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!

Re the tiled niche: it is easy if the wall is a stud partition wall as the niche goes between studs.

Not possible if the wall is brick or other solid construction.

Does anyone know how to watch a thread from the app?! Have nothing to add but lots to take note of!

Could the bath be moved up to the wall which already has the basin? Then you could do a run of cupboards including the door to the boiler/airing cupboard. Choose a basin unit with a small cupboard to the side and it would all look very pleasing.

We also have a Bette Ocean. We have the lowline 80cm wide version which is easier to get into and the width works well with a shower. We have a curtain as we have hard water and i detest trying to keep glass screens clean. We have the cheapest white curtain and will replace if necessary. Having said that I just chucked it in the washing machine recently and it has come out perfectly.

I'd invest in a good looking bath panel, no acrylic.

Also now have white rads not chrome towel rail, again much easier to keep clean.

Can you tell I hate cleaning?

Killer that’s a good idea (in fact hanging the door to open towards the window would work better however the room is laid out I think) and will definitely note down the idea of a shorter bath under window is there are waste pipe issues.

Finally I did think about that, but I didn’t want it to feel too cramped when I’m kneeling on the floor bathing a child. I imagined myself knocking my elbows between shower screen/basin/cupboards with that set up IYKWIM?

That's a much bigger space than I'd thought from your original description! It would (should) be easy to fit in a separate shower if you want one. There must be a way, but it does depend on the location of the soil stack (for placement of the loo, with everything else dependent on that!)
Rehanging the door could make a massive difference to how the space gets used, as someone else said.

Is the diagram to scale?

Yes, diagram to scale

The reason we have put the loo where we have on the plan, is because that is nearest to the current soil pipe downstairs, so DH says it should be easier to just join it up, or something along those lines (I’ve just taken his word on that one, I can pick out tiles but understanding pipes is not my forte!)

Next question then... is there the possibility to move the door further along the wall? (ie - is the other side of that wall another room, or a corridor?)

Bath screen definitely gets in the way for bathing young people, and the rubber tube at the bottom gets really mucky and can't be cleaned! Have you thought about a folding shower screen? Easier for babies bath but you might still have the same problem with the bottom getting dirty!

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/haro-folding-bath-screen-1000mm-wide-4-fold-concertina?campaign=googlebase&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImtDL4cLi3AIVhLTtCh3tvgJREAQYASABEgL4eDD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

There is the possibility to move the doorway, but I’m not sure it would make for a very good ‘flow’ upstairs... we have an L shaped landing, with the short bit of the L directly above the stairs. The current doorway is on the corner of the L, and then there’s a thin corridor that goes the length of the bathroom, leading to a bedroom. So at the moment, the doorway is on the wider part of the landing. If we moved it along, it would just be a bit of a tight squeeze on the corridor, and not central to the two bedrooms.

Have the shower and/or bath further away from the door than toilet and wash basin

So that if the floor gets wet from bath/shower then you don't get wet feet when going in to just use toilet and/or wash basin

Also if possible get huge light tunnels in ceiling --- gives loads of daylight if you can only have a smaller opening window in wall

Sorry your pictures didn't link when I posted

Here's some photos of our bathroom which has a folding shower screen which can completely fold back so not in your way for when you've got your kids in the bath.

It's also got a powershower at adult height plus kiddie hair rinsing attachment, which works well.

The way the screen comes round means there's lots of space inside when showering. And also very handy shaving legs can put one foot up on edge of bath and asymmetrically open doors to stop water going out.

We just bought the house like this but it's lasted 7 years for us and still working well!
Sorry one photo is wrong way round can't work out why

Llama

Yes you can. We did! We put a lintel in the wall to support the masonry above and insulated behind it. Then tiled the inside so it matches and blends in with the wall tiles.

Following

Just to repeat myself about the bath screen:

We have a screen that folds 180 degrees - so it folds completely flat against the wall under the shower head for bathing kids, and completely flat the other way for easy cleaning of the inside. There are quite a few on the market.

To make this work you have to have a fixed shower head, set quite high on the wall or coming from the ceiling, plus any shower controls and other taps need to be on the long side of the bath, not the shower end (this also avoids the wet arm issue).

Works really well and avoids folding screens which are more prone to collect gunk due to the extra joints.

mini and jelly I’ve made a note of both your bath screens, they sound great!

Not having a bath devalues the property.

The whole reason for the bathroom change is to add a bath as we don’t have one at the moment!

The things we do when planning bathrooms. DH & I have just been planning the space between the sink & loo to ensure our knees won’t knock on the sink when using the loo!

and the rubber tube at the bottom gets really mucky and can't be cleaned!

Every shower screen I’ve had you can clean the rubber thing?!

Take it off, put an inch of water in the bath, spray HG shower spray that is basically super noxious but amazing along the rubber thing and use a brush to brush it. Swish in water. Leave it. Repeat in 10 mins or so.