Can we do a bathroom lessons learned thread?

[dontcallmemam]

My Pinterest and Houzz are full of gorgeous bathrooms but thinking practically are there any good tips?
It seems a decent extractor & an open window are important.
Good flooring?
Adequate storage?
Any tips gratefully received.

Had never heard of them before we bought a house in the states, but most bathrooms there have shaving steps built in to the showers. Totally amazing and make shaving legs so easy- essentially just tile over a corner to make a triangular pillar which you can rest your foot on when shaving your legs.

If you happen to have a reasonable amount of tesco club card vouchers, they triple up at topps tiles. I got some very expensive, beautiful tiles for the princely sum of £30 once I'd converted my vouchers!

Yy to shaving step, currently living in the US. Otoh, we moved here in the summer despite the bathrooms (1980s Texas style with plastic "crystal " and gold taps etc) and now have 3 that need redoing, watching with interest ....

don't use endurance paint in a bathroom - water just runs down it and puddles on the skirting..

get a bigger extractor fan than you think, ours is too small and we have to leave on for ages after hot bath...

think about lighting i got lovely 3 bulb light which is fab when in shower/in morning etc but v bright when want relaxing bath

so swopped one of plain mirror cabinet over sink to have a light on which works much better

thermostatic bath tap so ds doesn't get scalded when dh runs a kettle downstairs..

b&Q do big metro tiles so less grout (used good quality grey )

i have bath panel with sections that open for extra storage as well as vanity unit and two bathroom cabinets one above loo and one above sink..

if going for vanity unit check which way doors open and square vs curved corners - we had a very specific layout which would only fit certain types of cabinet- i went to local plumbers shop and looked at quite a few ..

got bath/grohe taps etc on ebay other things from mix b&q local plumbers merchant (haggle)

We have teeny bathroom - got a huge towel / radiator thing and it is lovely and warm! So if you have a large room underfloor heating plus towel rail or 2 towel rails????

Do not have tiles with all that grout that goes manky get shower boards - OMG so much easier to keep clean and free from limescale. Love it love it love it.

Get a water softener installed if you live in a hard water area - gleaming glass for the shower cubicle!

If you can have a seperate loo with a handbasin in def do that, nowt worse then needing to have shower after the dc have left a stinky smell behind grr

Loads of good advice here, hoping someone can help me - we are about to put a shower over the bath in main bathroom (have 2 ensuites with showers in) what do we need to consider?

If you have the space, set the bath about 10cm out from the wall and have marine-ply + tiled shelf across the gap for all the bottles

or if you have freestanding bath, set it about 15cm away from wall and run panelling/tongue and groove along wall with shelf on top for the same reason.

If you live in a freezing, old unheated house in Scotland, and have more than one bathroom, you are allowed to use carpet in one

If you are replacing the boiler, put in a megaflow and therefore you won't need to add power to your showers.

If no megaflow and crap pressure, add pump behind wall,

Spend as much as you can afford on the things you will be switching, turning, otherwise touching - worth it.

Yes yes to soft close toilet seats, no more banging waking you up when the dc get up at the weekend!

We have ropner rhodes stuff and very happy with the quality 5 years on.

Not heard of wax spray but I clean my bathtub, tiles and showerscreen with diluted white vinegar - stops those annoying water spots for weeks on end.

Be careful positioning the loo....not near the sink or cupboards etc. nowt more annoying than dropping your brand new expensive moisturiser down the bog!

I got wall hung tall cabinet and basin with drawer loads of empty floor, visually makes the room look larger and cleaner when you be arsed to clean properly

We have a megaflow too and get great water pressure.

What's a megaflow?

It may be what we have?

If someone elses uses the water elsewhere in the house, the pressure drops a little but not the temperature? Had extra diameter pipes used for the water flow?

I'd use a removable filter incorporated into the shower outlet trap. They are easy to clean and I presume you are less likely to get a blockage in the shower outlet.

Megaflows usually have megaflow written on them in red . They are big white cylindrical tanks that are not externally lagged. You shouldn't really experience a loss of pressure if two people are showering.

I had our pipes increased to 22mm all the way from the main water inlet to the megaflow.

I sometimes have to 'recharge' mine.

Oh we don't have one of those, no tanks here at all house so small combi does the job

A Megaflo (trade name) is a brand of unvented (pressurised) hot water cylinder. It is not fed from a cold water tank in the loft, it is fed direct from the incoming watermain. They are usually in white cases but some brands are silver. They tend to be bigger than ordinary cylinders and may hold 200 or 300 litres of water.

They can give superior flow of hot water to a combi, and superior pressure to a tank-fed cylinder.

Because there is no cold water storage, the flow and pressure are totally dependent on what comes into the house from the street. Older houses usually have quite small waterpipes and cannot deliver enough flow to quickly fill a bath or run a drencher shower, they were designed to be used with a cold water tank in the loft as a buffer.

Flow is not the same as pressure.

Oh Piglet we do love you.

Had to get rid of our tanks to put in a staircase, the joys of being poorly paid and living in the south east!

PigletJohn is my favourite poster on Mumsnet .

I thought I would share that

What I need is the PigletJohn equivalent for cars...

Oh and most other things in my life!

Get the biggest towel rail you can fit. We have a 6ft one.

Also, we got a heated floor. It's amazing!!!!!

If you can't get hold of wax spray, a spray bottle with half water half distilled vinegar brings up my shower screen like new. Spray it on,then use a dry cloth to clean. Polish up with a separate cloth or kitchen roll. Cheap and the best thing I have found for removing lime scale.

What are shower boards? They sound great! but when I google I get mobility aids