ABOVE (click on gallery design to perspective incomparable picture): This en apartment showering room was combined as partial of a whole-house renovation. Read some-more about this en apartment bathroom…
Michael Holmes
Renovation expert
If you’re meditative of formulating an additional bathroom, follow Michael Holmes’ consultant advice.
1. Consider a rules
Planning accede is not customarily compulsory for an en suite, unless it involves an extension, though all work contingency approve with a Building Regulations. In a leasehold property, a freeholder will need to give accede for any alterations.
2. Consider a space
An en apartment lavatory is mostly combined by converting a tiny adjacent bedroom, though this can have a disastrous impact on a value of your home. The ideal resolution is to find space though carrying to scapegoat a bedroom.
A full lavatory will need a space measuring during slightest 1.7m x 2.6m. A showering room can be propitious into an area measuring as tiny as 1m x 2.8m – not most some-more than is indispensable for propitious wardrobes.
3. Consider a cost
A elementary showering room will cost around £4,000-£5,000, while a vast lush lavatory will be in a segment of £20,000-£30,000. (All costs given embody build materials and labour, electrics, plumbing, fixtures and fittings, decorating, walls and flooring.)
4. Consider a structure
The walls for a new lavatory are typically assembled regulating joist or steel studs to form a constructional frame. Metal support components are accessible to support wall-mounted basins and WCs with secluded cisterns – try Grohe, Geberit and Saniflo for identical pieces.
The voids within timber walls are ideal for secluded physique mixer taps, showers and for combining storage niches. You will also need to devise for showering doors and towel rails.
5. Consider heating and plumbing
Extending a prohibited and cold H2O reserve into a new lavatory is customarily really straightforward. If we have a combi boiler, that provides prohibited H2O on direct rather than requiring a cylinder, we need to safeguard that it has sufficient prohibited H2O upsurge to supply an additional bathroom. You should also check your H2O vigour and select suitable mixer taps and showering fittings.
Connecting new lavatory wastes to a drains can be complicated, though there is always a resolution – a stretchable tiny gimlet rubbish siren with a macerator (try Saniflo) will concede a lavatory to be propitious roughly anywhere.
Various heating options embody radiators, radiator towel rails and underfloor heating. The wiring will need to be altered to approve with a Building Regulations for bathrooms.
6. Consider a finishing touches
New lavatory walls can be clad in waterproof tile subsidy house – such as WEDI, Marmox or Aquapanel – plywood or moisture-resistant plasterboard. Pre-formed walk-in showering trays with a rubbish trap in a building are accessible for wetrooms.
The en apartment walls can be tiled or lonesome in phony potion panels – vast mirrors can also be used.
Tiling can be expensive, typically costing £24-£32 per m² and materials, so smear and lavatory paint or timber panelling is a some-more cost-effective choice here. It is also a good thought to deliver copiousness of lighting into a space.
Read about a renovated bedroom with en apartment bathroom…
Read about converting a loft into an en apartment bathroom…
WORDS MICHAEL HOLMES
All costs scold during time of publishing
Featured in a Oct 2011 emanate of Real Homes
