Bathrooms tips please

[ShastaBeast]

I’m choosing a new bathroom this week - builders arrive on Monday. Top to bottom renovation but it’s a small space (we are making it smaller to reclaim space elsewhere) - 1.6 x 2.5m. We have to go for a shower over the bath and want storage space. We’ll have a build in cupboard with the boiler for towels etc.

Any tips or things to avoid - flooring, types of toilets, baths, sinks, showers, taps, cabinets, lighting, mirrors, heating, colours, tiles. So many decisions and DH is no help.

Thanks!

We haven’t finished ours yet so may still run into problems, but things I’ve learned so far to make the room appear/feel bigger are:

• floating vanity and toilet (bonus as well that you can store more things under the vanity like stools or a tub of lesser used toiletries)
• taps that come out of the wall can allow for a narrower vanity, which again will make the room feel bigger
• if you’re going with tile, going for larger tiles floor-to-ceiling in a monochromatic look (shades of gray or mocha, for example) can open up the space. Since you’ve got a tub shower combo, I’d personally go for a tile surround in the same tile you’d do the walls and ceilings in. Super easy to clean and again visually opens up the space to make it feel uncluttered and cohesive.
• for the best light effect, layer your lighting with a combination of task, ambient and accent lighting. Task lighting can lighting be mirror lights for applying makeup, for example. The best light for applying makeup/seeing your face in the mirror is sconces on either side of the mirror at eye level. In our bathrooms we’ve got downlights over important fixtures (shower, bath, toilet, vanity) on a dimmer, plus mirror lighting. A mirror that is bigger than your vanity is another good way to visually open up the space.

What do you need to store? Get a holder for spare bog roll and a small cabinet for toothbrushes, paste etc. Medicines should not be in the bathroom anyway.

not the place to put on makeup, bathroom hog. do that in the bedroom.

one central ceiling light (to regs - which will limit where you can put lights anyway) will be plenty for a space that small. The way to make it look bigger is to have less in it.

Gosh no!! A central light? We have several down lights and a higher rated light over the shower. We have a lit mirror/cupbaord over the very large sink. I like to see my teeth when I clean them. DH likes to charge his shaver in the cupboard electrical socket. I like to put on make up in the bathroom and certainly do my facial routine in there.

Dimmers in bathrooms are not a good idea though. We were told they were against regulations. We have our lights zoned on switches outside the bathroom, except the mirror lights which are movement sensitive.

Definitely go for wall hung loo and basin. Basin can then have good storage underneath. We store bathroom bits and pieces and towels in a large cupboard.

I think ceramic tiles with underfloor heating are best. Do have a heated towel rail which can be via the central heating and electric combined. Definitely tile all around the bath but the rest is optional and it is cheaper not to tile everywhere.

We also have a shelf in the shower. Handy for shower gel and shampoo.

Really Bubbles, a bathroom dimmer is against regulations? We've had to pay through the nose to get wet room grade lighting, but it didn't seem to phase the electrician that we wanted them on a dimmer! Off to google now. I really hope that's not the case as I want to be able to adjust the brightness as necessary. :(

Don't buy waterfall taps, the hot pressure is nonexistent. We learnt the hard way. It was an expensive mistake. Get your plumber's advice before you choose the taps.

Lingua - you are in Lux if I remember , might be ok there but not in the uk. , so you could be ok.

Thanks for the info. I have to admit lighting is the thing I’ve thought least about. The electrician said something about spot lights at intervals which seems ok. I do my make up under the duvet at the moment.

I’m so tempted by a wall hung toilet. Is it a pain if it breaks. We could keep our existing loo and just get a new seat - basic normal one. I wasn’t planning to tile the wall around the loo but most photos show wall hung with a tiled wall.

We are spoilt for storage currently - large vanity sink and cabinet for toiletries. Room for loads of loo roll and cleaning stuff. No make up and no medicines kept in there.

Also looking at underfloor heating (electric) and a radiator type towel rail. It will probably be a blend of modern with traditional - no waterfall taps. I suspect quite unambitious. It’s a Victorian house but this is an (old) extension so lower ceilings than the other rooms.

"bathroom dimmer is against regulations"

no it isn't.

If you can find me a UK regulation forbidding them I will send £50 to the RDA.

Straight edged bath. Curved is a pain to clean around as you get odd shaped spaces.

Underfloor heating. I have this in my kitchen and so wish I'd put it in the bathroom instead.

We had a bathroom dimmer. Was one of my favourite things in our old house, perfect for 2am baths to wind down when getting home off a late shift.

I have low-ish wattage LED wall lamps to each side of the basin mirror. You can have them on and the ceiling light off, for low light.

contrary to what some people think, there is not a "zone" round the basin. Only round fixed baths and showers. Anyway, they are enclosed, IP44, and have little nylon pull cords to switch.

