Bathroom Layout - Too Narrow?

[richo106]

Hi All

 

We have finally got round to starting our main bathroom

 

I have drawn it up and with the wife chose majority of the items we would like in there, however my one concern is the gap between the toiler and vanity unit too small? It will be 645mm

 

We want the 1800mm bath to fit tight between the walls and where the waste comes up of the toilet it will be about there anyway by the time its studded off etc.

 

We can reduce the size of the shower tray to either 800 x 1500 or 800 x 1400 to help with a little bit of room.

 

Please see attached layout, pretty much anything can move apart from the toilet that has to be on the left hand side

 

Any ideas/feedback would be greatly appreciated 

 

[G and J]

Can you build the cistern into the wall and maybe use a floating potty?  That will increase the feeling of space in that area and increase the actual ‘knee’ gap.

[Iceverge]

645 is fine. 

 

I would consider putting the shower head on the long wall rather than the short one.

 

It would feel much more comfy to use with the extra elbow room. 

[ProDave]

Is this subject to building control?  If so that may dictate the spaces you need?

 

How far in are you?  too late to change to a wet room for the shower area?

[Mr Punter]

You could fit a bidet. Not fashionable here, compulsory in several European countries. Easy to freshen up without getting undressed.

[Spinny]

People may be nicely silhouetted against the window when getting in and out of the bath at night ?

Where will you put the extractor and the heated mirror ?

[G and J]

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

You could fit a bidet. Not fashionable here, compulsory in several European countries. Easy to freshen up without getting undressed.

I’m looking at maybe fitting one or more bum guns, which I think sort the freshness issue with less real estate and fewer building regs issues.  (Not just because the name makes me laugh, though it does).  Need to fully research them but have too many other priority decisions to focus on first.

[bungledlow]

Our bathroom is almost identical in shape and dimensions, albeit 50cm shorter. We lost a few centimetres from tiling so consider that too.

We had considered a similar layout to your diagram but went with this in the end and are generally happy with it.

 

The bath is 170 as we didn't want it to look too crammed in, and have some hope for cleaning around it. It feels plenty big enough. A different style may be more suited to filling the space.

 

The shower is rarely used so it's not too bad keeping it all clean, but might be an issue otherwise.

The mirror does steam up but we don't find it an issue particularly.

 

Things we would consider doing differently:

- Somewhere to store shampoo and soap for both shower and bath (will probably solve this with furniture)

- More width around the toilet

- Don't buy the cheapest toilet seat, it's awful and will be replaced

- The bath towel rails are behind the door and bad planning meant the door handle conflicts with them

- Not sure the colour of the window frame works but it is what it is

- We are going to use plants to add colour and interest

- We will eventually put a blind in to reduce the silhouette issue

- Some may find the shower glass a bit exposed but it's been ok in practice even with toddlers

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

11 hours ago, G and J said:

Can you build the cistern into the wall and maybe use a floating potty?  That will increase the feeling of space in that area and increase the actual ‘knee’ gap.

If the adjoining room is habitable (bedroom) then your BCO may or may not spot the breach of acoustic control. These habitable spaces should be separated by a full, insulation laden, stud wall of 100mm to comply; subject to the BCO giving a toss or not basically so you’ll need to flip a coin and see who you get.

 

On the last one like this I stuffed the WC frame and associated annoying voids with acoustic batts manually, and then built a 3” stud wall behind the 4” one that the WC frame and cistern went into, to bring it back to compliance (at the request of the client, after I made him aware of the consequences of breaching that acoustic divider). 
 

11 hours ago, Iceverge said:

645 is fine. 

 

I would consider putting the shower head on the long wall rather than the short one.

 

It would feel much more comfy to use with the extra elbow room. 

645 is plenty, agreed. You’ll be surprised to know that the average UK bathroom was the size of a double bed. 
 

I’d keep the shower head and riser rail on the end though, with the control valve on the side at the 2/3 marker; easy to reach when showering and before getting in. The real estate between the end and the last 1/3 should be preserved for lathering up out of the spray but just away from the opening. For anything shorter than 1400 you should have a slider really vs an opening afaic.

 

10 hours ago, ProDave said:

How far in are you?  too late to change to a wet room for the shower area?

Defo a great choice vs a modular shower tray imho. Flush tiled floors in the shower area just look soooo much better / more ‘expensive’ tbf. You’ll be into tanking then so would need to plan accordingly. 
 

@richo106, the only issue you’ll have is foot space to dry off in after a bath, so I would take the basin down to within 100mm of the bath, move WC to suit, and create some towelling off area which I think will be of much more long term benefit than having nice big gaps that choke to circulation space up.

