Is there anything you wish you had or had not done when building a house or renovating a bathroom as we are looking at doing ours. Quite a large bathroom so size not an issue. Thanks in advance for your help.
kateley,
Jun 3, 12:21am
Plan ahead for the future when you may not be as able as you are now. Make the shower as accessible as possible - wide opening door and as low a sill as you can find if you don't want to go full 'wet room' Get a 'comfort height' toilet, too. I found these 2 things to be marvelous after recent surgery. I wish I had put in storage for towels and double glazed the windows to keep it a bit warmer. I chose a thick vinyl instead of tiles for warmth and comfort under foot.
owen106,
Jun 3, 12:54am
We had the bathroom stripped. Should have had ceiling scraped and painted, and wall insulation installed.
lythande1,
Jun 3, 12:57am
Having more money to do it the way I really wanted would have been nice, but it's OK.
Towels. no, they live in cupboard n hall just outside bathroom door. inside bathroom, they can get mouldy.
phoenix22,
Jun 3, 2:10am
don't skimp on shower size! also, plan the room so if you happen to move out, and a family moves in, make sure it is set up in a way where you don't have to take turns at the sink. Our current bathroom is a decent size, but the way it is configured means only one person can reach the sink at a time. Very frustrating!
daisy86,
Jun 3, 2:24am
Our builder put in a super strong exhaust fan. Not drop of moisture dares linger now after a shower.
Get your shower glass treated for easier cleaning. We used Diamond Fusion.
If you are going to tile the floor consider underfloor heating - no it didn't cost that much extra and no, it doesn't cost much to run.
apple27,
Jun 3, 2:29am
We have just done our bathroom and put a mirror in that has a light around the outside of it which is marvellous. We also put a timer switch on our fan so that when you are about to leave the bathroom, you switch it off but it has a timer that lets it run for 11 mins to get rid of any steam and then shuts itself down. we also got a big easy to get into shower so that if we need to put a shower chair in it, there's room to do so. Also double glazing windows and insulation is a no brainer on these cool days.
oh_hunnihunni,
Jun 3, 2:48am
Put a seat in, aside from the loo.
kateley,
Jun 3, 3:00am
and somewhere to put your clothes while you shower
gilligee,
Jun 3, 4:56am
Shower dome.
socram,
Jun 3, 5:38am
Pet hate when travelling is hotel bathrooms, no matter how modern, when the light is behind your face/head.
Agree with shower dome.
Plan any tiling very carefully as traditionally, you start in the centre and work outwards, but I prefer to look where the joins are going to be and minimise cutting around pipes etc.
Wall mounted vanity can be set to a height that suits. (Many are far too low.)
Avoid drawer/cupboard handles with sharp edges.
Fit a stop cock feeding the toilet. Consider using rainwater to feed the toilet cistern.
Not a fan of heated floors. We have tiles around the base of the loo, but carpet elsewhere and use a bathmat, which is hung over a heated towel rail after showering.
If there is either a burst pipe or a sink overflow, where does the excess water go? Consider an extra floor drain.
tweake,
Jun 3, 6:10am
decent extraction fan over the shower, but you also need to think about where the air is being sucked in from. the fan can only go as fast as the air coming into the room. floor drain with waterless trap. shower controls on an internal wall. if you have a leak or issues, you can access it all from the next room. saves smashing out a nice shower to fix things.
wine-o-clock,
Jun 3, 6:48am
make sure the shower is an easy clean one-without nooks and crannies that gather grime in corners and edges
m16d,
Jun 3, 7:05am
We've just done a complete rebuild of our 1977 bathroom. I stripped the whole thing out for the builders,bath,walls,ceiling and all.They took the rest out, including the floor. Biggest problem we faced was trying to agree with the Mrs on stuff we wanted to do. Good idea to have another bathroom somewhere to use. our dunny is separate and we like it that way. we took the caravan away for the odd day. If the builder says a week, it will mean 2. And as Tweake said, a decent extractor fan, and plumbing on an internal wall. Our builder organized the lot,plumber, sparky, painter, flooring, the lot. He gave me a ball park figure before the start of 8 to 10g. I have a feeling it'll be a bit more. It's all finished now bar the flooring [ that we're still not agreeing on ] and it looks real "U" beauty.
