Awkward bathroom - can you have taps in the middle AND an over bath shower?

[PuraVida]

our small bathroom has two windows and a door and cannot fit a separate shower cubicle. currently has no shower. i need a shower.

the only solution to not having a shower in front of a window would be to have a bath with taps in the middle, with a shower over the bath also in the middle. i cannot find any pictures of this set up so am starting to doubt its wisdom.

i can't find a shower, as in the controls and head etc with integrated taps for the bath, so i guess i'd need to buy seperate ones, and these would need to match.

also can any bath be used with a shower over or do you need it to be reinforced or anything?

it's all very complicated . i have more questions but might see if ayone is interested enough before droning on

"The room is only 165 cm wide."

?
A typical bath is 170.

I need some graph paper. I'm not sure there'll be room to get in passed the w/b which can either be under the window or against the adjacent wall if we had a false wall, but will be somewhere in that corner opposite the door. I'm not sure we could change it to open outwards as a bedroom door is one side at a right angle and the stairs immediately the other and no one in this house ever shuts a door

Take a drawing with measurements on to a good local bathroom supplies shop and see if they can give you some advice. Ours did a great job finding things for our tiny bathroom.

The bath will go lengthways PJ it's 165 wide by 2.5m long

I tried bath store which was the only bathroom place around and they were disappointing and the guy had halitosis

I may need to travel to find a better one

But is there any actual reason not to have the taps and a shower both located centrally?

It would actually work really well if there isn't a reason I've not thought of as to why it's not often done

Use the layout as shown Mon 26-Sep-16 19:58:21

Have a false wall at the end of the bath, with the shower pipes concealed inside it. You might even be able to hinge a shower door/screen off the wall. Put it up to ceiling height ans screw the top to the joists to add strength and rigidity when someone falls on it. It can be made of timber frame with water resistant Hardie Tilebacker on the faces and need only be about 50mm thick. Your extractor fan should be close to the shower, but not directly above the bath unless it is an inline ducted fan in the loft (recommended).

OP we have just refitted our family bathroom which is something like 1.72m X 2.5m.

Another suggestion would be to get a slightly shorter bath. We have a 1700 bath widthways but there was a point when we thought we wouldn't get that in. We looked at 1650 baths (which you might be able to fit in). You can get 1-2 cm of the bath into the wall if necessary (it's only the kind of lip of the bath which is that wide as the bottom slopes away) and then you could have the shower in the wall. Might mean moving the door perhaps (having the shower end of the bath where the door is). Is that an option?

Could you not block in the window that is currently over the bath and just leave the bath where it is? You still have one window which seems enough for a very small bathroom. Or block the other window and move the bath.

Yes, I'd travel. A good bathroom shop will sell various different brands of bath etc. Can't guarantee freshness of breath though

I guess the problem with it on the wall is you might feel like it's less space in there? You wouldn't have much room to move forwards and back (you tend to jump back for example if the shower goes cold). We had a space saver bath that was slightly shorter and kind of P shaped. Maybe you could have one of those and have the shower on the side wall in the P bit? You could even have the controls to the side of the shower so you could switch it on before you get in.

And I don't think that switching the bath and shower round could cause too much problem with soil pipe in terms of distance? But depends exactly where it is I suppose.

No the door can't be moved, the stairs are the other side. The only way a bath cold go across the room is if the loo was moved which. Other than turning it 90 degrees I don't want the expense of doing

I totally hear what you're saying about the false wall and I'm not opposed to it - but don't know if / why it's not a good idea to have shower in the middle

And by change door I meant change the side the hinge is on, rather than changing it to open outwards. That would make it easier to move around the wash basin. Depending on the floor plan upstairs could you move where the door is?

Are there other houses like yours in the road? If so could you have a look to see what your neighbours have done? In our street all the houses were pretty much identical but it's interesting to see how different they are now and it's great to get ideas for what you could do.

I quite like a normal
Sized bath , I love a bath, and would really like a double ended one, not least to stop the kids quarrelling over who gets the tap end, though i understand they won't bath together forever.

The room is actually 3.5 metres long, typo above

We have done exactly what PigletJohn has suggested. It's lovely done like that.

easy....Just don't have taps, look at overflow filler on Google. So much easier to clean too

Thank you all for your help though, it's certainly making me think properly about it.

Do I need an independent bathroom shop? Are there good chain ones I can google? I've never done a bathroom before and it's all v confusing. If only there were an ikea or John Lewis of bathrooms

We moved into a house that had the taps in the middle.

When we had a problem with the taps and needed access underneath, the plumber said the whole bath had to come out.... (and it did).

Never again will we have taps in the middle.

Ooooh I like the overflow filler. What a good idea!

Our bathroom was like yours we installed a false wall. Is so much better and should anyone walk in they can't see you in the shower or bath which I quite like!

Does take up a bit of room but it's not a massive loss iyswim.

We have a shower in the middle of the bath because when we moved in our en suite shower room was a state and leaky and took us a while to save to replace it.
It feels very cramped and the shower curtain sticks to you. Would definitely not recommend it as a long termine solution.

Hmmm yes parrot. The thought had crossed my mind having been plagued with crap plumbing for years

That's actually a decent sized room then! Our last bathroom was something like 1.9m x 1.65cm. With a massive window along one side. Fitting everything in was a pain.

Even a good bathroom fitter should be able to suggest some options.

You could buy an ordinary middle-fill bath and then go for an Aqualisa digital shower. They are not cheap but they are the dogs wotsits of showers and the beauty of it is - no pipes in the wall. The digibox is fitted in the loft space above the bathroom ceiling and that's where the water supply comes from too. The water temperature is mixed in the digibox. Now imagine your shower head sitting on the riser rail, the water supply actually comes down through the riser rail so the only bits attached to the wall are the brackets for the riser rail. The extra you pay out for a top of the range shower, you easily save on not having to have false walls built etc.
We had one fitted in dd's bathroom in July - it was about £700, but we also went for a wireless remote which is sited on the wall as you come into the bathroom so she switches it on as she walks in, the switch flashes until the shower is exactly at the right temperature, so probably added about £100 to the price.
But they are wicked showers.

Free standing bath away from walk with shower fitted out ceiling