If building a bathroom from scratch...

[GinGeum]

What are your must-haves?

I’m talking about a normal family bathroom in a semi-detached house here, don’t come at me with jacuzzi recommendations

We are turning a bedroom into a bathroom so it is a completely clean slate, although it will have to be a shower-over-bath set up due to space.

What storage is good? Which kind of shower screen? Anything you have that you love, tell me please!

Walk in shower (sorry, but do you really need the bath?)

Heated towel rail positioned so it is conveniently to hand when you step out of the shower/bath

Good light with mirror over the basin

[not such a lovely thought but it can, in certain circumstances, be very, very practical if your head can easily reach the sink when sitting on the loo]

Watching as considering converting our box room into ensuite. Lots of shelves or concealed storage. Heat pad behind mirror so it doesn't mist up.

Definite yes to bath, we have a walk in shower now and I hate it. Also have a baby on the way. Love the sink-near-loo thought very wise!

We splashed out on a lovely extra deep solid bath with a bath filler on the side instead of a tap. I hate when a cheap plastic bath flexes! And I hate when two of us get in and one has to sit with their head against the tap! Now we have neither problem

In addition to what has already been suggested I’d add a shaver socket, extractor fans that come on automatically when you turn the light on, and a decent shower basket for bottles (brass coated with chrome so it doesn’t rust, we got ours from John Lewis).

Llama do you have a link to the kind of bath you mean? What is a bath filler if not a tap?!

The space I want to put the bath is longer than the length of the bath, so not sure whether to put a heated towel rail on the opposite wall to the shower, or maybe shelves on that wall for storage of bottles and towels?

Does anyone have any preference on a shower screen? Do the glass screens get in the way when bathing a toddler?

For me the must haves were extractor separate from the light (so doesn't come roaring on if someone just pops to the loo in the night) and storage - mirrored cupboard over sink and the sink is set into a cupboard.

Our bathroom lights are on a dimmer too so can be dim at night.
I think underfloor heating expensive to run so with hindsight may not have had.
Keep tiles and floor neutral and sanitaryware white so it doesn't date too quickly.
Other good thing is a freestanding loo roll holder with spares on the upright bar so storage and new rolls handy.
I have put 2 little bins too - one for rubbish and one for recyclables.

Bath filler is like a silvery disc in the side if bath that is overflow and water comes out of it. No actual tap. Neater and nothing to clonk heads on and no hot tap for toddler to turn on whilst in bath as controller is out of reach,

Learn from my mistakes!

Have you got room for the extra long, extra wide P shaped baths? They are only something like 10cm longer and 10 cm wider.

My parents had one of those put in and it is amazing for both showering and bathing. Children can practically swim in it... I didn't have room and to be fair the short and normal width P bath is plenty big enough for showering.

Don't just get a fixed rainfall head - I hate that when people just have a fixed rainfall. You need an adjustable hose head too.

The space I want to put the bath is longer than the length of the bath, so not sure whether to put a heated towel rail on the opposite wall to the shower, or maybe shelves on that wall for storage of bottles and towels?

Unless you get one of the fancy folding screens that enclose the top bit of the bath, anything here will be in the spray zone and get wet.

I wish I had got a J shaped bath with screen like this

I would also get UFH as well as towel rad. I didn't do this and I regret it every day in winter.

I would also have got a duel source towel rad (elec and heating) because mine is only on with heating and that is not enough.

100% get back to wall, or wall hung toilets and vanity units. I got a nice vanity unit with draws underneath, surprising amount of space in them.

I got a lovely mirror with lights and demister pads and shaver socket - absolute winner. It was this one and I love it every day. So easy to do my eyebrows, so easy for DH to shave, toothbrush always can be plugged in.

decent shower basket for bottles noooooo I have a 'no bottles out' rule. Everyone has tubs on the shelves for their stuff. The bath and shower area has to be kept clear.

Our bathroom lights are on a dimmer too so can be dim at night.

This is really good idea. I didn't do this and regret it.

I believe spot lights are not good because they let steam up into the roof space though?

