No bathtub in house - big renovation

[Whatnottowear51]

We’ve bought a house that needs a lot of work and we are working on it. Doing all the big jobs first - roof,windows,heating, gutters etc. kitchen is dated but okay. Bathroom has a great shower but no bathtub. I really really miss having a bath. We won’t be able to do the bathroom for a while.

We have a large room that is basically a utility room. Loads of space in there. I’ve had an idea to buy. A hot tub and keep it in there. Is that crazy? Can they be used indoors? Would a second hand one be okay? I would never want a garden hot tub.

You can get inflatable hot tubs or perhaps you could get a birthing pool!

As long as you have a pump to pump the water out then yes.

When we replaced a bathroom extension and had to manage with an en-suite for best part of 6 months, I sometimes booked mini-breaks to escape the dust and noise. In the midst of winter, I booked a nearby holiday flat for a couple of nights just so that I could have a bath and a lie in. I’m not sure that there are many cheap hotels with baths these days, but it might be worth a look.

I’d buy a hefty dehumidifier if you plan to have a hot tub in an unheated bit of your home; you’ll have a lot of condensation.
I seem to remember a friend was able to rent an inflatable one for a week a few summers ago (suppliers put it up for her and taught her how to do the chemicals), so that might be an option too.

What are you going to do when the water needs changing? We have an outdoor hot tub and it's a nightmare to drain it down. Also, to keep the water clean/usable you have to use chemicals, which might mean you can't use soap and shampoo etc.

Re the emptying it’s a utility room and has a drain and a sink in. Would that be enough to drain it? I have no idea how they work really. The room also opens out to the outside it’s in the basement - it is an old sort of sluice room? It’s a very glare house. I hadn’t thought of condensation but I do have a dehumidifier because of all the plastering and other work so that should be okay . The room has a good radiator in there too.

We’ve done the hotel thing a few times but hotels with bathtubs are expensive and it’s not the same as being able to “have a bath” on a whim

would a hot tub fee like a bath? Do they get hot enough?

Don’t care about soap and shampoo really just want to lie in hot water and read a book

Why not install a bath in the utility til the bathroom is done ?

OMG Could I? I suppose a freestanding one would work? I suppose I only thought about the kind that needs tiling in etc.

Depends on the bathroom. Is it a walk in shower? I have removed my bath and replaced with a walk in shower. They have spree same footprint as standard baths. There might be a box built around where the shower head and controls are attached so you can fit a slightly bigger bath. Many houses with big walk in showers would have had a bath originally.

I think you'd be better off installing a free standing bath. Hot tubs are huge and take a lot of water, which means they are expensive to run.

We love our hot tub and yes, it is like being in a huge bath. I was a complete snob about hot tubs until we rented a villa with one on holiday, and now am a complete convert. Worth every penny.

Yea it’s a walk in shower and it won’t be a massive job to redo but the tiling will cost a lot but in any case we aren’t ready to ido it yet. Needs some other work - a partition wall knocked etc. so would need all new flooring as well

I would just buy the bath you want in your main bathroom and get it temporarily plumbed in in the utility space. You can fill it from the sink with those flexible things that you fit into taps so you can have a shower and empty it into the drain in the utility.

We did exactly this at our last house that also didn't have a bath when we purchased it as a repossessed project.

We bought the freestanding roll top bath we would eventually plumb in upstairs and plumbed it into an old extension that was adjacent to the kitchen. It worked really well for us.

Previously we'd had a hot tub which I loved using as a giant bath (without bothering to use the very many jets!), so we considered buying a cheap inflatable one for the purpose of bathing, but ultimately decided to just get the bath.

My worry would be that if the hot tub leaked, the resulting water leak would totally destroy your ground floor. Are you talking about those flimsy looking inflatable ones?

There are a lot of affordable free standing baths - if you get a tap/hand shower, you can use it for lots of other things as well.

My Dad had a bath in a semi renovated holiday home. It was simply in the space, no tiling, filled from a shower hose and drained through what would eventually be the wet room shower drain.

Thanks everyone I have no idea why I assumed it wouldn’t be okay to put the bath in there. Thank you all so much

It’s in an odd outside space but a leak would be a pain I agree

You can get portable baths that you can put anywhere. I'd definitely get a bath whilst you renovate...so much dust...

All baths are technically “free-standing”. The one “that need tiling in” are just free standing on an ugly support frame and feet. You can get a regular cheap bath or a proper free standing one, don’t need to cost the earth if it’s temporary.

I’d just get a mobile bathtub

Any recommendations?

I originally saw them on Amazon. Just goggled & a reddit thread has dome other recommendations.

Another vote for the portable baths. My best friend has had one for a few years and raves about it. Hers is more upright, almost barrel shared, as it needs less water, keeps you warmer/covered and is better position for reading.

They're not expensive, easy to move when the space is needed. Also very popular in Japan and China. Try a search for portable barrel bath

As others have suggested, I'd get something like this. It might fit in your existing shower, otherwise you could use it in the utility as a temporary measure.