Your bathroom refurb stories! What would/wouldn't you do again?

[sezrah25]

Our bathroom needs a complete overhaul!

We're in a Victorian terrace. The bathroom is at the back of the house and the toilet is separate - we want to knock through to create one big room.

Last year we knocked out the chimney breast (creating a LOT of mess in the process) but have just left it since then - so the walls are naked plaster, the floor is naked floorboards and the fittings are ooooold.

We're lucky as it's a biggish room so there is space for a separate bath and shower, plus the washing machine - but it also feels like a bit of an overwhelming job and we don't really know where to begin.

So hit me - what are you pleased you spent more money on, where do you wish you'd economised? Where are good places for tiles and fittings? Favourite floors? Any advice at all!

We don't have kids at the moment but would love to in the next few years, if we can, so assuming that practicality and ease of cleaning are good priorities to have...

We're in SE London.

Thank you! xxx

OP,

If it is a biggish room, would it be possible to divide in such a way that you can have both a bathroom with toilet and a separate toilet. if you post a floorplan, Mumsnet can give you ideas on how to do it.

I would prefer that over a separate shower and bath and washing machine in bathroom. You can have shower over tub to save space and a low noise integrated washing machine in kitchen. Having two toilets is so useful in house with kids. We have a small bathroom with toilet and a separate WC too. It is much better config than the huge bathroom in our previous home.

Hi everyone - oh my goodness thank you SO much for all your messages! So much excellent advice and things we wouldn’t have thought of.

Unfortunately I’m still a new user so can’t post a pic of the floor plan but I will try to describe - so the house is a standard 4 bed Victorian end terrace, over three floors. The bathroom is on the middle floor at the back of the house, so there’s a window in the middle of the back wall. It’s about 2.1m wide by 2.9m long, so around 6sqm in total.

Standing in the doorway looking at the window, on the left hand side there’s the sink and then the washing machine, and on the right hand side there’s the shower and then a freestanding bath, ‘lengthways’

The toilet is also on the right hand side, just before you go into the bathroom. And it is literally a toilet - no sink - I know magic can be worked but I think you’d struggle to get one in - it’s about 75cm by 130cm, that ‘room’!

No idea if this is remotely helpful for visualising haha!

Other options - we could feasibly get a toilet in the ‘cupboard under the stairs’ one day, though at the moment that’s a very useful space for coats, shoes, tools etc - don’t know where else they would go.

Or, the top floor of the house is currently one big space - the wall between the two bedrooms was taken down before we moved in. We’re figuring one day it’ll go back up and (hopefully) children will be up there. Someone with better spatial planning skills than me could probably get a shower room plus two bedrooms up there.....but I’ve no idea whether the plumbing for that would be workable, and whether it would just be impossible cost-wise anyway.

We love having the washing machine in the bathroom and think it’s super practical so would prefer not to move it to the kitchen - plus there’s major discussions going on re what to do down there anyway.

Anyway, I imagine this description doesn’t particularly help - but thank you all so much, you’ve given us lots of good things to think about xxx

We had a rubber floor but after about 2 years it got marked - it also showed up every hair and speck we replaced it with an amtico floor - expensive but worth it.

Best thing we did was to have a dimmer switch located on the wall just OUTSIDE the bathroom, rather than the pull cord dangly light pull on the inside. Great for relaxing baths and night time trips to the loo!

Ooh and also we have a totally removable loo seat/lid that clips off. I can put it in the shower, spray it with bleach/strong cleaner, shower it off and it feels so clean! Think it was from Bath Store. We didn’t get a removable seat for our upstairs bathroom and I regret it, hate having to try and clean round the hinges (grim).

Shower wall instead of tiles (Google Nuance By Bushboard), I am never having grout in my house ever again. A motion activated toilet flush sensor. A shower hose that's smooth and doesn't get lime scaled up in all the round grooves.
Those are the three highlights of my new bathroom which I think were worth the money.

Meant to add that after doing the loo cleaning the shower then gets thoroughly cleaned (as it would anyway).

