House with no shower - how difficult to fit one downstairs?

[faffalotty]

Been househunting and have seen a place which will suit, except that there is no shower in the bathroom. it has a sloping ceiling which means there isn't the height to fit one. At the moment they have a bath mixer tap with handheld shower spray but it is just fixed a short way up the wall in the middle of the bath - and no screen. I think you'd have to crouch to get under it!

There is some space downstairs to divide a room and create space for a shower, but I have no idea how possible this is to do or how much it would cost. I appreciate that adding a toilet could be problematic, but is a basic shower cubicle easier?

Can you give dimensions or photos

Floor plan - does this help? I was thinking of the back part of the dining room/bedroom 4.

Is there any part of the wall/ceiling that is full height? If so, can it go there? Can you post of the bathroom or - better - the rightmove link and I can explain if I see. Have extensive experience of this!

What's in your airing cupboard? Could it be incorporated into bathroom?

It's a house that's built into the roof (if that makes sense) It has dormer windows for bedrooms 1 and 2. The other idea I thought of was extending the dormer part from bedroom 2 across the back of the house to the bathroom - but I imagine that would cost a lot?

airing cupboard has hot water tank

Could you make window smaller and install shower at that end?
It would mean retiling but still cheaper than downstairs idea

Re do the boiler to a combi . put the shower where the hot water tank was obviously depends on other things but might be the best suggestion

Where are you? I think extending the former and redoing the bathroom etc, would be about 20k

You would need planning though, I think, as its at the front of the house

Options are to (a) lost the airing cupboard or (b) have the shower were the window is - you don't need to move the window per we, it could be incorporated Into the shower wall and the sill tiled out.

I can't zoom into the floor plan again but if wall under the slope is long enough, the bath could go there.

Thanks for comments. I think that if this becomes a possible contender I will have to go back and get more photos and measurements.
It's already near the top of my budget so won't have much available to spend on alterations (unless it also puts off other buyers and can get for a lower price)

Cost us £6000 to have a downstairs wet room put in a few years ago. Very small - narrow strip next to kitchen with loo at one end and shower at the other, into tiny sink in middle (in your house that'd be the wall next to the kitchen in the dining room). That cost included plumbing, drainage, floor to ceiling tiling (cubicle wd be cheaper), and creation of new wall.

I found a house of the same style under the sold ones, which had been re-jigged to give this floor plan upstairs. As suggested, incoroporating the airing cupboard into the bathroom.
I guess that would have cost quite a lot.

Extending the dormer shouldn't be any more than a few thousand.

You'll need scaffolding though - normally around £800 - £1,000

Architects drawings and planning permission (if it's at the front of the property which it seems to be). Then building control sign off - £2k probably.

Then the cost of labour and materials

A cheap bathroom is around 5k to buy, fit and tile. Then incidentals - spotlights are around £50 each to have fitted. Plus a decent extractor fan -£70.

Got to decorate and make good as well.

Plus add 20% VAT to the vatable elements. I think that 20k is quite a reasonable estimate - taking into account 2k (10%) as contingency.

It's at the back of the house, not the front

I would assume that the existing suite could stay - and either just add a shower over the bath or, if there is room, a separate shower cubicle?

Still sounds rather an expensive job just to fit a shower though.

I think the cheapest thing would be to reconfigure the existing bathroom, e.g. swap the loo and the bath around (maybe put in a smaller bath or a corner bath so you don't bang your head when you sit on the loo). I'd guess you could do this quite cheaply if you reused the current fittings. It would be quite good to have a downstairs loo though, either by making the front bedroom smaller or by using part of the garage, so if you could afford it I would say do that instead, or do both.

That's good it's at the heck as you wouldn't need planning permission. Just building control

Are there any decent, independent bathroom design studios near you? The designers there are usually really good at sueaking with awkward spaces and will come out on viewings.

I've not seen the whole room but I do think you could probably make this work by just redesigning the existing bathroom which would be about 5k to rip out and replace - unless you are in London or some other expensive but if the country

Deffo agree that a downstairs loo is great

If you are going to put a shower downstairs, it's worth the extra hassle to put a loo in there too. No-one ever regrets a second loo

if it's not on the same wall as the existing toilet, would an extra one downstairs have to be a saniflo type?

You'll need scaffolding though - normally around £800 - £1,000

Our builders had their own. With a chalet bungalow you only need a platform, not huge scaffolding.

Can you half The garage downstairs and put a full shower wet room in there? With toilet and sink.

They use the front half of garage as a shed

Most new cars don't really fit in garages anyway

Not to divert the thread but even if they have their own, they still price it in. I took the liberty of checking costs with our builder who is hear today and is the cheapest I've ever come across. Actually, if you need a NW builder, happy to PM details

Anyway - I think the simplest thing is to redo the existing bathroom

here

Well we had a very large dormer created, lots and lots of steel downstairs, a bathroom created upstairs, a large velux window, one large room split into two upstairs, electrics, plumbing moved from one side of the house to the other downstairs etc. It cost 20k (inc planning, architect). So I can't see how extending the dormer a metre or so would cost what you say.