However I 'retro fitted' a solution using a PIR LED light strip from amazon and just stuck it down low, so when you walk in the bathroom at night the low level light comes on and it is just perfect for using the toilet.

I got a 'quiet; fan and TBH its a bit shit. Doesn't seem to do anything for the steam so always have to have the window open as well.
I got this one

Bath filler sounds very handy! WIll look into it...

I think we might bypass UFH, mainly to save money, but also because the room is very toasty due to wood burner directly underneath (which is lit 24/7 in winter) and boiler is in bathroom so the pipes under the floor warm the floor up a bit already.

With the P shaped baths, MIL put me off by saying they take so much longer to fill than a normal bath? Does anyone have experience of them? MIL is very frugal though so I imagine the idea of using a few extra drops of hot water sent her into a panic when she was bath shopping

With the shower screens that close in, is there a way to fold them right out of the way when bathing a child? So they’re not slipping under the screen to get to the shower side, and I’m not knocking my elbow on the screen adjacent with the bath?

I would suggest when you install the shower at one end you get the valve taps at the other end. This will save you from getting a wet arm whenever it needs switching on. It is the one regret from our bathroom project. We put them by the shower head. Frustrating.

This is a bath filler (see photo). Ours is on the side of the bath with the controls on the wall. So there's no tap to get in the way. It has the overflow inside it too.

We got a Quaryl bath from V&B www.villeroy-boch.co.uk/bathroom-and-wellness/our-promise/innovations/quaryl.html

It's a composite of quartz and acrylic. An ordinary plastic bath is about £150 and we paid more like £600. It was our one luxury that we splashed out on because it was really deep and rock solid. I hate when a plastic bath flexes and a cast iron bath was really expensive and heavy, so this was a good compromise in terms of being solid but lightweight. We were able to have a bath filler on the side because the bath was not pre-drilled with an overflow hole in a certain position. We asked the plumber to drill the hole for the bath filler as high as possible, to make the bath as deep as possible.

Aahhh Badger that is an excellent idea.

I hadn’t even thought of lighting! I like the idea of a dimmer switch or dimmer lighting at night somehow.

Make the heated towel rail a thermostatic electric one.

I've got a radiator type which, of course, means it's not switched on during this weather.

Our bathroom lights are on a dimmer too so can be dim at night.
Our bathroom has a Philips Hue light strip under the cupboard above the sink. You can turn it on with your smartphone. It's sufficient to use the loo at night.

Don't have a wall mounted shower, get taps with a hand held shower instead. That way you can shower your child easily without having to run a bath and waste water once they are old enough. Like this one.
www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/14722117618274908140?q=mixer+tap+with+shower+attachment&client=safari&sa=X&hl=en-gb&biw=1024&bih=672&tbs=vw:l,ss:44&prmd=sinv&prds=num:1,epd:14848711012694720393,paur:ClkAsKraX1VhebKaf2h03eWJHp-m5FqSzhFP-RBabpTmaDWuLXkytTE_2v1YXxhR1nb0oxIYVTsBVyaX5QuFpt_doqOrBxmlA5hEY_zDKbHdfhfRrWr_QkLEmBIZAFPVH70tHLo39-56FGwxwUhzki1B0pIe2Q,cs:1&ved=0ahUKEwjA-_HP0d_cAhUoIsAKHdScCEEQgjYI3QU

Shower screens are, in my experience, rubbish! They always leak!
One alternative if you must have a shower is to have the bath recessed at the shower end and use a shower curtain. My DD has this and it works really well. Taps are at one end, shower at the other.
Make sure you have an extractor fan put in. They are a requirement in all new bathrooms now and make a big difference. Have a back to wall toilet fitted so you don't see or have to clean behind the ugly pipe work.
I've got panelling in my bathroom which is then painted. Much cheaper than tiles and colour can be changed if you want. It also feels warmer and is less echoey. Got it from Howdens. It's specially for bathrooms.
Go for really big tiles in the shower and bath area. Makes the room look bigger and less grout to clean. Don't have white grout! It soon goes grotty no matter how much of a clean freak you are.
Make sure you have good storage and a ladder radiator for your towels to dry on. Go for a really tall one so you can fit more towels on.

