?Converting bathroom cupboard into shower

[Hdkatznahtw125sgh]

Hi

I’ve recently bought a flat, which needs work on the bathroom. The flat I rent currently is identical layout / build for reference.

the bathroom has a cupboard in at the right hand side opposite the door, which I imagine previously stored the boiler. The bathroom is currently a ‘wet room’ and ideally I would like to fit a small slipper bath freestanding and have a small freestanding shower.

the toilet and basin are against the wall where the window is. Then the area which would’ve previously had a bath and now has a shower.

The bathroom is small at 2.56m x 1.92m. My current flat has an identical size bathroom with no cupboard but has a large shower over bath.

Whilst I don’t think the wall of the cupboard is load bearing I was looking into converting this cupboard into a small shower cubicle or taking the wall out to allow for a shower and bath to fit.

Has anyone done this before? I obviously personally wouldn’t be undertaking the work but want to research before I get quotes. If I kept the wall and converted the cupboard it would prevent a lot of retiling.

I only have 3k for the renovation. I’ve trial painted a tile in the hope of this being an option in which case the renovations in the bathroom I would require to contract out would be the installation of the bath, moving and installing the shower and installing a new sink.

As my budget is only small I have thought long and hard and I would rather keep and paint the current tiles and get the new bath and shower in than compromise to a shower over bath.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks

£3k will not get you very far at all. If that’s your budget, I wouldn’t do anything until i had saved more

Okay thanks

I imagine you can do as you say so long as you can fit a shower tray in there. There will be some movement though, so regrouting is likely to be necessary. I do agree though, save up - the most expensive bit of bathrooms is moving the soil pipe to the loo, try to keep that in the same place and your money will go further.

@ACynicalDad thanks, toilet is actually in an okay position so no plans to move or replace it.

Approximately how much do I need to save up?

I’ve already got the bath and basin which I realise I didn’t make very clear if at all.

The bare minimum would be only the cost of fitting the shower from the cupboard and installing the bath.

Measure the cupboard. Look at shower tray sizes. If you can squash one in then you can fit a shower.

Have literally just had a quote for something similar - new shower about £1.5k, plus fixtures another £1k. Bath £1k and then labour on top for all of that they estimated at about £3k (also to move a toilet). About £7k minimum, with no tiling etc, but would be a lot more with expensive fixtures.

A big consideration is where the shower waste is going to run to the soil pipe.
Ideally it would run under the floor but can only run in the same direction as the floor joists so might mean running to the wrong outside wall and a longish run around a corner outside.

If it runs above the floor is there a clear run to an outside wall and how far will the tray have to be lifted to provide sufficient fall.

Thanks everyone that’s really useful

If you have saved £3k
and based on what you have said, I think you’ll need to save another £4k

Thanks @Ifnothat82

I have only recently completed the sale. I have 3.5k and will save for another 2 months which will bring me to 7k.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I had an estimate today and for everything I want (including tiling etc) and accounting for everything I already have he said at least 5k. The other estimate I had was 4K but the more expensive estimate has way better reviews and was more honest about the challenges.

I have 8k all in but have less extensive work to complete in the rest of the house and garden and don’t want to pay for the bathroom and that be it. So I will save another 2 months and then have more available if needed.

Thanks again