Remodel bathroom? Is this daft? (with images)

[miliop]

Hello all, maybe someone can advise... got a 1930s house with a very grotty bathroom. It also has no storage and a small sink placed awkwardly between two windows. The bath has about a foot gap at the end which is currently dead space. It's a small-ish room and I think moving a few things could work better. However, I know that moving a toilet can be a nightmare....

What I'm thinking about is to:

• Move the toilet to the side a bit
• Create space where the toilet was for a proper sink stand
• Use the wall above the sink for a mirror cupboard unit
• Budge the bath flush to the external wall
• Build a fake wall for the shower unit to attach to
• Build in shelving/cupboard where the head of the bath is, to face the door

I guess anything is possible if you have enough money... which I don't. Can't afford silly money. Don't mind going cheap on basic fixtures and fittings, if we spend money on getting the layout nice and usable. Any advice very gratefully received!

Pics reasonably to scale, just measured up. (it's not showing up yet, awaiting review)

Do you use the bath? If not you could take it out and just have a shower, which would give you more space.

Otherwise I think your plan looks good although I don't understand about building a wall for the shower.

I think I would like to keep having a bath... partner isn't so bothered.

I couldn't show it on the mockup but the shower needs a wall to be attached to. I'm probably not explaining clearly.

Like this?

Id look at one of those much shorter but deeper baths (are they Japanese??) moved to where you suggest. Then leave the toilet where it is but moved the sink to the end of the bath in the bigger gap.

Id do this mainly to increase the gap between the bath and toilet because I hate it when they’re close!

Where is the shower going?

In general it looks good!

I'm not understanding where your shower would be?

How long is that windows wall? Moving the toilet a foot or so isn't expensive, you just need to know if the 'fall away' is still ok.

on paper it looks like a much better layout!!

I’d have them all in a row along the same window wall if room. If you went for a short deep Japanese style bath you could have room at the foot of it for a separate shower.

A fake wall thing isn’t hard to do if you need one. It’s just wood and gyprock. Or just buy a fully enclosed shower.

At the absolute limit of my design skills now... I have tried to show and simply cannot.

The shower would be at the head of the bath, there would be a wall built and shelving/cupboard. Like the picture posted

Very interested in Japanese bath idea, will investigate!

If space is an issue you could try a smaller basin unit, that would give more room, if you really don’t need a big one. I much prefer the new layout, moving a toilet is more expensive, but worthwhile in your case.

In my previous house we had a narrow area of dead space at the end of the bath, we had a cupboard with shelving inside and a larger space at the bottom for the laundry basket. It worked well for us and I miss it. With a narrow door on the front we were able to store loads on the shelves without it looking untidy or getting dusty

I am assuming your bathroom is upstairs. If so moving the toilet is relatively easy as it just needs a new connection into the external soil pipe. Do you need both windows? If the larger of the two was removed that would give much more wall to play with. I thidnk your proposed layout looks really good.

@Gassylady I was just thinking about this! Here's a pic of the outside.

Funny enough I had been wondering about removing/reducing a window... yes part of the issue is not much wall.

Moving a toilet can be a pain and expensive because of the soil stack pipe leading off from it. I had my bathroom remodelled recently and the builder advised against moving the toilet.

I'd consider a slightly shorter bath and having it under the window. You'd then have loads of wall space into the corner for the new basin and storage you have pictured, and additional cupboard storage.

What does your toilet waste flow look like (picture)?

Mine was out horizontal then a 90° horizontal bend to run along the back of the wall into the internal soil stack. This made it very easy to shift along a bit as we just needed a longer run of waste pipe into the soil stack.

Meant to add images, you can hopefully see what I mean with these.

So shifting a bit along a wall was easy but relocating to another wall, not so much.
In the main bathroom I want the toilet on the wall adjoining where it currently is, with the soil stack in between. A bigger job but again not that difficult as just needs a new "band thing" around the soil stack to cover the old hole and take a new one out along the other wall.

Moving to the other side of the room would be much more difficult.

Oh yes I love this.

I think your layout looks ok. The toilet would be moving towards the downpipe so I can’t see a problem, but you’d need to check the fall on the outflow was ok.
Is the gap created by the shower wall going to be big enough to be useable?
I was going to say maybe take out the small window, as the wall cabinet over the sink might block it, but that’s up to you. Was also going to say you could put glass shelves across the small window for extra storage, but it would make the window a pain to clean.

@Chasingsquirrels a little out of my depth here but we'd be shifting it along the wall. There is no horizontal pipe internally – there is externally, though.

@MagpiePi it would be moving a little further away, wouldn't it? Rubbish pic attached

Really good point about the usable space – I was just looking at that. Because of course some space will be lost creating the wall. Then what's left is pretty narrow. It might be that there's little point in doing that – especially as I'd get so much more storage space with a sink cupboard and wall unit.

Also really good point about blocking up the small window, thank you.

* it would be moving a little further away, wouldn't it? Rubbish pic attached*

Yeah, you’re right, I wasn’t paying proper attention!

Could you put up shelves above the top of the window/door level? Useful for storing toilet rolls and towels etc.

I think it's a great idea and I'd probably do the same thing. We've recently re-jigged a crappy old bathroom which also included moving the toilet about 30cm across. We had the same set up as your external wall and it really wasn't a big deal, the plumber just cored a hole through the wall in the new place and extended the external soil pipe to meet it. Think it added a few hundred quid to the scheme

I’m not sure how useable the sink in your proposed design would be, I imagine it might be awkward to open the cupboard doors or stand in front of it with the toilet there?
What about just swapping the toilet and sink for a combined unit to save space and provide storage without having to alter the plumbing? You could have a mirror on the bit of wall between the windows then.

If you leave the toilet where it is, have you got space to rotate the bath by 90 degrees and have the long edge run along the external wall under the windows? Then you’d have space to have the sink opposite.

Folks, you are all clever! I am very grateful.

@MagpiePi love the high shelves idea, they would be very useful.

@Hannahthepink yeah, it's a risk. I need to go and properly measure those dimensions... wouldn't want my calves up against the loo every time I brush my teeth. That's a really smart idea, I hadn't seen those units, thank you.

@OublietteBravo something different! Posssssibly it would fit.

Gone a bit mad with the room planner just now.

1. if we got rid of the bath (I said I think I'd prefer to keep it but love the idea of more space
2. went rogue and put a washing machine in (cannot remember if ok in UK, will look up)
3. Oubliette's idea (suppose the sink could be here or facing door)

I think you might be able to fit a separate shower in if you move things round a bit. Do you have the lengths of the walls?

I once lived somewhere with the washing machine in the bathroom and I loved it. We also had the fold away drying rack in there. Laundry never went downstairs.