for any damage if your conversion doesn't have building regs approval.

Currently doing the same thing however have opted for a large shower cubicle (1m x 1.2m) instead of a bath. The big issues we have found have been getting a shower door to fit as the cubicle is under the sloped ceiling (NB you may have a similar issue with a shower curtain depending on where you intend putting your bath) and getting a decent mirror over the sink for the same reason. We have had to go down the made-to-measure route for the shower door which is v expensive.

Also, you need to watch which way the floor joists are running to make sure your toilet waste can exit properly, as you can't cut through a joist to fit a soil pipe. This can have a big impact on where you put your toilet.

We have tiled floor and walls (porcelain) - i think it can make a small space seem bigger depending on the choice of tile.

Toilet erm, loo under the sloping wall, under window, as there is more headroom.
Choose the best tiles you can afford, as they will be in there forever. Toilet&sink you can easily change, you won't be hacking those tiles off for decades (never).

Thanks, will avoid limestone, and seek good quality tiles (whereas my immediate instinct would be to cut the cloth on them!).
I will add the "strong floor" to the list of things to ask the builder about - but we have submitted for building regs so expect the work to be checked regularly. Ditto mentioning the soil pipe issue to the builder (he will be fed up with me before he starts work - but I'd rather be an "informed buyer"!).
And all good reason to plan the bathroom carefully with the sloping ceiling.
Off to check out loft conversion bathroom websites!

Thanks

Tile definitely better than wood in a bathroom for durability and ease of cleaning. We had a shower tray rather than a bath, and if you do go down that route they have to be cut on the slant so you'd need to go for ceramic, which are easier to cut than more brittle porcelain and so a professional cutter may get a better finish. If you go for dark tiles get dark grout to match, much easier to keep looking clean. Also the larger the tile the less grout to clean! We did large dark tiles in the shower and on the floor, light coloured metro tiles everywhere else. So much to consider! Enjoy choosing it all

You can buy a product to protect your limestone tiles from staining. We have used this in our loft conversion bathroom (once a year) and no stains there - nearly 3 years on. It looks really nice.

I assume you have a builder already but I would really recommend using a loft conversion company as they do conversions all the time and therefore have a lot of experiences and therefore clear advice about what works and what doesn't.

We have a nice double shower in ours - I'm sure you could have a bath with shower over instead. Our bathroom is in the dormer window bit so has no sloping roof which made is much easier to fit out. We found the sloping bits easier to use for storage space including wardrobes.

We've just had an ensuite included in our new loft conversion (dormer on back of Victorian terrace). The issues that came up were waste pipe, head room and size. Definitely bring them all up with the builder before they start drawing up plans!