It is easy to be seduced by the latest trends in bathrooms. Everything in the renovation and home design magazines looks so perfect – so beautiful, so spacious and so seductively shiny.
Before you become immersed in your new bathroom plan though, it is a good idea to ask your Sydney plumber for their input – about bathroom trends from a plumbing, rather than design, perspective. They know the essentials that will make your new bathrooms work well and help you avoid what can easily go wrong.
Plan or Pay the Price
It is easy to imagine the visual of your new bathroom…… the new bath, the toilet, tap ware and towel rails. But unfortunately, sometimes the practicalities may be a little bit more difficult, or a little further from reality than you imagine.
Plumbing is often difficult to move, and its reconfiguration can come at significant cost, if required. Fixtures can be expensive to replace if they aren’t suitable for the space.
So it’s clear that you need to consider the plumbing when planning your bathroom renovation. Without it, and failing to include your plumber’s advice in the process, you may find yourself paying for expensive rectification or redesign work.
Careful Measurements
As you plan your new bathroom it is vital you take careful measurements. There is no room for error with tiles or toilets.
The measurements you take will be used to ensure your ideal plan can work. Measure not only the floor space, but take careful note of the doors and any windows, plus the location of the current tap fittings and drains.
When it comes to Bathrooms, Size Does Matter
Small bathrooms don’t mean that you have to forego function or style. There are a range of options, such as corner baths, the shower-only, and toilets with concealed (in-wall, in-ceiling, in-duct, or under counter) cisterns that can give you extra space.
Cistern Considerations
Concealed cisterns, as well as being great space savers, also offer a neater, cleaner look and can reduce the noise of a flushing toilet.
Concealed cisterns are a trend in bathrooms, and are also practical from a plumbing perspective – as any qualified Sydney plumber can reassure you, access is not a problem when they are installed professionally.
The key theme here is to ask your plumber before beginning work on your bathroom, preferably in the planning stages. This is particularly so in the case of concealed cisterns, because an access panel is needed to be installed correctly – usually a large plate on the wall where the flush buttons are located. If the cistern is ceiling-concealed, no panel is required as access is via the roof cavity.
Simple, Practical Bathrooms
After you’ve measured and planned the locations of fixtures and fittings to fit the existing plumbing work, you can then enjoy planning the look of your bathroom.
The most important part of this is practical usability. Remember the bathroom is a wet room in the house that gets used every day, often by every household member.
As a high-use area it is important that you consider the practicalities of cleaning and usability. Will:
*There be adequate space to move around?
*Doors open freely?
*Towels be ‘in reach’ accessible from bath/shower?
*You be able to sit on the toilet without hitting knees on a sink, or bath?
*You be able to reach the toilet paper?
*The bath leave pooled water hidden, or floor areas inaccessible for cleaning?
*There be adequate ventilation?
*There be good lighting over basins, and at mirrors?
*The planned storage be enough?
*Any window be able to be reached and opened or closed?
When it comes to considering the practical side of bathroom plumbing trends, one consideration not to be overlooked is drainage. We’ve all heard stories of renovations gone wrong in which bathrooms flood, or water doesn’t drain away adequately.
It is always best practice to consult your plumber to ensure that your design is practical for drainage and ventilation considerations. Often their extensive experience working in bathrooms can highlight things you may have missed.
Bathroom Beauty
Bathrooms are no different to other rooms in the house – there is always a new style or trend in bathroom design. However, as we’ve illustrated above, this is one room where practicality, usability and layout need to be carefully considered before buying fittings, or beginning work.
It is essential you choose items, such as basins, baths and toilets, with a classic, lasting elegance about them so that you don’t feel appear ‘dated’ in a year or two. Simple elegant lines and surfaces are always easier to keep clean.
One of your most important assets when planning your bathrooms renovation is your licensed plumber. Here at JEDI Plumbing, our team knows bathrooms, and we know that when you fall in love with a dream first, sometimes you can be left to pay the price to make it work with extensive, expensive plumbing work.
If you’re on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and a bathroom renovation is on your drawing board for 2014, contact our friendly JEDI Plumbing to discuss the best options for your home, within your budget.
