Floor reinforcing for new bath

[Jason]

Hi all, i am planning to remove my downstairs bathroom ( to extend kitchen) and put it upstairs taking some space out of one off the rooms do i need any additional floor reinforcing for the bath? cheers

[Tony Bryer]

Highly unlikely: domestic floors are designed to take a load of 1.5kN/m2 (30lb/ft2). Typically the floor area next to the bath is as big as the bath and has next to nothing on it, so you're looking at an area of (say) 5'6" square x 30lbs = 907lbs safe load. Weight of empty bath + 30 gallons of water (300lb) + you (??) is hopefully a lot less than this.

If you're considering a big circular bath in the middle of the room and multiple occupancy ;) then a check on the strength of the floor would be wise.

[Dave]

Id would make sense to have a couple of bits of timber to spread the point load from the feet across several joists. I put some 44x44 battens round the walls to support the rim and some 3x2 (mixed units!) across 3 joists for the feet. Probably OTT but you only do it once (hopefully).

Dave

[nightjar]

I felt happier putting 20mm x 100mm planks under the feet, to spread the load over as many joists as possible.

Colin Bignell

[Mike]

The building regs actually say all will be fine if you simply double up the joists underneath the bath. No calcs or anything needed.

[anon]

I'll be replacing a bath soon and wondering it if will be a good idea to use some surplus Rockwool insulation around it to keep the water hoter for longer - anybody ever done this?

[Rob Morley]

I've wondered if it's worth putting a horizontal radiator made from a load of copper tube under the bath so it's still being heated after it's been filled.

[Ian Stirling]

I think not. Without doing any sums, I think the vast, vast amount of heat loss is going through the top, where the water surface is.

A closed tightly sealed 'bath curtain' might make a bit of difference.

[Chris McBrien]

Not so much reinforcing as load spreading. My metal bath + water + 200lb of me made the floor boards bend very slightly causing the bath edging to crack. The floor boards ran East to West so I put two 4" x 2" timbers under each pair of bath feet but in the North South direction so as the spread that load over more than one floor board. End of problem.

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