Where (and how much would it cost) to create a shower room / bathroom in this house?

[beaglesaresweet]

Sorry it's all a bit detailed and boring but...I'm considering a house where they have a nice enough bathroom but only one for the house, and it has no decent shower, just a hand-held attachment. Impossible to fit a screen even the way the bath is fitted. Can't add a proper overhead one there due to the boiler being positioned right behind the bath (cupboard door is where a shower could go)

There is a tiny cheap shower cubicle in the loft conversion on 2d floor, but has no loo there and also it's cheap and in a slopey-ceilinged corner, not my idea of comfort!

So there are quite a few bedrooms. One would be ideal as shower room as it's a box room with window, but it's not near the boiler and other plumbing, and it's at the front. I think it's too expensive if not impossible to extend the plumbing to there(?)

There is a 'study' - a walk-through room next to that tiny shower room in the loft. a good idea to extend into there, without knocking walls as there is a door from it to existing shower room? How good the pressure would be in the loft? I get an impression they don't use the existing shower much. The boiler is working well but is an older model and not combi - plus it's on the floor below.

There is also a bedroom next to the bathroom on first floor (where the boiler is), windows to the side of building so no loss of any nice views - could make a large very nice shower room, but I'm slightly sorry to lose a reasonable size bedroom (small double).

I'd like a good shower enclosure, elongated slightly, with good pressure. Plus obv a basin and loo.

When I say 'how much', I mean work and plumbing, not the units.

TIA!

two boilers, exex? unusual, and turmed out more reliable than many!

so would you recommend replacing existing cold water tank with Megaflow?

PJ, they vendors have those portable thermostats now, to go with the old boiler. I don't like them - in fact all rooms in the house felt like different temp, and when I asked in one room why is it so warm, he said that the stat which was there (portable) was set at that temp.

Does it mean you have many if these stats all in diff rooms?

Would you recommend different type of stat if the old boiler stayed but with megaflow fitted, or if a new boiler was installed?

*the vendors

*of these stats

Perhaps they were wireless thermostats. They are more troubsome than wired stats. Honeywell currently have the best range.

It is more normal and reliable to have a wired programmable stat, and TRVs in all the other rooms.

If you are zoning different floors or wings of the house, you can have a stat for each area.

Wireless stats are quicker for installers to bung in.

is it easy to fit a wired stat, or a complex electrics work? does it matter where it's placed?

what about my earlier question about replacing cold water tank with megaflow?

sorry it's a never-ending thread !

A wired stat just has a simple cable running to the boiler.

It is easy to do when you are running pipes and cables around. Unless you have obstructed all the floors with wooden, laminate or tile flooring.

pigletjohn - thanks for that. I think I am tending towards the pressurised system. And you were nearly right - it's a 5-bed late Victorian (rather than Edwardian) semi with not much insulation - there's nothing much I can do about the walls, but improving loft insulation is next on the list, followed by getting quotes for renovating/replacing the sash windows and preferably making them rather less draughty. These houses really are money pits.

OP - sorry for the hijack. Hope you find a good solution to your problem.

you will need good big radiators. As a rule of thumb, for a radiator 600mm high, each metre of radiator length can provide up to a kW of heat. For an accurate figure, you need to look at individual rads, it will be more if they are doubles or finned, and will be less if the boiler is running at reduced temperature. Builders have a habit of speccing minimum radiator sizes because they are cheaper. All mine are double size because I am barmy.

So a room that needs 2KW needs at least a 2-metre radiator, and a 30kW boiler can supply 30 linear metres of radiator.

There are advantages in having radiators that add up to more than the total output of the boiler, and to more than the total heat loss of the house, because that allows them to tick along "warm" rather than having to be blistering hot. In most cases you will not need every radiator in the house to be at full output at the same time.