Shower niche is super useful.

Don’t go for diffucult shaped tiles. I have arabesque tiles which are gorgeous but took an age to install, and cost a ridiculous amount.

I have a family vanity unit, which means the bottom bit can pull out to make a step for small people.

Make sure the main basin is big enough.

You can get tiny basins for loos. Mine is 25cm deep and about 35cm long.

Don't use real travertine!

Oh we have a main light and then a separate very dim light. When you need a wee in the night you can just switch on the dim light and not be blinded

If I was doing my bathroom again I would rectify:
Not having UFH. Really wish I had it put in.

Wish I had low level dim motion activated lighting for night time wee trips or brushing teeth when not wanting main light on.

Do get a really good mirror or mirrored cabinet with demister pads and lights - so amazing for shaving (men) and eyebrows (women) - I LOVE mine

100000% get wall hung sink and toilet OR at least back-to-wall.

Look fab and cleaning is a dream.

I went with back-to-wall as budget constraints, so happy with them.

Don't get white tiles.

Put the toilet behind the door.

A light with automatic sensor so no light switches or those nasty cords

Agree re removable seat for toilet

Last year we knocked out the chimney breast (creating a LOT of mess in the process) but have just left it since then

I'm missing your main point here, but you did put in support after removing the chimney breast?

Yep . A big old structural steel, all signed off by building regs etc x

You can get combined sinks and toilets if space really is too small for a separate narrow sink.

I agree with others that trying to keep the two separate would be the best option.

Also agree a shower niche is the best, as well as wall hung units and sinks already mentioned.

I love our bath filler. I'd never really heard of them before we started looking at bathrooms but it's so nice to have no taps to clean round on the edge of the bath.

BlueSkiesLies

You can get light up toilet seats for a midnight wee! Just a thought

Loads of good tips.
I think only one loo in the bathroom for a 4 bed house is not ideal, can this be addressed?
Things I love which I did (two bathroom re-fits):
niche next to bath for bath oil etc
led mirror light with sensor underneath to turn the light on and electric toothbrush/shaver point inside
separate light circuits operated outside the room (dimmer for my shower room)
decent wall fans
towel rails which are controlled dual fuel so you can have them on in the summer to dry towels
good quality loo seats by Laufen

Wall hung toilet and sink unit with two drawers.

Personally I don't like niches as find they can get grimy unless high and away from water/soap.

Taps at end of bath not middle if you had a shower over bath, otherwise you'll find you'll constantly have bruises on your lower leg from banging into the tap. Middle looks nice but not practical.

Mirror cupboard with shaver sockets inside to charge toothbrushes.

Coloured grout and good quality trim really changes the look of tiles.

Avoid wetwall unless you like the caravan look.

My $0.02 worth:

The first bathroom in our house we didn't put in UFH. The radiator struggles to heat the room and the floor (tiled) is Freezing in winter. All subsequent bathrooms I've added UFH.

+1 for the Shower Niche if you can have one. No rusty wire shelves to hold the shower products.

I'm a convert to 'frameless' shower enclosures. I have a frameless slider, quadrant and bifold. No more cleaning the scum and scale that builds up on the tracks around the door.

+1 for the auto-night lights. Super easy and cheap to install if you're redoing the bathroom. Dim-low level lights on a light sensor that come on automatically at night save turning on the main light and extractor fan. You can also add them to the niche, bath panel or under the sink for a high-end look on a budget.

Shower controls separate to the shower. If you're having a shower cubical, consider placing the valve/controls separate from the main shower assembly - preferably by the entrance to the shower. Again - very simple to do if you're redoing the plumbing - saves getting in a cold shower whilst it gets up to temperature.

Don't overlook storage. It's amazing the amount of stuff that ends up being stored in the bathroom. Make sure you've got somewhere to hide away the cleaning products, spare toilet rolls etc. I've located the shaver sockets inside cupboards so electric toothbrushes, shaver chargers etc are all out of sight normally.