Service
Bathroom Modernisation
The bathroom is the room where a house shows its age fastest – and the one where modernisation brings the most pleasure. We take on everything: strip-out, pipework, waterproofing, tiling, sanitary fittings, lighting. With no interfaces for anyone to hide behind afterwards.
Starting point
Typical starting points
Most of the bathrooms we convert are thirty to fifty years old. The tiles and sanitary fittings are what you see – what matters is what lies behind them: pipes, drains and the build-up of the floor. That is why every bathroom conversion with us begins with a survey of what is there, not with a catalogue.
- Climbing into the high bath gets harder every year, and a level-access shower is to replace it.
- Tiles and fittings date from the 1980s, and nobody knows what condition the pipes behind them are in.
- It is the only bathroom in the house – and it needs converting while the house remains lived in.
Service
What we take on
A bathroom involves half a dozen trades. With us they run through one point of contact and one schedule.
- Measured survey and inspection of the existing fabric – pipes, drain positions, wall and floor build-up.
- Strip-out back to the shell, with dust protection towards the rest of the home.
- New pipework for water, waste and electrics, tested before the walls are closed.
- Bonded waterproofing under all tiled surfaces, documented before tiling.
- Tiling, sanitary installation, lighting and decorating through to the finished surface.
- Disposal of the bath, old tiles and rubble.
- Final handover with you in the finished bathroom, with a test run of every connection.
What matters
The waterproofing under the tiles
Tiles and grout are not waterproof – the layer underneath is. The bonded waterproofing is applied to floor and walls, reinforced with sealing tape at the corners and closed with a collar at every penetration – drain, tap, pipe. After tiling it is invisible, and that is exactly why it is the most expensive mistake you can make in a bathroom: whoever has to rework it starts again from the beginning.
With a level-access shower, the fall comes into it as well. Screed, waterproofing and drainage channel have to be set out on the same plane and to the same fall – and that is planned before the first box of tiles arrives at the house. Whether a level-access shower is possible at all is decided by the position of the existing drain pipe; we check that too before quoting.
And since the walls are open anyway, one decision belongs on the table that costs almost nothing: building in reinforcement where grab rails or a seat might one day be fitted. Today that is a few boards in the wall – after tiling it would be a second conversion.
Convert once, for the next twenty years
A wider door, reinforced walls, a level entry – during a conversion these decisions cost little. Later, they cost a second bathroom conversion. If you are modernising anyway, we plan in what will matter in ten years at the same time.
That is decided behind the tiles: the condition of the pipes, the position of the drains, the extent of the strip-out – and only then the fittings. Two bathrooms of the same size can therefore end up far apart. After the survey you receive a quotation with fixed line items, not an estimate by the square metre.
For a complete bathroom in a detached house, allow three to four weeks. There is little room to shorten that – screed and waterproofing need their drying times, and skipping them builds in the next damage. You receive the schedule before work begins, week by week.
Then we plan an interim arrangement before work begins – usually a temporary WC and somewhere to shower elsewhere in the house. A bathroom conversion in an occupied home is never entirely without compromise, but with a clear plan it stays manageable. We discuss this before the quotation, not on site.
Let’s talk about your project.
The initial consultation is no-obligation. If we are not the right partner for your project, we will tell you so.
Daniel Braun
Your point of contact
When you call or write, he is the one you reach. He takes down what needs doing and gets back to you – even if the answer is that we are not the right firm for the job.
Your enquiry has arrived.
Daniel Braun will get back to you within 24 hours on working days. If it is urgent, simply call him directly: 0176 / 43 888 723.
What happens after your enquiry
- A reply within 24 hours on working days.
- A short phone call – is the project a good fit for us?
- An on-site visit with a building survey.