5 Great Challenges You’ll Face During Any Bathroom Remodel (And How To Solve Them)

5 Great Challenges You’ll Face During Any Bathroom Remodel (And How To Solve Them)

 In a home renovation, the bathroom is often subject to a sharp intake of breath from project planners, labourers and homeowners alike. It goes without saying that a bathroom remodel is one of the more challenging aspects of renovation, fraught with challenges and potential disaster.

In this post, we’ll draw on some interior design expertise to outline how you can solve these issues during the remodel, leading to a stress-free new bathroom for any type of property.

Challenge #1: Dodgy plumbing

It’s not unreasonable to expect that the previous owners’ plumbing work isn’t the best, so you should prepare for a longer-than-expected bathroom remodel if some pipes are leaky or rusty.

Make sure you budget for these setbacks and they won’t be nearly as annoying when they arise mid-project with half a bathroom torn out and a family’s home life totally upended.

Challenge #2: Damp, mould and horrors untold

A large percentage of the UK’s housing stock is very old indeed. 20% of homes in the UK were built before 1919, so it follows that such homes might have some issues with damp after standing proud for 99 years or more.

Ground floor bathrooms might suffer from rising damp, which seeps up from groundwater – but they’re more likely to suffer from damp resulting from some less-than-perfect plumbing following almost a century of use.

For your bathroom remodel, you should first wipe up any mould with bleach-based spray, then think about ventilation solutions such as a more powerful extraction fan (if your bathroom doesn’t have a window, common in some converted Victorian terraced houses) or even some anti-damp sealant that’ll banish the problem for the long term.

Challenge #4: A drainage disaster

An improperly fitted drainage system can make the above problem a whole lot worse, and is often the source of great plumbing peril. An aesthetic upgrade to a bathroom can be ruined by an old shower drain blocked up with decades of hair and other detritus, so your first port of call is to unblock and clean, as this may well give it a few more years of use.

If you have to replace the whole bathroom drainage system, make sure you have a professional in to do it properly. This will ensure that the process happens a lot more quickly and disruption in the home can be massively reduced. A proper drainage system is a cornerstone of a damp-free, hygienic home – so don’t do it on the cheap.

Challenge #5: Being unrealistic

Your dream bathroom might be a luxurious, spacious affair with plenty of indulgent touches. However, you might end up having to compromise with regards to space, as bathrooms, especially in older houses, tend to be on the small side.

Some bathroom supply companies have started to use AR smartphone apps so that potential buyers can visualise exactly how that new toilet or whirlpool bath will fit in the bathroom, solving this problem. However, for now, a foolproof option is measuring out the whole space and working out the ergonomics of everyday use, so you’re not left with a new bathroom that’s awkward to navigate.

 Once these challenges have been addressed, you’ll be free to embark upon a bathroom remodel that’ll leave your clients with a superb, long-lasting and functional part of their home.

Author bio:

Moosa Adam works at 1 Click Bathrooms, the UK’s online one-stop shop that helps homeowners build their dream bathroom piece by piece.

from The UK Construction Blog http://ukconstructionblog.co.uk/2018/11/30/5-great-challenges-youll-face-during-any-bathroom-remodel-and-how-to-solve-them/