Bathrooms - lessons learnt. Hints and tips.

[ErrolFinn]

I am just starting the process of replacing our tiny bathroom and I was wondering if anyone who has had a new bathroom fitted recently had any good hints or tips? There are so many beautiful bathrooms on Pinterest but I have no idea where to start!

What has been your best purchase and what do you regret about your new bathroom?

Get a powerful fan, preferably in the ceiling.

It must have a run-on timer.

The £6 fans that builders like to fit are not good enough.

Extractor fans work effectively when the door and windows of the bathroom are closed, not open.

Amtico flooring - feels so much nicer underfoot than tiles and as it doesn’t get cold then we didn’t need underfloor heating. Floating cabinets and hidden pipe work - as a pp has said it’s so much easier to clean and looks bigger. Make sure your plumber is very clear what you want. My big regret was I wanted a shower base that was flush to the floor and he stuck it on a ruddy great plinth, presumably to save him some labour time, but I would happily have paid whatever it cost to have it how I wanted as every time I look at it now I have a pang of irritation!

@Toilenstripes
My heated mirror doesn't streak at all. I use a wet ecloth, only has water on it then buff with a dry ecloth. I have never used any products on it and to is perfect every time.
Try removing the products that may have built up on it and go back to basics

If you have a built in toilet make sure your plumber can get to it when it goes wrong.

Deep bath - Dh chose it as he's tall but its too deep to bath the children or for shorter people.

Ceramic sink a must- plasticky ones show everything
Sink needs a proper dip to drain as if it's square, the water needs constant encouragement to drain away.

Taps definitely need a downward curve going into the sink as if they are "flat" the water stays on the top area and you constantly have to wipe it away.

Don't position the mirror too low over the sink as it'll be constantly covered in water drops and stains.

Don't get a big bulky-looking toilet with a stupid curve in it as poo sticks to it like billy-oh and you're forever cleaning it away.
Toilet needs to be more "streamlined"

Get as big and powerful a shower as possible, especially if you're not putting a bath in.

if you like your plumber, and want him to be rich, have your WC and shower mixer buried in a wall and tiled over.

The cost of breaking open the tiles and digging out a faulty item to repair or replace, and re-tiling afterwards, will make a handsome contribution towards the new yacht for his villa.

Chrome towel rail looks great but is going rusty after less than a year. I wish I'd gone for a stainless steel one.

Shower boards have been great for getting rid of grouting. They are not foolproof though - the mould can still gather round the silicon seal at the bottom.

Wall mounted mirror cabinets above the basin/toilet have been great.

Amtico flooring is fab.

The combination of shower boards and amtico flooring really helps to warm up the room. It was freezing before in winter but isn't too bad now.

I am looking to get a new bathroom too.
From all the research I did I came to conclusion that taps should be Hansgroher make.
Now I am trying to find out which brands of sanitary ware would be considered mid-range.
I really like Crosswater mirrored cabinet, and here it is almost half-price www.ukbathroomstore.co.uk/bathroom-furniture/mirrored-cabinets/crosswater-aluminium-mirror-cabinet-800mm-cb8080al-2
I wanted a bigger one, 900mm x 700mm, but it is much more expensive on Victorian Plumbing.
However I am not convinced if it is worth buying Crosswater vanity unit and toilet.

I have read on other threads people recommended CP Hart but I could not find prices on their website.

Also I wonder if anyone got complete suites from Victorian Plumbing.
www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/bathroom-suites/modern-bathroom-suites
Are any of them of good make?

Best thing I've got in our main bathroom - double sink, so DH and I have one each. I love that. It was here when we bought the house (I would never have thought to build one into a design) but it's fab. I'm also a fan of statement sinks in general, so in two of our smaller bathrooms we have big porcelain raised bowl sinks (if that makes any sense) on top of marble worktops and they look lovely.

Boards rather than tiles .

We bought the shower recommended by the showroom and were so disappointed with the flow . We have a pressurised system and love a powerful shower .
We found it was only delivering 10 litres a minute so had it taken out straight away and bought a Mira that lets 20 litres a minute through . So much that we very rarely have it turned up to full .

Yes yes to sink with storage .

Dual fuel towel rail so it's efficient in winter but able to come on in summer.

Make sure your bath taps are in an accessible place! It's all very well having them in the middle of the bath instead of the end, but if they are against a solid wall, you might have to take the bath out if they need repair/replacing!

Also, agree with Piglet John about the fan. We had a good fan put in and no longer have any problems with mould, even the white grouting needs minimal cleaning and still looks good 10 years on.

Don’t get waterfall taps. They look lovely and are completely impractical.

Mermaid board in the shower instead of tiles so no dirty grouting. Your bathroom will look bigger if you install wall hung toilet and sink. Have built in storage. Dual heated towel rail so your towels dry both in winter when heating is on and summer when it is not. Heated mirror with light.

Watching with interest as we’re about to get a new bathroom put in.
We’ve gone for pale grey matt textured tiles for the walls and slightly darker grey tiles for the floor. Didn’t think of dark grout so have made a note to tell the fitter.
Gone for an L shaped bath suite, wall hung toilet, and a basin set in a storage unit.
I wanted waterfall taps but don’t think I’ll bother now!