Love a bit of bathroom renovation work! Sorry this will be a bit if an essay, but I redid the bathroom in my previous flat on a relatively tight budget and was thrilled with the results. It was about 2m by 2m so not hugely dissimilar and I wanted to have a shower over the bath too. I got the loo, bath, sink & under sink cabinet from Bathstore as it was competitively priced, I wasn’t worried about any fancy fittings and they have a lot of sales/will do deals. The quality was good. This is what I learnt/tips:

• Loo – I didn’t want to move the waste pipe which came up from the floor due to the cost so having a wall hung loo was not an option. I chose this one which went all the way to the floor and wall so no exposed u bend and it was easy to clean around
  www.bathstore.com/products/euro-one-piece-close-coupled-wc-inc-seat-1047.html

• Bath – internal shape - I took a friend to loads of DIY stores and she made me get in the baths on the shops which was hilarious but made a lot of sense. Bath dimensions are done as the external measurements, but each design/style has a different internal shape/mould. Some had sloped ends at both ends, some had rounded corners which restricted my shoulders lying down in them. Actually what put me onto Bathstore for the rest of the items was their bath was the most ‘square’ inside. This was particularly important to me for the end which would be under the shower so as not to restrict the space

• Bath – external dimensions- I was able to fit in an 1800 x 800 which is 100 in both dimensions more than standard. Apart from being an amazingly huge bath to bathe in, it meant the area to stand in for showering was pretty much the same as you get in a shower tray.

www.bathstore.com/products/pool-thermaform-bath-1800-x-800-1699.html

• Bath side panel – got the builder to tile a side panel in the same tiles as the wall tiles so the bath looked properly fitted rather than buy one of the side panels which you can get to match baths

• Sink – I wasn’t bothered about wall hung, chose a big size as I hate it when I lean over sinks to wash my face and water goes everywhere and had a cabinet to the floor underneath it

• Taps – it’s worth investing in thermostatic shower/bath taps to maintain the temperature

• Shower head – I didn’t bother with any sort of rain shower design just a bog standard shower head on a hose coming from the bath taps which saved on costs as they didn’t have to drill pipes up the wall to the shower head, plus rain shower ones can suffer from crap pressure as it’s basically the same water pressure spread over a greater surface area

• Shower head adjustment rail – these come in different lengths so if you’re getting one, think about the range of height you need. My then boyfriend now DH is 6ft tall, I’m short and wanted to be able to shower without getting my hair wet so to reach those extremes, I had to get a longer than standard rail for the shower head.

• Fitting of shower head rail – make sure you tell the builders exactly what height you want it at and stand in the bath once the bath is in place to work it out. Don’t let them decide the height. Where we needed it for now DH to be able to stand underneath it was too high up for the standard length supplied hose to reach to (hence builders were going to put it lower down) so I just ordered a longer hose from Amazon. V easy.

• Towel radiators – I read somewhere that white ones are more heat efficient than chrome ones

• I found the taps and radiators to be hugely overpriced in the bathroom showroom and DIY shops so just got those from a plumber’s merchants

• Tiles - I just bought the cheapest ones from B&Q because I liked them and they looked great, very glad I didn’t spend more on them!

Gosh that’s long. I’m the type of person who spends hours researching stuff hence I had a lot of focus practical details. I’ll freely admit I’m not good with design or colours so it may be the most boring bathroom in the world to more creative types, but it got lots of compliments and made great use of the space. Hopefully some food for thought!

Just found a photo of when it was being fitted

Thank you MaggieFS! We're having our bathroom done this year, and we too have a soil pipe which comes through the floor. That toilet looks just right

measure the distance from the centre of the soil pipe to the wall. You need a pan which has the same spacing. It is usually around 9 to 12 inches.

There are not many bottom-outlet pans on the market because the horizontal outlet is almost universally fitted in UK homes now. If your room is large you can use a HO pan and put an elbow connector on it (this may bring the WC out from the wall and take up more space.

Two that I know are available with bottom-outlet pans are Twyford Alcona and Twyford E100. These are both close-coupled (cistern sits on top of the back of the pan). There are quite a lot more low-level (cistern is fixed to the wall and has a visible pipe running to the pan) but they look rather old-fashioned. QS Supplies had quite good prices when I looked about a month ago. IMO the E100 looks better but costs more. There is (was?) a Twyford E111 but I have never seen one.

I have a preference for sanitaryware by established UK makers. Much sadness comes from budget WCs with an unsatisfactory flush.

Yes, Piglet John, i am feeling sad every time I use my budget WC...Which sanitarywear is the best? With decent flush?

you can improve the flush of any loo by changing the syphon for a flapper valve. or here It opens a different way and the water cascades down. You have to take the cistern off to fit it which needs plumbing ability and tools.
www.fluidmaster.com/united-kingdom-products/flush-valves/507ukk073dual-flapper-flush/

AFAIK they are only made by Fluidmaster which is a good brand.

You can also adjust the water level in the cistern to maximum height without overflowing (provided the installing plumber did not cut down the overflow pipe to prevent it). This increases the amount of water per flush.

I am very fond of Twyfords sanitaryware. Some of it is not very expensive, until you start adding on luxury soft-close seats and stuff. Armitage Shanks is another good brand, they mostly supply hotels and offices.

Sometimes you can fit a second-hand cistern (older ones are bigger) which will give a better flush. Second hand sanitaryware is very cheap on freegle or ebay from people who are refitting their bathroom. Otherwise it ends up in the skip. White is easy to match.

There is some argument over water economy. Some people think that an ineffective flush, done four times, is more economical than a powerful flush, done once.

Sanitaryware is usually more expensive at a glossy high-street bathroom showroom than from a builders merchant. You may have to order it. The manufacturers will send you a brochure if you find their websites difficult. Because they sell matching replacements to (e.g.) hotels that have 500 of their previous model, they have more models available than just the latest range.

The DIY sheds seem to be focussed on price and sell stuff made cheap to sell cheap.

I think these are good prices, but watch the "extras"

Thanks a lot, Piglet John, very helpful.

Re dimmer. It may have been a problem that the dimmer controlled the fan too. It was installed by the developer. The wiring above the bathroom ceiling nearly caught fire so we had a safety check done. The light fittings became too hot because they were surrounded by insulation. Nightmare!

Anyway, we are happy not to have a dimmer as we don’t like the yellowish light.