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I'm thinking I speak to a plumber about this but my thinking is to get rid of the bath and shower and change the space into a walk-in shower with a rain shower head and a directional shower head as well. I'm thinking that will take up less space (not a huge amount less) and would need a step to raise the floor to ensure the water would drain.
Before this goes from idle brain fodder to consideration - how much is something like that likely to cost? Bath removed, space re-tiled and a new shower solution installed.
Saw an advert for a house for sale this morning and I foolishly went past it earlier on way back from a bike ride - it looks really interesting and could be 'ideal', but it is a lot of money and I'm wondering if it would be easier to sort current bathroom!
£4 - 5K ish for your average domestic bathroom refurb.
Depends very much on size and spec though.
*awaits "Mine was £300" and "You won't get change from 20 grand" posts. They're coming, just you wait and see...
We've got the big rain head and directional shower head in the bathroom and the ensuite, Had them 6 years, the directional ones have never been used! Honestly, the big rain head combined to a good combi boiler, they ain't required, unless you've some weird fetish about hosing your hoop or something lol!.
I thought they were a great idea at the time as well!.
We've just fitted a rain head and directional head, the directional head gets used by the girls when they want a shower but not to wash/wet their hair. Being a short haired bloke, having wet hair never bothered me.
God knows what my wife and daughter do, but they defo don't use the hose head.
the directional head gets used by the girls when they want a shower but not to wash/wet their hair
Exsqueeze me? A baking powder?
£4 – 5K ish for your average domestic bathroom refurb.
Cambridge area for a full strip out, re-install and re-tile. Quote I went with was about £9k excluding tiles and using decent (not super expensive sanitary wares). 2 other quotes came in at £10k ish and one was 14-18k without even looking at the bathroom. I probably could have found a cheaper option, but one guy who was recommended by some friends never answered his phone, email or replied to messages left. There's a lot of people at home deciding to do projects with left over holiday cash at the moment so there's no shortage of demand right now.
I have done two bathrooms, each cost around £5 - 6k. Spent money on things that mattered but also looked to get value where I could such as finding a perfect vanity unit by Villeroy and Boch on Ebay for a fraction of new price because it had a dirty great scratch on it but it didn't matter to us as it was being sited against a wall for our installation so the mark isn't visible.
depends! 4-6 thousand would be ballpark but you can very quickly increase that - for example I shopped around for a 3 way shower so you can have fixed head, handheld or both running £300 was the cheapest shower unit but I saw them at well over £1000.
the directional ones have never been used!
Where there's a tip ... there's a tap 🙂
It's the rain head in our ensuite that doesn't get used.
Oh and you're not wanting this done any time soon are you ??
My parent were looking to do similar and for any one good they were looking at next Feb !!
Helping the old man to do it ourselves
Good luck
It’s the rain head in our ensuite that doesn’t get used.
You should run it once a week for a few minutes to prevent Legionella.
Do it yourself it’s not hard.
I did our last one, which was removing a bath and replacing with walk-in shower.
Full strip including new ceiling and floor, new insultion, plumbing wiring including new ducting for fan and underfloor heating fully tiling whole room and replacing door with sliding number, took 3 weeks.
Most timeconsuming thing was the tiling, I made quite a complicated built in for the hidden cistern, and shower alcoves and sink shelf. Meant a lot of cuts on large format tiles.
I think it was about 2k in materials, including tiling tools
If I was to do it again I would probably reconsider a flush shower tray and single pane shower screen. Water gets sprayed out of the side and you have to squigee floor as well as screen. Next time I will do a full enclosure. It’s not bad, but annoying
I've never got on with the rain head nonsense. I don't want to feel like I'm being waterboarded. Or are they for people who like to stand outside of the spray and watch hot water flowing down the plug hole?
Can someone please explain? 🤷♂️
Next time I will do a full enclosure.
I hate full enclosures as the room is always colder than the enclosure after the shower.
Water gets sprayed out of the side and you have to squigee floor as well as screen.
Ours does that too, but it's not exactly a faff to do it. Certainly preferable to the cold.
I'd say around £5k that a few people have mentioned is about right for what you mention. Mine was a fair bit more but was a complete gut, new everything inc. under floor (and one wall) heating and floor to ceiling tiles.
When you say directional showerhead are you talking about a hand shower attachment? If so then I'd def recommend it - I use mine each time just to get all the suds off quickly, also handy if you just want to quickly wash your hair without having a full shower (although this only really works with it over a bath). I splashed out a bit on my shower and got one of these: https://www.qssupplies.co.uk/bathroom-furniture-shower-taps/156314.htm works great.
I would say think more about removing the bath. Firstly if it's your only bath it could be an issue when selling the house down the line. Secondly - although I only have a bath like one a year so thought about changing mine to a shower I would have gone with a double width shower unit (as I didn't have a use for the dead space a standard unit would have left + I hate banging elbows on the glass sides). But the cost of those is the same as a bath so didn't make sense. I also looked at curved baths (for a bit more shower area) but in the end just went for a slightly wider than standard bath - it goes close to the sink but doesn't cause any issues and works well (I never knock against the glass screen).
