Need bathroom help & advice, pretty please

[CarGirl]

We have a small 3 bed terrace - 1960's. We have a downstairs WC with a macerator.

Upstairs we have a one family bathroom no option of an en-suite etc.

The bathroom is small 2.3 metre x 1.6m with the door off centre on the long wall and window all the way across on the other.

So do we have a sperate shower & bath or a shower over the bath?. The current layout is hideous, the door open inwards the toilet is in front of you the bath to the right and handbasin in huge vanity thing to the left.

The bath is raised up to you over the soil pipe & u bends (yes U bends plural) of the toilet. It is very cramped!

It would be better to have the toilet on the right where it was originally (it was a seperate WC and bathroom when the house was built) in front of the soil pipe which is in the shared wall and actually shared with the neighbours.

To have the bath on the left with a shower over it will mean rehanging the door to open outwards or a complete structural rebuild of the doors & walls etc.

HELP, dh no help, cant decide whether it worth having limited floor space to have a serpate walk in shower or not......

bump

since when did people on MN not have opinions

Is it possible to put the bath on the wall in front of you as you walk in? I realise that if there is a big window it might be impossible to have a shower over the bath though...

Would that then free up enough space to have a separate shower?

No that won't work, can't have a bath over shower there because of the windows, then can't put shower behind the door (wider side) because you won't be able to access toilet, are is too small the otherside not even 70cm.

The question is really better to have a shower over bath for a roomier bathroom or seperate shower and a more cramped bathroom? With a seperate shower we will only really have the floor space where the door swings open to right angles IYSWIM.

I would stick with having a shower over the bath

This would probably mean having to hve the door rehung to open outwards, would that change your opinion?

I wouldn't bother with a seperate shower. If you're that tight for space you'd only fit a tiny cubicle in anyway, and they are so horrible to have a shower in - you can't move!

Spend your money on a decent shower to go over the bath.

the shower cubicle could probably be 800 x 800 so not the smallest.

Worst of all is this is all a nightmare because the previous owners took out the original bath (can't get the same size anymore) and moved the toilet .

Next door put in a seperate shower & it looks okay but they needed it for husband with mobility problems.

I want dh to make the decision.

You will also need to check where your soil pipe is. If your water needs to drain at a gradient of less than 1:22 then you will need a waste pump. This is more of a problem where you are putting in a wetroom / level access shower.

The other thing you will need to consider is which way your joists are running. If the soil pipe from the shower runs perpendicular to the joists then you will have a hard job changing where your drain holes currently are. Think structral alterations to stop your house falling down.

I would get someone in to quote you on both options.... then make a decision from there.

I know exactly where the soil pipe is - in the wall behind where the bath currently is my 1st choice is to put the toilet back to where the soil pipe is. If we put in a seperate shower it will be in the same location as next door have theirs so it must be reasonably doable.

Also the choice is between having the bath where it currently is and where it was originally. Althout drainage angle may be why the toilet currently sits on a plinth and has 2 u-bends?????

I work for a company that manufacture and puts in LA showers for disabled people. It can be done in in most cases, but sometimes needs a pump to get the waste water away. The only time it is impossible is in a block and beam construction ( brought in in the 80's so yours should be OK). It is just not the best option - they are noisy and can be unreliable and are expensive - £400 -900 to install plus an annual service. IME it is best to go for the more expensive ones - Autumn Quiescent/HL3000 and AKW silent flow are teh best on the market at the moment in terms of noise and reliability( I won't tell you which of these 2 I work for). Best way to find out is to ask or listen out for a humming / glugging noise from next door.

It would also be the placing of the soil pipe reletive to the trap - if it is a LA shower you want, the soil pipe has to be lower than the bottom of the trap - 145mm below the floor surface. A bath is normally about 50 - 100 mm above the floor surface. So you lose a lot of height when you take out a bath. The other alternative is to have a step in shower - which if you are able bodied is no problem.

With the loo on a plinth it sounds as if they were trying to avoid a mascerator - unless the previous owner was disabled.

previous owners were just nuts!!!

Tried to make our classic 1960's style house into something more edwardian looking!

We could go for a step in shower it's more the overall space issue. I have pressed dh for an opinion and think we've decided to stick with a shower over the bath and rehang the door because hopefully by the time we'd need a seperate shower as we get old and decrepid the suite would need replacing anyway.....

Result!

DH has agreed to not have a bath and just get a bigger shower instead