 

Consider niches for the shower area, somewhere for goops & goos, and maybe bring the bath 50mm away from the wall to create a ledge and exaggerated window ‘shelf’ for same goops there. Just imagine how you will manage without those bits of storage for everything you currently have to hand and then realise the importance of not forgetting to allow for it. 

Edited Monday at 19:53 by Nickfromwales
Typo fixed :)

[Spinny]

Agree, storage is a big thing in our bathroom. Surprising how much stuff a family wants to store out of sight from spare loo rolls, spare soap, his razors, her razors, tons of goops, cotton buds, cleaning materials, scissors, weighing scales, air freshener....lots of spares because who wants to run out of bathroom stuff.

[richo106]

Hi all, thank you all for your feedback been very useful!

 

In terms of situation its completely empty, floorboards down, plastered ceiling and spots, breeze block walls. The biggest issue for me is trying to dodge the posi joists with the wastes!

 

I have attached my marked up plan which shows Niches (in red), shower valves (blue cross) Towel rail (green - just next to where door opens to), Heated mirror (yellow)

 

I am not a fan of shower doors so want 2 fixed pieces of glass in place (black) I don't need specific extraction as have MVHR installed.

 

We have a freestanding bath in our en-suite but as this will be primarily our kids bathroom we wanted the bath a tight fit, we are going for a rectangle freestanding bath - https://www.lussostone.com/stone-resin-baths-c1/ethos-freestanding-stone-bath-1800mm-p309

 

Like the look of yours @bungledlow, but have a couple of bad experiences with wet rooms albeit being poor install related issues! 

 

Yes good point on storage, we will be having a vanity unit but only half shelving type

 

[richo106]

One thing I could really do with some advice on is which would be the best toilet type to lose as little of the room as possible. I am more concerned about the level of the tiled wall, i could do with the finished wall as close to the breeze block as possible

 

I have attached a photo below, due the position of my joists the centre of toilet waste is around 160mm into the room.

 

Would it be best to have a closed coupled back to the wall or wall hung?

 

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-close-coupled-rimless-toilet-with-soft-close-seat-p4457

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-back-to-wall-rimless-toilet-with-concealed-cistern-and-brushed-stainless-flush-plate-p5060

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-wall-hung-rimless-toilet-with-concealed-cistern-frame-and-brushed-stainless-flush-plate-p5063

 

These are my options but i can't for the life of me work out which will be best! 

 

Any advice on this question would be amazing

[Nickfromwales]

8 minutes ago, richo106 said:

One thing I could really do with some advice on is which would be the best toilet type to lose as little of the room as possible. I am more concerned about the level of the tiled wall, i could do with the finished wall as close to the breeze block as possible

 

I have attached a photo below, due the position of my joists the centre of toilet waste is around 160mm into the room.

 

Would it be best to have a closed coupled back to the wall or wall hung?

 

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-close-coupled-rimless-toilet-with-soft-close-seat-p4457

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-back-to-wall-rimless-toilet-with-concealed-cistern-and-brushed-stainless-flush-plate-p5060

https://www.lussostone.com/toilets-c5/senza-wall-hung-rimless-toilet-with-concealed-cistern-frame-and-brushed-stainless-flush-plate-p5063

 

These are my options but i can't for the life of me work out which will be best! 

 

Any advice on this question would be amazing

My apologies, is the wall behind the WC a breeze block one and not a stud wall?

 

I only operate on 30% power on a BH Monday  

[richo106]

2 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

My apologies, is the wall behind the WC a breeze block one and not a stud wall?

 

I only operate on 30% power on a BH Monday  

Yes all walls of the bathroom are breeze block, certainly no need to apologies I left this important detail out!

[Nickfromwales]

Compact, short projection, space-saving, are all the common names for these things.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Affine-Bathroom-Toilet-Coupled-Cistern/dp/B07DTJS4SD?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1UUGTWDE5YX23&gQT=1

[Nickfromwales]

Defo stick with close-coupled. The frame will need boxing and tiling and will eat into the room for very little gain, prob be a bit uglier tbh.

 

[ETC]

Where will the toilet roll holder be?

[richo106]

Didn't attached picture!

 

[Nickfromwales]

Why the joist, and not just a batten on the blocks, levelled accordingly, to save space?

[richo106]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

Why the joist, and not just a batten on the blocks, levelled accordingly, to save space?

That's the posi joist below

[bmj1]

11 hours ago, bungledlow said:

Our bathroom is almost identical in shape and dimensions, albeit 50cm shorter. We lost a few centimetres from tiling so consider that too.