Get tanking behind tiles around the shower (my plumber wasn't going to do this as he said it wasn't needed apart from in wet rooms but I insisted), I've seen enough pictures of tiles falling off blown plaster to think it's a silly to penny pinch on.
I’ve never got on with the rain head nonsense
Ours is the opposite, the pressure is higher coming from the small directional, it feels like getting a grit blast, and water is thrown over the top of the fully enclosed double shower as a result, water everywhere.
The rain head is 10" wide and as such has less pressure, it's a lovely all over head and shoulder drenching.
One thing I will add, get decent extraction sorted while you're doing it, ours is like a covid riddled asmathic woodbine addict breathing in, it's a combined LED light and fan, truly dreadful.
One thing I will add, get decent extraction sorted while you’re doing it, ours is like a covid riddled asmathic woodbine addict breathing in, it’s a combined LED light and fan, truly dreadful.
Agreed. And the answer is a Manrose inline 😉
I'm another with two fittings, the directional showerhead (on a rail) gets used, rain showerhead never (ended up taking it down as it was blocking the down lights). Downside of dual fitting is that occasionally you turn the knob too far and get a brief cold dousing. I can recommend the Hansgrohe 150 raindance head with Raindance Unica rail, IMO the rail looks much smarter than a conventional tube one.
Personally I'd use a tiler who fits showers, rather than a plumber who claims to do tiling. And a personal preference would get the shower floor tray / whole bathroom floor tiled to match, it looks much smarter than an exposed tray IMO (or don't skimp on the tray).
Also I;m another who started with an open walk in shower but got fed up with water everywhere and ended up making it enclosed (small shower area tho). The water collected in the floor tile grouting and spread across the bathroom.
Hmmm...some great advice there, thanks. Apparently it is to remain just a thought though as it is nice to have a bath now and again - unsure how that stands when the average baths are measured in years and not months!
We kept a bath and had a rain showery head and a little handheld; great for rinsing out the bath after cleaning it, rinsing the wall and screens, using to rinse out stuff you might wash in the bath like bike helmets and other stuff.
Instead of tiling, look seriously at bathroom panels; far less hassle to look after, no grout to clean, cheaper and quicker to install. (Not ness cheaper to buy...)
Just an example website; https://claddtech.com/collections/wall-panels
I’ve never got on with the rain head nonsense. I don’t want to feel like I’m being waterboarded. Or are they for people who like to stand outside of the spray and watch hot water flowing down the plug hole?
Can someone please explain? 🤷♂️
Well...its a shower. You get under it and wash yourself. I like ours. A very wide head with low pressure flow so nothing like waterboarding. Preferable to a power shower that pummels you and wets the room as the water bounces off you, atomises and settles all over the bathroom (been there done that). And the normal shower head for the girls. They prefer that because, apparently, they don't always wet their hair when they have a shower so a bit tricky under a rain head.
Got our bathroom done recently. the sort of prices are about right - about £5k for us. We considered panels and were concerned about it looking a bit cheap and nasty, especially those that are made to look like marble or granite, and the fact alot of silicon sealant is used which inevitably goes manky over time and is a PITA to remove and replace. Grout can be kept clean easy enough and every 5 or so years not really a major PITA to remove and replace.
We got one of those baths that are wider at the tap end for the shower area which was a good call since it's used mostly for showers.
We have just gone down the same route.
Bathroom suite ripped out, old tiles and radiator removed.
Paid £4.5k including spotlights and ceiling plastering and 2 new door frames.
Tiles were not included and cost another £750.
I use both the rain shower head and directional shower head. How do you clean your nether regions without using the directional shower head?
Have been thinking of panels rather than tile in ours.
A bit haunted by very slightly wonky tiling jobs that bug you more and more as the years go by, hence the interest in shower panels. But can they be cocked up in their own particular way? Will deffo be asking for tanking behind/round the bath.
We've never had an extraction fan, there's a window we can open (usually just before fleeing he bathroom and shutting the door behind to keep the rest of the house stay warm). Will we have to have one?
I have a skylight in my bathroom I can open but it's either too cold outside or I don't want to wake neighbours up with my music playing at 6am whilst showering :p I have a decent in-line extractor fan in the attic (vented through the roof via a tile fitting) and it just about keeps up with the steam (although it's still useful my mirrored cabinet has a heat pad to demist), would have got an even more powerful one if doing it again but it's not enough of an issue to warrant replacing the current one.
It's not mandatory but why put up with having to run out of the bathroom quickly when you open the window? Not sure how much cost mine added to the overall bill but think would have been less than £400 (although the electrician was already in doing the spot lights).
Apparently it is to remain just a thought though as it is nice to have a bath now and again – unsure how that stands when the average baths are measured in years and not months!
Just treat the bath as a big shower tray like I do? I have a triple panel glass screen on mine which works really well, as mentioned before just get a wider bath if you have the room and it gives a lot more showering space.