Changing around bathroom

[Séan Connolly]

In our new house, the bathroom (1.78, x 1.78m) has a rather awkward layout. The bath is to the left of the door and the sink to the right (the trapper is at the back right). This prevents the door from opening inwards enough for the user to get in. Currently the door opens outwards which is fine and dandy, but if you're coming up the stairs and the bathroom door opens, you'll probably find yourself at the bottom of the stairs again rather quickly...

The obvious (to me) solution is to move the bath to the back of the room so it lies along the back wall and move the toilet to the front left and leave the sink where it is. Now I know nothing about plumbing so I'll get someone to do it, but how difficult would something like this be to do ? The piping at the moment runs around the side of the room and is boxed off, and the room has floorboards which I presume you could run pipes though as well. Is it possible from a plumbing point of view to have a toilet that doesn't sit on an outside wall ? Would it be a rather expensive job to do ? The bath is a normal size bath (matches the smallest width that b&q do), so getting a smaller bath doesn't seem to be an option.

Any ideas ?!

[Rob Morley]

So fit a sliding door.

[Séan Connolly]

hmm, did cross my mind, I don't think it will go with the rest of the house though (1930's semi)

[Owain]

Have you considered a tapered bath? They're at lot narrower at one end (usually the 'foot' end, as most people are narrow at feet and wider at shoulder).

You could also think about having two half-width doors opening inwards, with a rebate on the meeting edge.

Owain

[graham]

You will be surprised.

Forget places like B&Q.

Find a local company that specialises in doors.

They should be able to find you a door that is suitable to the period of the house.

We recently had a new bathroom fitted. I wanted a single sliding door that consisted almost entirely of non pattern frosted glass.

Although we didn't use them in the end, I found a useful company on the net:

example:

[Rob Morley]

My 1930s semi has a sliding door to the bathroom - it's just the original door hung on a rail, and I don't think it looks particularly out of character.

[Séan Connolly]

Thanks, I'll look into it :)

S

[Séan Connolly]

What about the architraving ?

[Dave Jones]

A) Is it possible to move the door to the left or right? Would give you more flexibility.

B) Bath on back Wall, sink to the left on toilet on right would easier, depending on soil pipe.

C) Fit a Macerator to the loo and put where u like, costly though.

D) Get a bathroom fitter round and ask his advice.

[Rob Morley]

Covered with thin strips of wood to bring it out to the new door position, but it's very plain anyway so you don't really notice the difference. If you have ornate architrave mouldings I can see rhat it might look incongruous.

[Séan Connolly]

Yeah, they are so it would look out of place imo.

[Séan Connolly]

Having looked around b&q that does seem a good option (less hassel)

As it stands with the current suite that wouldn't work, but as the bath is knackered anyway replacing it and having split doors is an idea...

[Séan Connolly]

Due to the location of the sink & loo either way the door wouldn't open enough to let a person in. Allthough a smaller sink, tapered bath might help in this respect.

This is my prefered solution depending on the cost of fitting a new suite. tbh it needs a new suite anyway so getting it located right now before we move in makes sense.

eeek! Costly sounds bad !

Allways a good plan, but I like to get other peoples opinions first as I know little to nothing about plumbing. Forewarned is forearmed etc

[Owain]

Before fitting a Macerator, look at the uk.d-i-y FAQ Humour section on S*n*f*o

AFAIK such things are not allowed to be fitted to the only WC in a house, so if you don't have another cludgie you wouldn't be able to use one anyway.

Owain

[Séan Connolly]

Very good :) Although the expanding foam incident is hilarious.

[<me9]

They could also be arranged to fold to one side.