Your 9-Step Process For Creating The Ultimate Bathroom Makeover
As a homeowner, you will undoubtedly focus much of your attention on redecorating rooms like your living spaces, bedrooms, and the kitchen. You’ll even spend some time manicuring your garden and adding some kerb appeal to the front of your abode!
The thing is, some folks seldom pay much attention to ‘doing-up’ their bathrooms. If you’re guilty of neglecting your bathroom, and it has seen better days, now is the time to give it an upgrade. But where do you begin? These steps will help you give it a makeover:
1. Plan your bathroom makeover
Before you can get ‘stuck in’ with your bathroom renewal, you first need to plan everything. That means you need to think about what you want in your bathroom, where you want each item, and you’ll also need to consider things like tile and paint choices.
A bathroom makeover is an ideal time to swap things around, remove stuff entirely, or introduce new items not previously installed in your existing bathroom design. For example, you might want to move your bathtub to a different wall so you can create extra space.
There are bathroom design apps you can download and use on a tablet. If you’ve got a desktop or laptop computer, you could also use a program like SketchUp. Alternatively, you might want to have an architect or draughtsman create detailed drawings for you.
2. Purchase raw materials and bathroom items
Once you’ve visualised how your new bathroom is going to look, the next stage is to start buying the things you need to realise that vision. Buyings things like a toilet, bathtub, shower unit, and sink are easy to do.
However, you might struggle when thinking about the quantities of raw materials like plaster, cement and concrete, flooring, tiles, paint, and so forth.
If you’ve created some technical drawings of your bathroom, you can use the area information from the measurements as a starting point. Remember never to buy materials that only just cover specific areas – you need to allow for wastage.
3. Organise the use of temporary bathroom facilities
Before you start gutting the inside of your bathroom, you need to think about where you and your family will bathe or use the toilet during the work. If you’re lucky enough to have another toilet, you only need to worry about finding somewhere to use a shower or bathtub.
If the only toilet you’ve got is in your bathroom, you may need to invest in a camping toilet. When you need a shower or bath, where should you go? You could ask to use the bathroom facilities in a relative or friend’s home – or even a kindly neighbour!
Otherwise, it might make more sense to move out of your home and temporarily stay with someone else or at a hotel until the work is complete.
4. Hire a skip
Your bathroom makeover will generate a lot of waste, some of which you won’t be able to recycle or repurpose. As you can appreciate, many components in a bathroom won’t easily fit in the back of the car to take to your local tip.
That’s why it makes sense to look at skip bin hire and have a skip delivered to your driveway or outside your home. The best place to find a skip at the best price is to look for skip bin online this will enable you to get the best deal. This will ensure you and any contractors you hire can quickly dispose of any unwanted waste generate from gutting your bathroom.
5. Gut the inside of your bathroom
If you find therapeutic value in smashing things up, it’s going to be your lucky day when it’s time to gut the interior of your bathroom! There will be plenty of things that are quicker and easier to dispose of if they get broken up into smaller chunks.
You may also find that many tiles cannot be recycled or repurposed, and so it’s often easier to just ‘rip’ them off the walls than spending time attempting to remove them intact. It might shock you to discover just how quickly you can empty the entire contents of your bathroom!
6. Set the foundations for your new bathroom
Once you’ve got a blank canvas to work with, it’s time to start laying new pipes and electrical connections where necessary. You and whoever works with you must ensure everything gets aligned correctly at this crucial stage.
You would typically refer to your technical drawings to determine the placement of clean water and soil pipes, electrical wiring, and so forth. At this stage, you should also find out how best to vent your bathroom for avoiding the build-up of condensation.
Most homes have electrical extractor fans installed on a wall or in the ceiling. When you’ve done that, you can start plastering your walls and preparing your floor ready for its new flooring.
7. Install your new bathroom items
When all the walls, ceiling and floor get levelled, and all plaster and concrete is dry, it’s time to start installing your new bathroom items. It’s at this point where you’ll begin to see your dream bathroom turn into reality as everything gets fitted in their respective locations.
The process would usually start by painting the ceiling, installing your new lighting, and then tiling the walls. Once that gets done, you would then typically begin installing your toilet, bathtub or shower cubicle, sink unit, and other bathroom accessories.
You can try investing for water-efficient toilet models. Macerating toilets, also called upflush toilets, are ideal for bathroom remodels. They’re environmentally friendly because they use less water. If you’re thinking about changing your old toilet, an upflush toilet is worth considering.
8. Lay your new flooring
The time it takes to lay your new bathroom flooring will depend on your selected options. For example, a new vinyl floor won’t take long to install. But if you’ve opted for underfloor heating or floor tiling, the process will undoubtedly take longer to complete.
Once your new flooring is in place, it’s time to test and check that everything works. You may need professional safety inspections during the build process, depending on how much you’ve transformed your bathroom.
9. Enjoy your bathroom makeover
Lastly, it’s now time to enjoy the fruits of your labour! Your new bathroom is all ready to use, and everyday household life can resume as normal. Don’t forget to call the skip hire company to collect the skip once the work gets completed!
