Our understanding of a modest bathroom has become quite exaggerated. It’s no longer just a place to get clean but we want something more, a safe place where we can shut the door on the daily routine to enjoy and revitalise. We certainly don’t want to spend a lot of money, time and hassle on our dream bathroom just to realise a few months down the track that it’s not keeping up to its word. Following are the ten bathroom renovating blunders that you should avoid.
1. Spending more than actually planned for
What begins as a trivial makeover can very swiftly change into extravagant spending. To refrain from overspending, you should maintain the total cost of the renovation below 1.7% of the property value.
Quick tips to reduce the renovation costs:
Take pictures of your existing fixtures and fittings in situ so that you can promote on Gumtree or eBay to sell it away or to give it away and lower the fees for waste removal. To avoid the custom making expense, design for standard fixtures and fittings. Before you begin, buy all your tapware, tiles, cabinets, accessories and sanitary ware. For good buys, watch sales and auctions. In case, you’re able to preserve the bathroom’s configuration, you can typically save on plumbing.
2. Avoid overloading the bathroom
To make your bathroom less messed up and more comfortable, just maximise the space as much as possible. If the room is too small and compact for a bath and a shower, it is desirable to have the shower over the bath for the restricted room. To aid in saving valuable floor space, an in-wall toilet cistern and wall hung cabinetry will be of great value.
3. Inadequate lighting
Proper lighting is needed for bathroom chores. Hair styling, shaving, waxing and applying makeup are hard to do in general ambient light. Install a bathroom vanity unit with some lighting that reflects back onto the face or big mirror above the basin. Likewise, there are numerous sleek lighting choices available.
4. Do-it-yourself waterproofing
A leaking shower is a pricey item to repair but it remains the most common issues in a bathroom. Hire a certified waterproofing tradesman to fix the leaking shower and make sure you are furnished with a waterproofing warranty and certificate. You can also buy new shower or shower head online. If there are major defect in your old shower. After the bathroom renovation, if you intend to sell your home, you’ll be required to furnish the waterproofing certificate.
Tip: Once the waterproofing is finished, watch over the follow-up trades, particularly the tiler. A little cut in the waterproof membrane with a broken tile or the tillers trowel will compromise its reliability that may lead to a leak.
5. Not enough ventilation
Due to inadequate ventilation, you may find small black particles of mould advancing up your newly painted walls or ceilings. If you have good windows that can be opened up nicely, still you will require an exhaust fan to remove the steam.
Tip: To minimise the risk of mould taking control, you can paint the walls with mould-resistant or oil-based bathroom paint.
6. Using fixtures and fittings that get dated faster
You may have chosen fixtures and fittings that are on trend but after it’s been installed, within a very short timeframe (within a couple of years) it will begin to look outdated. When you install classy and graceful fixtures and fittings, you’ll guarantee that your bathroom has a wide appeal that lasts.
7. Insufficient storage
Storage is important just like every other room in the house. You require space for hairdryers, straighteners, cosmetics, shavers, medicines, wet and dry towels and the list goes on. There is a proper place for everything with intelligent storage. It’s easier to access vanity drawers than vanity doors. Mirrored shaving cabinets over the basin are just great for placing items away from little fingers. You can also include some wall recessed by the bath tub for placing your soaps, shampoos etc. Heated towel rails are a great add-on for the family bathrooms – they have the capacity to store many towels and they’ll always be dry and fluffy.
Tip:Mirrored shaving cabinets are available in varied sizes. You can get a customised look by having plasterboard recess constructed above the basins to install 2 or 3 in a line. To add more style, you can place some led strip lighting beneath the mirrored shaving cabinets and Bingo! You have plenty of storage space and modishness at an affordable cost.
8. Absorbent materials
All surfaces in the bathroom should be resistant to moisture else it will enlarge, decay or discolour with time. This doesn’t include non-waterproof MDF (Medium-density fibreboard), particle board, Softwood and fabric. Absorbent stone like travertine marble and hardwood must be sealed.
9. Inadequate drainage
Floor having wet area is inviting for a “fall” – the floor should tenderly slant towards the floor waste to facilitate water to drain away efficiently; particularly, in small bathrooms, large format floor tiles make this hard. Nonetheless, if your innermost desire is to install large format tiles then you should seriously consider a linear floor waste.
Tip: Suppose your bathroom design needs a linear floor waste that spans the area (two metres) then consider installing 2 at half the size. This will make cleaning effortless and will lower the cost considerably.
10. Giving importance to the toilet
Refrain from making the toilet suite the first thing that you’ll see in the bathroom and avert any sight lines to it from the nearby rooms. If there is enough space in the bathroom, it would be better to put the shower and toilet suite in its own place while placing the sink separately – for instance, make the bath/ shower area enclosed using glass wall as a divider between the combined sink-toilet suite and the bath area. This will facilitate someone to take a shower while someone else is getting ready at the sink. The glass wall between the two spaces will just add a couple of inches to the overall size of the bathroom but it will double the utility of the bathroom.
