Bathroom lessons learned? Also any advice on this in particular?

[Coldhandscoldheart]

I’ve seen the kitchen thread & think a similar bathroom one could be handy if anyone wanted to contribute I’d certainly be grateful.

We had planned to redo our bathroom, but it’s become a bit more urgent since tiles started falling off & wet rot became apparent.

Any ideas what sort of budget we might be considering including replacing at least some of the floorboards? Anywhere we could save?
It is a very very tiny bathroom.

Am having the clenchy horrors how expensive this might turn out to be whilst on mat leave.

This is our bathroom (prob outing self). I really did not want toilet next to bath but it made sense layout wise plus you don't want to move the soil stack if you can avoid it. Please excuse attractively positioned loo roll.

You can buy heat pads at around £80 and are on a electrical switch so heats the floor and dries it - worth the spend

Look at shower baths for extra room

We have a rain shower and 'normal' shower in one - plus I have a bath filer tap with shower attachement so I cannot wash hair easier than reaching for the shower head (plus cleaning and the dog)

We also brought a wifi mirror - excellent for playing music and radio

Tiles we shopped round and managed £28 to £10 sq m for the same tiles

We noticed that X bath was cheaper in y shop but the toilet was cheaper in B shop - a white suite is a white suite so it makes no difference to where you purchase them from

We saved on the bath panel and screen @£200 with 25 year guarantee compared to £600!3"everywhere else

Look at Q&S supplies

Ask a plumber to suggest a shower - it depends on your water pressure

Wall hang if you can, or at least get back to the wall fittings if not. I went back to the wall for cost and am happy with them but wall hung do look better.

Biggest tiles you can.

Good shower - rainfall AND separate shower head on hose. Do not just get a fixed rainfall.

Big sink.

I didn't get a big enough towel radiator and now my bathroom is always a bit cold. Error. Should have got electric underfloor heating out in. Wouldn't have cost much extra.

Agree with previous recommendations - IKEA sink and cupboard units are great value and better quality than many of the bathroom cos. Shop around for everything and don't use a single supplier. Amazon do loads of taps and showers from the big brands and can be lots cheaper.

For me:

• 100% get a vanity with drawers. I have one bathroom with IKEA drawers and another with Bathstore (on sale). Both are excellent. Suggest they don't go all the way to the floor as will give the appearance of more space.
• have niches built in around shower/bath for storage. Doesn't cost much extra for builder/tiler and looks so much better. Plus it's just practical. I have a few, one a little lower than doubles up as a ledge for my foot when shaving my legs in the shower. Best design ever.
• dark(ish) floor tiles. Hides dirt. No one wants to see pubes on the floor when you're sitting on the loo.
• if you have the space, put bath taps/sink hole in the middle to allow a double-ended bath.
• separate switch of extractor fan. I really hate extractor fans that are always on when you're in the bathroom.
• my biggest regret was not putting in underfloor heating. I would definitely take out the radiator and put in underfloor heating if I was to do another bathroom.

Great thanks. I’m glad generally underfloor heating is thought worth it, DH thought not to bother.
I will come back with a plan if that’s okay.

Agree with taps in the middle - easy to reach when in the bath and if you have a shower screen you don't have to reach round it.

Yes show is a plan

I lined the fresh linear tiles - look them up!

I wouldn't have taps in the middle again with a over bath shower, too many bruised legs, maybe a bath filler instead that doesn't protrude as much.. A frameless folding shower screen looks good and allows access to taps if the end.

If you decide on a shower screen and not a curtain spend the extra on the self clean variety.
Also as well as the overhead shower head. Also have a hand held sprayer it makes cleaning so much easier.

Make sure your floor is perfectly even.

Check out ebay for things. Ebay has several companies who sell bathroom stuff and also check out what people are selling that they haven't used.

My bath, brand new never used as they had decided on a different lay out and it no longer fitted was £100 but the exact same one was £225 in the bathroom shop and I saved another £100 on my chrome radiator which was being sold as seller had been offered a job abroad and they were selling up not renovating.

I tend to decide what I want then see if I can get it cheaper

WAIT...WHAT??

A wifi mirror???
...you cannot possibly say that out loud and not provide a link, @GreenTulips come back immediately and explain yourself, prettyplease!!

Our last house had a very small bathroom, maybe 3m2. We Replaced it a few years ago with an ex-display suite which was only around £400 including bath panel and taps, we also put in a shower over bath and bath screen. We only part tiled the wall that faced the bath as I wanted to be able to redecorate again as we went for very plain tiles. We regretted this as the wallpaper peeled off very quickly, so needed redone yearly. So when we moved, we decided to tile the entire bathroom, though it was a much bigger job this time as the bathroom is 12m2. We changed the layout a bit and now have a large walk in shower and separate freestanding bath.

Total cost for bathroom one was 2.5k and bathroom 2 was 4.5k.

Right, so bathroom is very tiny, 1.45m x 2.4m. It’s a quite high ceiling 2.56m.
There’s a good size window.

Layout we’re planning is this. I would like a floating sink unit, although would prefer the toilet firmly attached to the floor!

We will put a shower over the left hand end of the bath, although I have a hankering for this with a shower in the middle. Oval curtain rail. I still think my husband is a splashy fucker & might jinx this.

We’re thinking underfloor heating, a heated towel rail. Not sure if we’ll also need a radiator.
Can’t decide about light fitting. We both hate spotlights, so that’s not happening.
Um,um.

www.bathroomcity.co.uk/blog/gadgets-complement-your-fitted-bathroom-furniture

Ideas!!

Would've loved the TV mirror but a bit too expensive

Lights - we have a sensor light that turns itself off - 3 teens and fed up of the bloody light being left on

I'd move the sink so you can have a mirror over it

We said no to a shaver plug as we thought it was unnecessary. 10 years later with all of us using electric toothbrushes, it would be so much easier to be able to power them up in the bathroom.

Oh, it’s a ver6 approximate plan, the sink would be closer to the loo & less overlapping the window, but I think we might be thinking of a round mirror on a stick, rather than a wall hung mirror.

I'm not sure about a freestanding bath in that position, won't it be hard to clean in the small gaps left? Would the bath not be better along the longer wall?

The bath would be very short too in that position

Your bathroom is positively ginormous compared to mine!

We went for heated towel rail + radiator combined.

Sink has cupboards below to store loo roll etc. Mirror over sink is on a cabinet as well so more storage. Same range included a freestanding cupboard we use store towels in which sneaks behind the door. We have another tiny cabinet on a wall and that crams all our storage in.

With such a small space, we had to make sure every item fitted and was serving as many purposes as possible so mirror and cupboard, bath and shower, etc etc.

I wouldn't go for free standing bath. Do you shower or bathe more often? If shower I'd say go for an l-shape or p/shape bath. Especially if husband is splashy! Screen works well for splashy boyfriend.

Never put a wet room in. If you must make sure it’s on the bottom floor of your house.

Have you looked up Victorian shower baths?

They are square to the wall on the shower end and free standing the rest of it? Would be the perfect compromise

Like this?

Dark tiles on floor so hairs don't show up.

Make sure towel rails are well away from the toilet, as you can't depend on people closing the lid before flushing, and all the bleurggh faecal spray getting on them.

Keep it plain so you can use towels, etc. as colour accents.