We had considered a similar layout to your diagram but went with this in the end and are generally happy with it.

 

The bath is 170 as we didn't want it to look too crammed in, and have some hope for cleaning around it. It feels plenty big enough. A different style may be more suited to filling the space.

 

The shower is rarely used so it's not too bad keeping it all clean, but might be an issue otherwise.

The mirror does steam up but we don't find it an issue particularly.

 

Things we would consider doing differently:

- Somewhere to store shampoo and soap for both shower and bath (will probably solve this with furniture)

- More width around the toilet

- Don't buy the cheapest toilet seat, it's awful and will be replaced

- The bath towel rails are behind the door and bad planning meant the door handle conflicts with them

- Not sure the colour of the window frame works but it is what it is

- We are going to use plants to add colour and interest

- We will eventually put a blind in to reduce the silhouette issue

- Some may find the shower glass a bit exposed but it's been ok in practice even with toddlers

 

 

 

I thought this design is a really clever use of space, and should be given the love it deserves.

 

So much is right about this.

 

Needs to be a wet room style (i.e. invisible) shower tray, which is my preference anyway (we did all ours like this).

 

Floating vanity is gorgeous and minimalistic, but no reason you couldn't go heavier.

 

Also consider built in storage in the doorway wall (on your left as you walk in - above the toilet height) - I.e. thicken that first doorway wall and build storage in

[ProDave]

12 hours ago, richo106 said:

If that is where your soil pope for the WC is going to emerge through the floor then you are going to struggle to get the WC close enough to the wall.  Our downstairs WC is a close coupled type and the edge of the soil pipe connector is touching the wall, and it fits well with a standard rigid pan connector.  I cannot see how it would work  without forcing the whole pan and cistern away from the wall in your situation.

 

What is below that?  What can you change?

 

Though I generally hate them, I think the best bet to get the WC as close to the wall as possible is one of those long flexible pan connectors terminated at or below floor level.

 

Alternatively if all posi joists, then you could route the soil pipe to the other side of the room, if that is joisted differently that would allow you to get the pipe closer to the wall?

[richo106]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

If that is where your soil pope for the WC is going to emerge through the floor then you are going to struggle to get the WC close enough to the wall.

 

What is below that?  What can you change?

 

Though I generally hate them, I think the best bet to get the WC as close to the wall as possible is one of those long flexible pan connectors terminated at or below floor level.

 

Alternatively if all posi joists, then you could route the soil pipe to the other side of the room, if that is joisted differently that would allow you to get the pipe closer to the wall?

Unfortunately its joisted the same the other side, as this was my first build project joist locations wasn't considered and i just accepted the posi drawing that was given. Obviously this is just one of the many lessons learnt throughout the build.

 

My idea was to install a drain connector flush with the floorboards - https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-push-fit-single-socket-drain-connector-black-110mm/4255V?tc=OT2&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD8IdPyBDb62AI3EMbaFBjKf8DRXf&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvcHl257rjAMVdZJoCR3srxruEAQYAiABEgIW8vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Then a space saving swan neck pan connector - https://www.snhtradecentre.co.uk/product/mcalpine-90-degree-space-saving-pan-connector-wc-conq/

 

Will this allow me to get the toilet back to the level of the joist or so do you think?

 

Please my dodgy drawing below, I am hoping my green line will be the line of the tiled wall? Is this doable?

 

Certainly any other ways to do this would be greatly appreciated

 

[dpmiller]

we had similar to contend with, swan-neck did the job fine

 

 

 

[Spinny]

Couldn't you cut a section of the joist out and put a couple of trimmers in hung off the concrete block wall to create a gap for the toilet pipe wherever you need it ?

(Or can you not do this with posi joists ?)

 

Not keen on close coupled myself, much prefer the look of back to wall with a hidden cistern.

 

Looking at your layout again, I am not sure it is ideal to have the toilet opposite the basin. The photographed layout above looks better. I tend to prefer the toilet somewhat tucked away as it is not normally a focal point and is a possible source of hygiene risk.

 

Build a half height stud wall out across the end of the shower nearest the window, then turn the toilet through 90 degrees and back it onto this stud wall, conceal the cistern in the stud wall. Then have glass panel from above the stud wall up to the ceiling. ? (Would allow the toilet roll holder to be mounted on the wall then).

 

Then you could push the basin down towards the bath more. (Even connect it to the bath with some cabinetry creating  more storage and a longer counter top with a large mirror or mirror and shelves above for ornaments/pot plant ?)