If you do have a towel rail - make sure they fix it on by putting the actual fixings as far to each edge as possible. Ours is an inch or so in, therefore narrowing the available space to hang towels, in our case we want two towels so they sit wonky as they get bunched in by the fixing.

Theres one on youtube where they've just got one fixing in the centre so don't know how you hang a towel on that.

Love the shower niche for bottles. Our shower cubicle isn't huge (800 X 800) but feels a good size for us as there isn't some shower caddy jabbing us while we are in there.

Love the all-in-one basin and worktop - there are no joins for crud to gather in, just smooth lines. We have a large basin and a large work surface to one side, so plenty of space to have things if we want to.

Don't like the shape of our bath. It is too gently sloping at the end, which might be good for comfort but means there is a smaller floor area, so space between where bum is on bath floor and end of bath is shorter, so legs need to bend up...very disappointing when I'm a short person.

Don't like that our towel radiator is linked to just heating....so no nice dry towels in the spring/early autumn. It's okay now when it's warm and towels dry anyway, but by September when we wont have heating on, but it won't be as warm, they will be a bit damp.

Don't like water area in toilet - being Eco, it uses very little water and has just a small amount in a narrow section at borrow of toilet.....to much space further up without water for poo to stick (sorry)....means more loo brushing, which is definitely what you want in your new bathroom. Unless you see a toilet in use beforehand, I don't know how you ensure a toilet that is the shape and will fill up enough to avoid this.

Love my tiles - large metro which are flat. Mid grey grout works well.

If you are lucky enough to have a hot-water cylinder adjacent to the bathroom, the plumber can connect your heated towel-rail so it warms up whenever the cylinder is being heated. Typically during and after a bath or shower.

A TRV will prevent the bathroom getting too hot in summer.

If you are lucky enough to have a hot-water cylinder adjacent to the bathroom, the plumber can connect your heated towel-rail so it warms up whenever the cylinder is being heated. Typically during and after a bath or shower.

This is what mine do, its really useful.

On the towel rail point - like others have said, we're going for dual fuel so it's a radiator when the heating is on, but can also be switched on just with electric timer for 15 mins to heat up/dry out towels in summer. Think it's a good way to go!

Ooh, we're just finishing having a new bathroom refit. So possibly a bit early to talk regrets/pleased (hoping NO regrets, obviously). It's the most money we've ever spent per square metre. The fitters just stripped everything out (it was all horrible) and started again with a properly square box - false ceiling, levelled floor, flat smooth walls. Rebuilt a cupboard around the water cylinder and everything, but everything is new.

Biggest win so far as I can tell: big, matt tiles wall and floor, with very high quality matching expoxy grout; new shower moved to the right place; alcove for shampoo, etc, three days added to the job using specialist tools to mitre the edges of the tiles where they had to go around the alcove and the cupboard edges so that they could be finished with grout rather than beading.

I am so glad that we stripped everything back and started again rather than trying to tinker and make good. It's taken 50% longer than expected, (because we opted for the more labour-intensive finish on the tiling) generated more dust than I could have anticipated and I am desperate to get everything clean and my home back again. But I could fuck this bathroom, it's so beautiful!

We got an Aqualisa fully pumped Quartz shower - the pump is concealed in the cupboard (I can't do diagrams) and is all accessible. The bath panel is tiled but these tiles are siliconed (matching colour) rather than grout, so will be easy to remove should access be required. We haven't done wall-mounted taps, just sink/bathside (we went for Britton Shoreditch range) so hopefully access should anything go wrong will be straightforward. So - fingers crossed - we have futureproofed ourselves.

The towel radiator is linked to hot water cylinder, so heats up when the hot water is on. Have bought stainless steel rather than chrome and added decent valves.

if you like your plumber, and want him to be rich, have your WC and shower mixer buried in a wall and tiled over.

The cost of breaking open the tiles and digging out a faulty item to repair or replace, and re-tiling afterwards, will make a handsome contribution towards the new yacht for his villa.

'Smatter of interest @PigletJohn, what do you think is a reasonable salary for a plumber who also does plastering, tiling, decorating, carpentry and electrical work? Based on the price my bathroom fitter has charged for the job (he and one other have done 90% of the work, specialist brought in to do the tile cutting, another to do the spray finish on the cupboard doors) I'd say he was pulling in around £480 a day before tax, paying his team mate and the other contractors out of that, also buying materials (plasterboard, grout, electrical stuff, all that) and transport. So, maybe a daily rate of around £220? Doesn't seem OTT for all the skills he's bringing to the table, not to mention the sheer hard bloody work. I've never worked that hard for that kind of money.

Go to maximum budget and buy absolute best you can afford

Aqualisa
Amtico
Groehl

3.5 years later - honestly looks as good as new.

We got a work top with a sit on bowl sink. It's so much easier to do make up etc without having to try and balance everything around the edge of the sink or on the toilet seat. Just make sure there's enough room to get your hand around the sink to clean