Bathroom Fitting & Renovation in Horsham

Bathrooms are small rooms with a lot going on in them: plumbing, electrics, waterproofing, ventilation and tiling all inside a few square metres, where every mistake is visible and most of them are expensive to put right later.

What a bathroom renovation involves

• Strip out — suite, tiling and flooring removed, and the room taken back to the substrate so what is underneath can actually be seen
• First fix plumbing — new pipe runs and wastes set out for the layout you want, not the one the previous owner had
• Electrics — lighting, shaver points, extractor fan, and underfloor heating if you are having it
• Waterproofing — tanking to wet areas, and boarding out
• Tiling — walls and floor, set out from the most visible corner
• Second fix — suite, shower, screen, taps, radiator or towel rail
• Sealing and finishing — silicone, grout, decoration and clean

The step people underestimate is the second one. Moving a WC or a soil connection is straightforward if it is planned before anything is boarded, and awkward and costly afterwards. Decide the layout first.

En-suites and wet rooms

En-suites are usually about drainage and ventilation more than space. If the new room has no external wall, the extractor needs ducting properly and the waste may need a pump. Both are solvable; both need designing in.

Wet rooms are a level-access shower area with the whole floor tanked and laid to fall. Done properly they are excellent — easy to clean, no tray, no enclosure to leak. Done badly they are the single most expensive bathroom mistake there is, because failed waterproofing does not announce itself until it is coming through a ceiling. The tanking, the falls and the drain position are the job. Everything else is finish.

Accessible and level-access bathrooms

If a bathroom is being adapted for someone with limited mobility — a level-access shower in place of a bath, grab rails, a wider door, a wet room floor — it is worth knowing that Disabled Facilities Grants exist for this work. They are administered locally, through Horsham District Council with West Sussex County Council, and are means-tested but can cover a substantial share of the cost. It is worth checking before you commit to paying for the whole thing privately.

Ventilation and damp

Almost every bathroom problem that gets blamed on damp is actually a ventilation problem. Building regulations set a minimum extract rate for a bathroom, and an extractor that is undersized, badly ducted, or vented into a loft rather than outside will produce mould on the ceiling within a year however good the tiling is.

It is a small part of the cost and one of the few decisions that determines whether the room still looks good in five years, so it is worth getting right rather than getting cheap.

Electrics in a bathroom

Bathroom electrical work sits in defined zones, and what may be installed in each zone is restricted by the wiring regulations — this is one of the areas where the rules are strict for good reason. Work of this kind is notifiable under Part P of the building regulations, and you should be given a certificate for it at the end.

As with any trade, ask your builder directly who does the electrical work and whether they are registered. It is a reasonable question.

Timescales and living with it

A full bathroom refit means the room is unusable for the duration, and if it is the only bathroom in the house that needs planning around. We will tell you before we start which days the water is off, and we sheet up and clear down daily — it is the thing customers comment on most.

Areas we cover

Bathroom fitting throughout Horsham and West Sussex, including Broadbridge Heath, Southwater, Billingshurst, Storrington, Pulborough, Steyning, Crawley and Chichester.

Get a quote

Send us a few photos and rough measurements, tell us whether you are replacing like for like or changing the layout, and we will come back to you.

Bathrooms are often part of a bigger job — see home extensions and kitchen fitting, or have a look at recent projects.