Updating a bathroom can be fun, but don’t get carried away with style over substance.
Last week, I had to gut my bathroom sooner than expected.
I’d bought a bath that could be squeezed into the new space, but I didn’t take account of plastering and tiling. My builder said the bath would have to be cut into the wall, but then decided the wall would have to come down.
This just goes to show the problems of not thinking through purchases.
I’m not alone. A survey for bathroom brand iflo (visit www.iflopromotion.co.uk for a chance to win a bathroom) has revealed that style is the most important factor for homeowners with practical considerations overlooked.
“Bathrooms are the most complicated room in any home,” says iflo’s Jo Axtell. “It’s not just about choosing a look or style, but also the pipework, available space, water usage and water pressure, which can all impact on how successful the resulting room is.”
It can be hard to think through all the implications of purchases, but remember a good plumber will come to your home and advise you.
Generally speaking, keeping the bathroom layout as it is should make replacing the suite straightforward.
Unless you have solid floors, getting water where you want in the room shouldn’t be hard, but altering the waste pipes can be more of a problem, with changes to the toilet waste often the most difficult. Sometimes wastes have to be surface mounted, but re-jigging the layout may avoid this.
Different layouts and products may have cost implications in terms of labour and materials. The type of boiler your home has can also affect what you buy. Many of us have a combination or combi boiler.
Pressurised/unvented systems are similar. They’re also high pressure and provide hot water on demand, but they do have a cylinder. For the above systems, a mixer shower, unpumped electric shower or unpumped digital shower should be suitable.
However, if you have a low-pressure system, usually using a timer, tank and cylinder to get hot water, your choices are a mixer, electric, power, or pumped digital shower.
Next time you splash out on a new bathroom, bear this in mind. While it’s important to make your new bathroom look good, you don’t want practicality to be a wash-out.