Home Improvement Guide

A new bathroom

Added value

If you plan to sell your property in a few years time and move up the housing ladder, then a new bathroom could help increase the appeal of your home. Graham Hobson, chief valuer at Yorkshire Building Society says: “A nice bathroom will always make a place more saleable and appealing,” says Hobson. “It’s hard to put a value on a bathroom, but you won’t lose anything by putting it in and it will be reflected in the value of your of your home.”

If you do plan to move on, it’s waste money buying an expensive bathroom suite. Simple styles and classic white suites will always retain their value and you can make them look up-do-date with stylish accessories, which you can take with you when you move.

Fashionable colours and styles will date quickly and will detract from the value of your property. So bear this in mind when designing your bathroom.

Buying a bathroom

The bathroom fixtures, whether you go for a standard suite, or pick and mix separates, will form only a relatively small part of the total bill. As well as the fittings, you need to take account of wall tiles, flooring, lighting, accessories and installation when working out your budget.

Simple bathroom suites are reasonably cheap and are available from DIY stores.

If you want a designer-look bathroom without paying designer prices, you can mix and match components. MFI do a basic acrylic bath and a basic toilet. Rather than go for a standard white basin you can opt for its glass bowl basin and fit it into a stand. Similarly, the Fuori basin from the Bathstore.com can be fitted onto a stand or built into a unit. If you really want to blow the budget and install a true designer bathroom you could try CP Hart. Its Starck Set 1, costs around £5,000, but for that you get a Philippe Starck designed basin, toilet, steel bath, mixer shower, chrome toilet roll holder, brush set and towel hook. Items are available separately too.

Standard bathroom suites usually come with taps included. If you need to buy taps you can pay anything from £12 a pair for basin taps to several hundred pounds. Expect to pay upwards of £150 for a stylish mixer tap to go on a bath or basin. The Enjoy mixer tap from the Bathstore.com costs £199, for example. Individual taps tend to be cheaper.

Standard baths are 1700mm long, but if space is an issue you can get a small bath. B&Q’s and MFI both do short baths. Check out the Bathstore.com as many of its basins come in two sizes – small and standard.

Choosing a shower

Most modern bathrooms have a shower. Not only do they save on time, they also save on water and money. Your first choice is between a mixer shower and an electric shower.

Mixer showers are usually the cheapest to install and they run of conventional water tanks and combi boilers. They take water directly from the water supply and mix it via a valve. If you don’t have good water pressure, you may find the shower is a bit feeble. You will also have to make sure you have a hot water supply. For extra pressure you can fit a shower pump to your mixer shower.

Electric showers are not as attractive to look at, but they can save you money as you won’t have to keep your hot water heated to use the shower. Electric showers heat the mains cold water supply as and when you use it via an electric element.

Labour costs

Labour costs could form the largest part of your bathroom bill. Get several quotes from builders before you decide which one to use. If you are buying a bathroom from B&Q or MFI they will install it for you for a charge. MFI relies on you to provide measurements for your bathroom, but the installer will call round to do a pre-fit survey to ensure that all measurements are correct and to check that the order is right. One of the major benefits of using an installation service is that they will remove and dispose of your old bathroom. Jobs such as tiling, flooring or plumbing will not be included in the price, but you can pay extra if you want everything finished at the same time. Visit the MFI and B&Q websites for details.

Keen diyers can get information on installing bathrooms from the B&Q website. It also has helpful buying guide to aid in your choice of fittings.

What to think about

• Draw a floor plan of your bathroom, marking the location of doors and windows. Mark special features such as alcoves
• Measure room length and width, height of ceiling, and height and width of windows and doors and put these on the plan
• Use this plan to help you design your new bathroom
• Think about whether you want a shower and what type you want
• Think about ventilation. You may need to get an extractor fan fitted if you don’t have a window
• Work out the sort of lighting you want and whether or not you need to install a shaver socket
• Think about heating. Do you want a radiator or a heated towel rail?
• You will need some storage. A simple bathroom cabinet may be ideal, but if you need to store towels, you will need to accommodate a larger unit, or build a shelf

You need to choose wall tiles and flooring. There are plenty of specialist tiles shops such as Fired Earth and the Reject Tile Shop, but their tiles can be expensive. Try your local DIY store if you are on a budget. Most stores stock contemporary ranges for reasonable prices, including glass or mosaic The BBC website has a handy calculator to help you work out how much flooring and how many tiles you need and it will calculate the cost too

Choose a simple bathroom style that will appeal to future buyers

Contacts

www.thebathroomaccessoryshop.com
www.firedearth.co.uk
www.tiles.org.uk
www.bathstore.com
www.diy.com (B&Q)
www.cphart.co.uk
www.mfi.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/homes/diy/calculators