Guide to Bathroom Remodelling

Putting a new bathroom, shower room or wet room into your house or apartment is a great way to freshen up your home. It can also add value to the place, if you’re fixing it up to sell. Whether you choose to work with an architect or interior designer, or do it yourself, however, it’s a big project that requires lots of forethought and planning. So, here’s an all-encompassing guide to renovating your bathroom for the best results.

Contents

DIY bathroom renovation

Choosing a bathroom fitter

Remodelling period property bathrooms

Low-budget bathroom makeovers

Common remodelling mistakes

DIY bathroom renovation

Remodelling your own bathroom can be a fun, exciting and rewarding challenge—if you’ve got the DIY skills to pull it off to a high standard. Done well, a DIY bathroom makeover will save you money, help you to develop and hone new skills and give you a sense of pride in the finished room. You won’t rely on anyone else to do the work—and you won’t have to pay anyone, either.

There are some dangers to taking on this kind of project, especially if you haven’t done it before, though. Low-skilled DIY enthusiasts might end up with an amateurish finish or—heavens forbid—burst water pipes, for instance. Just bear in mind that anything that goes wrong will have to be done again, so could cost you more.

You’ll also need to consider the order of business so that you don’t end up finishing one job only to find out there was something else that needed doing first. This could end up costing you more time and money, as you may end up having to do some of the work twice.

Start with demolition, then concentrate on electrics, HVAC and plumbing. Plastering comes next and then putting on all your plug sockets and covers. After that, it’s a case of doing your ceramics—wall tiles and floor tiles. Once those base elements are in place, you can put your bathroom furniture in, followed by your shower tray and screen and, finally, your cabinets.

Choosing a bathroom fitter

If DIY bathroom remodelling isn’t for you, you’ll want to choose a professional who can do a great job on your behalf. There’s no strict science to finding a good bathroom fitter, though—it’s merely a case of doing your homework.

First of all, do plenty of Googling. Use broad, varied search terms—don’t just look for “bathroom fitters near me”, for example—also look up “bathroom installers in my area” to get the widest variety of results. Then spend plenty of time on their websites to compare and contrast their projects and prices.

When you find a fitter you like the sound of, don’t just book them to come and do the job—meet them face-to-face first. This will help you to get an immediate sense of whether you’ll enjoy working with them or not. Trust your gut and don’t hire someone who doesn’t feel right.

Also, get two or three alternative quotes and meet a few different professionals. You should be paying within reasonable boundaries of market rate—if you only get one quote, you might end up spending a lot more. Plus, just because one person sounds right for the job on paper, you might find that when you meet a few fitters, you’d rather have one of them who wasn’t your initial first choice work on your bathroom, after all.

Remodelling period property bathrooms

Fixing up the bathroom of an old house or apartment can be a big challenge, but also a highly rewarding one. It’s a case of bringing out the best of the old and adding a luxurious touch of the new. But there’s a method to going about it—so here are a few tips.

• Check the plumbing—this is the first job you should do, because there’s no point putting new fixtures and fittings over old, faulty pipes. You’ll only have to rip them out and start over once you spring a leak.
• Emphasise original features—whether it’s a ceiling rose, antique tiling or an old cast iron bath than just needs re-enamelling, original features will balance out the new fixtures and fittings.
• Trust your inner interior designer—just because your period bathroom has an antique quality, you shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to get rid of certain period features, especially if they’re dilapidated, broken or terribly unfashionable!

Low-budget bathroom makeovers

High-end bathrooms don’t have to cost the earth. There are a number of ways to remodel your bathroom on a budget that will give you surprisingly luxurious results.

Start out by exploring different material swatches. You might find that you turn up a product that looks just like the one of your dreams, but at a far more reasonable price. Whether it’s using solid surface instead of marble or acrylic instead of solid surface, there’s a sliding scale of luxury to suit a broad range of budgets.

Also, consider buying your bathroom products online, instead of from a showroom. The cost savings that online retailers make by cutting their overheads are often passed back to customers. While you’re there, see if you can find off-the-shelf products that offer you the same design and build qualities as custom-built bathroom furniture. Riluxa, for example, has a whole range of “in stock” products that are every bit as high quality as their bespoke counterparts, but at a fraction of the price.

Finally, plan out your budget well in advance of getting started on the remodel and add a contingency of around 20%. This will stop you from spending frivolously while saving for your bathroom and make sure you have enough to pay for any hidden surprises.

Common remodelling mistakes

Whether you’re planning a high- or low-budget bathroom remodel, it’s important that you’re aware of the potential risks people face when remodelling their bathrooms. A new bathroom should be something to celebrate, not something to get stressed-out over. Getting it right first time will save you a lot of time, money and headaches.

Common mistakes include:

• Not giving yourself enough time—don’t book your fitter to arrive on site before your products have been delivered. You’d be surprised at how many people fail to allocate the right amount of time between ordering fixtures and getting construction underway.
• Not budgeting enough—setting aside enough money for products and quoted works is important, but having a contingency is equally essential, because who knows when you’ll turn up a leaky pipe or asbestos tile grouting?
• Not addressing the essentials first—tiling over damp patches and adding new taps to leaking pipes might fix the appearance of the bathroom, but you’ll soon pay for failing to address the underlying issues—ignore them at your peril.
• Not measuring up properly—you wouldn’t be the first person to buy a 180cm bathtub for a 150cm bathroom, if you did it, but you’ll feel just as silly.

Avoid those issues and you’ll be well on the way to the bathroom of your dreams. Whichever way you choose to go about it and whatever types of products you decide to install, a new bathroom can help to make your home feel fresh and new, giving it your own personal stamp. Have fun with it, plan it all out to the last detail and make it sing with your personality.

Looking for something else to read? Check out our Guide to Freestanding Bathroom Furniture.