lindyjack,
Jun 3, 7:52am
Thanks for all the tips so far. Would love a walk in shower but costs are just too high so most likely low profile tray with 2 tiled walls (possibly tile the tray also) and glass other 2 sides. Extraction will be a must as there is currently none at all which is not an issue due to size of the room, we have a shower dome and never use the corner spa bath which is what is dating the 90's bathroom so we are planning on replacing with free standing.
stylus1,
Jun 4, 3:11am
strip the room back to bare walls. Gib stop to get a nice smooth finish. Get rid of any downlights as they let warm air into the ceiling space. Don't go any smaller than a 90cm shower and install a Showerdome, this will mean you don't need to open windows or turn on fans as no moisture gets into the room. They are easy to install yourself, they just sit on top of the shower box. Install a radiant element wall heater as the fan heaters blow air that still feels cold. Plenty of towel rails, vinyl sheet flooring keeps cold out. Put batts in wall behind shower.
stevo2,
Jun 4, 3:41am
We put in undertile heating. Not expensive and not dear to run if its both on a timer and thermostatically controlled. Good quality bathroom heater on a thermostat as well. Heated towel rail on a timer. Shower dome means we dont need to turn on the fan to remove the warm air we have just paid to heat up. There is NO steam with a showerdome.
mac934,
Jun 5, 6:47am
Shower dome is the best thing we did in our shower. Wish we had done it sooner.
brightlights60,
Jun 5, 9:39am
I hear you. We have done three in our circa 1969 house. Actually the bath and basin we removed from the original one bathroom was collectable and snapped up on here! We have an excellent plumber (friend of the electrian/buider hubby) who gave us excellent advice. A great tiler and hubby is also a great painter. Things have moved on a bit since the first house years ago we put underfloor heating in. Its far more efficient nowadays and you only have to put it on when you go into the bathroom if having a bath or shower and its warm. Love the ladder type towel rails and the rain shower. Hubby also put LED lighting under the vanity and a heater behind the mirror so no fogging up. The main bathroom is small but its so well organised you don't notice. From a room I hated to somewhere you really want to be in, its great. When he did the walls I asked for tiled alcoves for candles, looks great. We didn't spend a lot, we got the rain type shower fittings in a 70% off sale and bought three, just finished the ensuite now. Same as tiles, and the vanity. The shower is a one piece put in by a proffessional in around a couple of hours flat.
skinnny,
Jun 5, 8:58pm
Definitely shower dome
csador,
Jun 6, 9:21pm
get the most powerful extractor fan you can, or a shower dome
sumstyle,
Jun 7, 7:55am
I agree with you on a number of points: Vinyl on the floor has been fantastic. Discrete grab handle in the shower over the bath - we had all the wall cladding removed so there was the chance to reinforce the wall for the grab handle (I intend to live here til I have to go to a rest home, and it's not nice being in the shower when there are earthquakes, let alone what might happen in old age). Higher toilet pan Lowered the ceiling I had space to put in a horizontal towel rail that had 4 rails (comes out from the walll about 50 cm) so the towels didn't rest on each other as they tried to dry.
The house is from 1910, so stripping the cladding off the wall, and vinyl off the floor meant that we could do any remedial action to internal walls. It's still a very small bathroom for the main one. It cost $11k from memory (new bath, toilet, vanity). In the other bathroom which was equally small I put in a shower dome and new shower head - that all cost me $500 and I use that bathroom all the time. Characterless, but the shower dome is unbelieveable in the change in comfort level.
martin11,
Jun 7, 6:29pm
The Healthy Home survey in rentals , Bathrooms require a good size extractor fan ducted to the outside as Shower Domes do not comply because of some of the problems they are causing .
socram,
Jun 8, 4:39am
And therein lies the problem.
Many of us are quite happy in our homes as they are, dry, comfortable etc., surviving quite well without a bathroom extractor fan, range hood, underfloor insulation, heat-pump, but totally un-rentable without spending thousands.
We don't NEED those items. We'd obviously install them if we did.
tweake,
Jun 8, 4:56am
but there is a lot of caveats to all that. a big one is how people tend to make BS up to justify to themselves not to spend money.
but also that every house and the way we use houses are different. eg i don't have a family of 5 living here so i get away without a bathroom extractor fan. but for rentals, the amount of use and the way a house gets run varies greatly so the more automation the better.
lastly, surviving and living well are two different things.
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