Can you help my solve my bathroom problems? Diagram attached!

[Sretza22]

My bathroom is tiny, and freezing. It completely needs redoing and I don't know where to start. Two of the walls are external walls (the wall the bath runs along, and the wall the sink & toilet back onto), and it's bitterly cold in the winter. Honestly, it's like entering one of those giant walk in fridges! There seems to be minimal sound insulation and if you're standing anywhere nearby (or on the floor below) you hear EVERYTHING 😳 Could anyone advise how I would add insulation to a bathroom, or make it feel a bit warmer? I was thinking of replacing the tiles with an LVT floor and tongue and groove wall panelling, but I'm not sure if such finishes could cope with all the inevitable splashing and residual water. There is a fold up shower screen between the sink and the bath, and when turning on the shower to warm up the water you have to lean right in behind the screen and get sprayed with freezing water. Is it possible to have shower controls and bath taps on the window wall side, bearing in mind that it is an external wall? I'd love to build a small 'false' half wall under the window to house the piping for this but this would move the bath further into the room and there's precious little floor space to lose. There's nowhere to put shampoo other than the side of the bath and I'd love a shower niche but I don't know where I'd put it given that two of the walls around the bath are external, and all the sound/heat insulation issues the room already has. I was wondering if anyone had come up with a clever solution to this? Are there any other smart solutions you've discovered to make a really small, cold bathroom function a bit better? Honestly, it feels like trying to rearrange a bathroom in a dolls house! TIA!

I also have a small and awkward bathroom but I refuse to get rid of the bath because I love using it. Do you definitely want to keep yours, or are you open to just having a shower?

I feel your pain @LisaVanderpump1 ! Yes I really do love a bath too, so I'd like to keep it if at all possible.

You could try a pocket door that slides - rather than having a door that swings into the room - this would give more floor space. But you might need to build a false wall for it to slide into.

But you could then move the sink over to the door side of the room opposite the toilet and move the bath out a few inches to allow for fake wall on external wall. This would allow build in shelf and maybe this could be filled with insulation to keep the room warmer?

What is the roof like? The back end of our house (including the bathroom) is out on a spur (Victorian terrace) and when doing some works we discovered there is no insulation in the roof. We pulled the ceiling down and insulated it, it's now loads warmer.

I feel your pain.

Your configuration looks pretty good now.

A large heated towel rail on the wall can belt out some heat (particularly in a matt black) and the LVT will certainly take the chill off.

What are the dimensions?

Instead of a full-sized bath you could get a soaking tub and a proper shower put in. Pocket door as suggested above, move sink to the other side of the room. Then you can build a proper walk-in wet room shower (with niche) and a soaking tub where your bath currently sits. Get the builder to line the walls with Celotex before plasterboarding (and boxing in your pipes and shower controls on the wall as you want) and maybe underfloor heating. I've done similar in my bathroom and it works much better.

Electric underfloor heating. It will go under LVT flooring and iwalking on a warm floor is wonderful

We are hoping to talk to someone about maybe moving the bath taps to the other end of the bath, so the sink is away from the shower, giving more space to get round the shower screen. Might that work? I've wondered if we could have a very narrow, floor to ceiling, cupboard at the end of the bath if we can't move the taps.

Mum and Dad definitely have a button by the bathroom door that will switch the shower on, but it's not great, and often broken.

For sound insulation take the floor boards up and stuff it full of mineral wool insulation and also cover the floor in ply wood before the floor finish to close the gaps between floor boards. Get a floor to ceiling towel rail, should be plenty in a room that small. Hang the door into the hall to make the most of the space inside.

Although it's small, I do think you could add some insulation panels to the external walls, anything will help, just 5cm on each will make a world of difference. And do make sure, as PP said, that the ceiling is well insulated.

I think the layout is as good as it's likely to get other than that.

Our bathroom was freezing with 3 external walls. When they redid it they put kingspan insulation on all the walls and the ceiling (as it's in the eaves) and then half tiled it and tiled round the bath with shower over it, the rest is plastered and painted.

We got underfloor electric heating put in on a timer and a proper radiator with a towel rail over it as towel rails on their own aren't great at heating.

We also put a velux in the roof.

It's gone from the coldest room in the house to one of the warmest. We only have the underfloor heating on an hour in the morning.

I think if we did it again we'd put LVT on the floor rather than tiles as you can hear footsteps and the bath running - but it's more soundproof in the room below than it was before.

Could you add a layer of insulated plasterboard to the external walls and ceiling when you redo? It doesn't take much space, maybe 2 or 3cms and does help. Id keep the layout and consider a wall hung vanity unit, or even a complete unit which includes the loo and sink if it fits better. A sliding pocket door is an option to save space in the room and give you more toom to move. A good sized owel rail really helps with heat, they can generate loads and really make a huge difference. Get the hugest btu nuheatoutput measurement) for the size of the space you have to fit ìt.

Mine bathroom is similar but the window is a above the sink and bath. I had the pipes and bath moved so they were the other side by the door, had a false wall so I could have a built in shower over the bath where the new taps are. A wall hung sink and a towel radiator. I also have a shower curtain instead of a screen that I can easily change and move out the way. I use a basket with a lid that's kept under the sink for all toiletries.

Thank you all so much for your replies and sorry for the delay in responding. It sounds like wall insulation (and mineral wool under the floor) is a good place to start. The insulation in the loft is actually ok, so I think it’s primarily through the walls and floor that the cold is getting in. The idea of a pocket door is genius- for some reason this had never occurred to me! @RichmondMumof2 the room is a bit shy of 2m x 2m, so fairly compact! @CatOnTheChair the idea of a narrow cupboard at the end of the bath is great- I’ve actually got a small dead space at the end of the bath, so I could probably squeeze one in there. I’ve always thought it’d be great to have somewhere in a bathroom to stash dressing gowns and the like out of sight. It didn’t occur to me that I could use the space at the end of the bath to squeeze one of those in!

When we had an architect do some drawings for us, we were thinking about putting a pocket door in and they said to be mindful that pocket doors aren't as sound-proof as normal doors. Just so you're aware, it might not matter depending on the set up of the rest of your house.

Definitely insulation on at least one of the external walls as pp suggested. Panelling won’t do much but insulation will.

You can move the bath/shower controls to under the window without a false wall - they will need to be chased into the wall though which adds cost. Although if you add thickish insulation, the pipework can be cut into that which is a lot easier/cheaper than cutting into brick.

If you want a niche you could build a false wall at the shower end of the bath - just bath width - and put a niche in that. But then you lose the storage space at the other end of the bath that a pp suggested.

I wouldn’t bother with a pocket door in this case as the door is in a sensible place, and they definitely are less soundproof.

One thing I definitely recommend is a) a shower screen that swings inwards by a full 90 degrees and b) a wall mounted shower head, mounted above screen height. This combo means you can fold the screen fully against the end wall when having a bath and it makes the bath feel much more open and spacious. Also a single pane of glass is much easier to keep clean than a folding screen as no hinges/extra seals to get grubby.

If you aren’t doing under floor heating I would probably choose LVT not tiles.

Ah, that's good to know about pocket doors and sound proofing @lemonybiscuits and @minipie - the sound proofing is already embarrassingly minimal, so I really don't want to do anything that might make matters worse!

Could you switch the door frame so the door opens out onto the landing giving you space to build the shower controls you want? You could also go for the Alexa shower controls so you don't even have to reach in.