Bathroom

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The bathroom may be small but it’s a complex room to renovate. Various skilled tradespeople must co-ordinate efficiently to get the job done, and mistakes and oversights can be costly. Planning correctly is crucial to keep you on budget. Here we highlight what you need to consider before you renovate.

Initial considerations

Determine the new room dimensions and positions of existing doors, windows, and skylights. These will affect your new floorplan and the positioning, shape and size of fixtures and fittings.
If you’re changing the layout – adding doorways, windows or skylights – allow for extra time, cost and tradespeople.

Layout & changes in layout

Here’s some common questions to ask yourself before you get started:

• Will your bathroom be an en suite? Or will it be a self-contained space?
• Will you be restructuring the space? For example, altering the floor or ceiling, removing or adding internal walls, installing a sunken bath/spa/sauna or embedding fixtures into walls, floor or ceiling cavities? If so, be aware that this will mean more labour, tricker finishes and will generally mean more people, time and costs.
• Will you need to add laundry facilities? If so, you may require additional power and plumbing outlets.

Cavity space

Determine how much cavity space there is to work with in the walls, ceiling, and under-floor area. This may affect the type, configuration and positioning of pipes, wires and fittings. You can’t easily add cavity spaces to solid brick walls without a lot of work. But if your walls are plasterboard it becomes a little simpler.

Moving plumbing

It’s an extra cost when you start thinking about moving your bathroom basics. Moving plumbing requires a qualifies plumber, on their hourly rate. Do you really need to move the toilet/wash basin or could you make do with a revamped version of what you already have?

Assess whether existing fixtures, fittings or finishes (floor or wall tiles, toilet suite, screens, mirrors) can be incorporated into the new design. Resurfacing or refitting existing fixtures and fittings can help cut costs (which means you can afford that fancy shower head after all).

Determine how the ‘time out’ required for renovations will affect your day-to-day life and organise how to best plan around the ongoing work. For example, hire a portaloo or shower at your local gym or neighbour’s house. This is particularly important if your home has only one bathroom.