We have shower panels not tiles. Quicker to put up than tiles and no grouting to keep clean

What is a bath with a recessed shower? I would love to forego a shower but DH loves them. I did wonder about getting a corner bath and then a slim walk in shower, but the room would be quite cramped I think. I need to draw it up on paper to see what floor space would be left.

I am quite keen on shower panels if we can afford them. Our current horrible downstairs bathroom is tiled floor to ceiling all around and it is horrid, I definitely won’t be recreating that!

We have a sink and cupboard unit which is fab. It has loads of storage space, heated mirror so doesn't steam up and has its own lights so you don't have to put the big light (and fan) on during the night. It doesn't take up much room at all.

Our shower screen folds away to the side so it doesn't get in the way of bathing DC. Doesn't really leak but is a bit of a pain to clean, they all are though.

Does anyone have one of those ‘Outasight’ shower curtain/screen things?

Can work out cheaper having the panels as not paying for the time to have the bathroom tiled

We had an Outasight in our last house. It was quite handy as the bathroom was TINY, and it meant we didn't have a shower rail (which visually cut the room in half). It was OK, in that it did the job, but I wouldn't rush to fit another one. It wasn't pretty! It was 10 years ago though, so maybe they've improved...

Things I love about our new bathroom (in a different house)...

Storage - we got a sink with cupboards underneath, and a tall wall hung unit (a bit like these victoriaplum.com/product/orchard-wye-walnut-furniture-package-with-wall-hung-vanity-unit-600mm) - we got the electrician to put a shaver socket inside the wall hung cupboard so the electric toothbrush lives in there, out of the way, but charging up. Between both of these, there is plenty of space for spare toiletries, cleaning stuff, loo rolls etc.

Ease of cleaning - we didn't put in anything with funny corners or dust gatherers. The loo is freestanding (if that's the right word) but it sits flat to the wall (bit like this - victoriaplum.com/product/mode-tate-close-coupled-toilet-with-soft-close-seat-with-pan-connector) and it's SO easy to clean. (We couldn't have back to wall for logistical reasons, so this was the next best thing)

Extractor - as mentioned up thread. The extractor is completely separate from the light, and operated by a pull cord next to the shower. So there's no mistaking it for the light, and it doesn't come on automatically with the light. I've been in friends' bathrooms where the light and extraction are separate, but the extraction is operated by a switch outside the bathroom, so you have to remember to switch it on before you've stripped down ready to jump in. It's just lazy on the part of the electrician to do it that way.

Mirror - a heated one, with inbuilt lighting (ideally operated by a motion sensor) and shaver socket on the side - more handy than I'd ever realised!

Get a mirror cabinet that has a demister panel to stop your mirror steaming up.

If going for a heavy bath make sure your floor can support it when it's empty and full.

We did the same as you and moved a bathroom to a bedroom, we've got a floating vanity with massive drawers as well as the cupboard. We also have a freestanding bath and separate walk in. I loves it!

If the room is big, go bold with your floor tiles if you feel brave enough. My one regret is that I didn't!

Just had our bathroom done (we took out the cramped shower cubicle and miniature bath and went for a shower over nice big L shaped bath - I liked the L look more than a curved P - and it's worked brilliantly) and my biggest priority was to go for no exposed pipes or dust traps - all the pipework runs behind the units and we've got one of the setups with the loo and sink all integrated into vanity units (we didn't want a floating one because I know my kids would swing off the bugger when brushing their teeth) and then a big tall storage cupboard as well - the only stuff that's out on bath edges or worktops are current toothbrushes in a container, and currently being used shower stuff - everything else is away and out of sight and it made a huge difference. I just put easy to clean above absolutely everything else after the utter hell of 1980s avocado we'd had previously.

As for shower screens over the bath getting in the way of bathing toddlers - ours is OK really - can open the screen out if they're down that end of the bath, but in reality they tend to be sat at the other end of it (the narrow end of the L if that makes sense). We did go for a dual rainfall plus conventional style shower so we can use that for things like rinsing small children's hair.

We have click vinyl flooring - nicer on bare feet at night - it's black but with a little sparkle in it which I like.