Interior Renovation and Bathroom Installation

A Victorian bathroom in Tunbridge Wells

The client wanted the existing space ripped out, the plumbing reconfigured, every wall reinsulated and plastered, and a completely new suite with a flush shower tray, a repositioned toilet and radiator, and tiling throughout. As with many Victorian houses in the town, the walls were warped, the ceiling uneven and the internal structure in poor shape.

Work began with a full rip-out, then plumbing and electrics were rerouted to suit the new layout before plastering and tiling. Despite the structural problems, the job was completed in just under three weeks, finishing with smooth walls, balanced lighting and a clean monochrome palette.

A ground-floor wetroom in Maidstone

The Maidstone clients had collected six quotes from builders who would not take on the structural and plumbing requirements. The room was cold, poorly insulated and unsuitable for a wetroom as it stood. It was hacked back to brick, structurally altered and rebuilt as a fully insulated wetroom with smart upgrades, over four weeks.

That project is a useful reminder that a wetroom is a building job as much as a fitting job: falls, waterproofing and drainage all have to be designed in.

How a wet room is installed

A wet room is a fully waterproofed bathroom with an open shower area: no tray or enclosure, with the whole floor tanked and laid to a gentle fall towards a drain. Because there is no tray to catch mistakes, the order of work matters more than in an ordinary bathroom.

The survey comes first. It checks whether the floor is timber or concrete, whether there is enough depth to form the fall, which way the joists run (the drain has to work with them, not against them) and where the existing waste and soil stack are.

On a timber floor the old boards come up, joists are checked and strengthened where needed, and a rigid plywood deck goes down, because tanking and tiles cannot cope with a floor that flexes. A concrete floor is usually simpler: it is levelled, cleaned and primed.

• Point drain: central, with the floor falling to it from every side
• Linear drain: a channel along one wall, so the floor falls in a single direction and is easier to tile
• Wall drain: set into the wall at floor level for the cleanest look
• Tanking across the whole floor and up the walls, taken to full height in the shower zone
• Tiling and finishing only once the waterproofing is complete

What a full installation includes

Whether the finished room is a family bathroom, a shower room or a wetroom, the stages are the same. Skipping the early ones is what leads to cracked tiles, cold rooms and leaks later.

• Full strip-out and inspection of walls, floor and ceiling
• Replumbing and electrical changes for the new layout
• Insulation and replastering where the walls need it
• Tanking or waterproofing in wet zones
• Tiling, suite installation and finishing

Coordinated trades

Bathroom work on this site is described as coordinated trades for seamless results. In practice it means the plumber, electrician, plasterer and tiler work to one plan, so nobody tiles over pipework that has not been tested or plasters before the cables are in. A review from Tonbridge describes a quote within 24 hours and a team that left everything clean every evening.