I saw pics of this house I am thinking of buying and there is an old toilet and old sink vanity (which is very small). I want to move the toilet 2ft to the left which will make more room for a larger, newer sink vanity. My qu is can you move a toilet that far from its current position or will plumbing interfer? Thanks.
Anyone know of any websites that have a good sample of bathroom and/or kitchens?
I’m currently planning a bathroom renovation. I want to make the process as “green” as possible without sacrificing beauty. I have seen bamboo flooring before and I really would like to use it as the ceiling in my bathroom. However, I was wondering how it would stand up to the moisture. Is this a viable option?
We recently bought a co-op apartment in the outer borough of NYC. It has only 1 bathroom and is very outdated – we will be renovating it very soon. My fiance wants to get rid of the tub and just put a glass/tile shower in place of it with no tub. I am all for that but I am worried that having no tub in a bathroom will lower the value of our place when we do decide to sell it (probably in about 5 years…).
Is this true?
Are you sick and tired of the look of your bathroom and feel that it already needs a total facelift? If so, you are not alone and you are one among the many who wants a total overhaul of how their bathroom layout looks. The bathroom is perhaps the most neglected room in any home since a lot of households don’t think that the amount of time they spend there commands the investment of time and money on venturing into a renovation project.
The fact is, bathroom improvement is likely the ideal spot to start your renovation work for your home as you can achieve a new look with just a little creativity, a touch of elegenace and some basic construction skills. In case you are keen in renovating your bathroom, but don’t have any idea where to begin, you can do some research to learn the different options that are available.
If you are a newbie when it comes to renovation work, it may be wise to hire a professional builder to handle the job. There are a number of companies in Sydney who specialize in bathroom renovations so you can capture a modern design with a splash of technical innovation. Make sure you engage a reputable contractor with years of experience in the business. Weed out contractors with poor records or with vague and dubious feedback by looking up “bathroom renovation Sydney” or “home improvement Sydney” in the web which is probably the best archive of contacts with a good bathroom renovation company waiting at the end.
Once you have chosen your would-be contractor, it is important to check the validity of their licenses, insurance, and other essential credentials. Make sure who the references are and inquire about completed projects that are similar to your current one. You may contact previous clients and find out what they have to say about the work of your contractor.
Bathroom renovation can add a flair of contemporary home decor to your interiors and likewise add to its market value. A professional bathroom renovator can provide you a lieftime experience of sophistication and elegance. Most of these companies offer an in house design team who can help you design and customize your bathroom to accommodate your needs. Their services should not be limited and a good bathroom renovator in Sydney typically offers a wide range of professional services which include plumbing, electrical, carpentry, tiling, waterproofing, floor heating, brick laying, rendering, windows installation, etc. They can also provide great basins, tiles, lights, tap wares, vanities, sanitary wares, glass blocks, spas and all other bathroom fixtures and accessories.
Before you finally embark on your bathroom renovation venture, consider your budget and the time it would take to finish the entire project. You may dream of having gold taps in your bathroom but a quick reality check will tell you that the price tag is well beyond your budget. Moreover, if you are considering a total make over, the standard timeframe for a bathroom renovation is one month
Budget for bathroom renovation
How have you thought you could renovate your bathroom? Use external help or do it yourself? Renovation of a bathroom is often a neglected activity that gets shoved under the carpet for a variety of reasons. Budget is an important criterion that holds this back, as the amount that is normally required is not that low, and hence lot of people feel that a bathroom does not require to be renovated for an amount that they feel is not worth it.
Budget often becomes the first step towards a successful completion of any project, and bathroom renovation is no different. Adhering to the fixed budget and making sure you do not shoot more than fifteen percent of what has been planned is a key to the formula. Many house owners do not want to take care of the hassles associated with this work and hence outsource this work to a contractor. In such cases, there are a few steps that you need to be careful about. Make sure that the contractor has relevant licenses to carry out the activity. After this is ascertained, ask him to submit a quote with a detailed plan of work. This plan should contain stages for completion with dates clearly mentioned, which he has to adhere to. You can also ask him to submit the break up of the price quoted, which should clearly have details about the prices of materials to be used for the renovation.
Another option is ofcourse the self help option. This option is successful only if the work to be taken up is of a very aesthetic nature and does not require too much of construction activity. In such cases, you should make a list if items that you intend to change or repair, research on prices of different brands available in the market, choose good shops that offer you good deals and make the purchases yourself. Here, you can utilize a local laborer or plumber or even an electrician to do related jobs as piece meal. The biggest disadvantage in such circumstances is that since you are not an expert in such jobs, you might not be able to calculate the requirements to the correct level and end up ordering less than the actual requirement. This leads to shortage of materials which in turn holds up work. In these cases, since you pay the laborers on a daily basis, the wage bill might be higher than expected. Shoddy work can also be a result, as you might be taken for a ride by these plumbers or electricians.
If you have good knowledge about the materials required and places to shop these for, then it is a good idea to hand over the labor contract to a licensed contractor, while you take care of the purchases. This helps you keep the budget tight while ensuring that you do not have to deal directly with the workmen.
Since the purchase of our home six years ago the housing market has been booming in Toronto. The sight of a big garbage dumpster barely able to fit on the tiniest of front lawns always peeked our curiosity. What was the new home owner going to do to transform their 90 year old home? Everyone was renovating and spending a lot of money. Today we’re all facing some tough times and all those renovation projects are sitting on the back burner – so rather than renovating perhaps you should consider a quick and inexpensive lift to update a room. The bathroom is an easy room to transform until you’re ready to rip out some walls.
When we bought our house the woman who owned the house proudly stated “I just updated the bathroom, it’s new.” She was 90 and clearly lost all track of time because what she considered new, was new…in the 70′s. So needless to say we inherited a retro bathroom. Because we had to renovate the entire main floor of our house our budget did not allow us to renovate the bathroom as well so we decided we would give our bathroom a temporary face liftfor the time being.
For approximately $500 we were able to transform our bathroom from Retro to well, let’s just say it’s less retro. We still have the yellow tub and the avocado tiles so that qualifies as retro but we were able to update many of the other features which really made a difference.
The easiest thing we did was to paint over the wallpaper. Ideally we should have removed the old wall paper first but because this was supposed to be a temporary face lift we felt it wasn’t necessary to spend time doing that. We primed the walls and then painted them in a soft cream colour to make the room appear brighter. The original vanity was an orange and green swirl pattern laminate with a gold sink. We bought special paint (we chose a silver colour) to cover the laminate counter top and replaced the gold sink and gold toilet with a white sink and toilet, which will eventually be moved to the basement bathroom. The vaniety cabinets were originally an offensive dark brown colour so we primed and then painted it in a light cream colour, added new silver hardware and then embellished it with a small decorative medallion. For the floor we simply bought inexpensive vinyl peel and stick floor tiles and stuck them right over the existing floor. I bought a few new accessories and for the artwork I bought a silver frame from Ikea and used it for photos I had taken of my parent’s home town in Italy. It wasn’t the luxurious bathroom I was dreaming of but it was certainly a lot more liveable than it was before.
Six years later we still have not renovated our bathroom so our $500 went a long way. So if you’re in need of a bathroom renovation, a temporary fix or in our case a long term fix, just may be the answer.
Check out my blog to see photos of the before and after images.
Home renovation experts will tell you that a bathroom renovation is one of the best ways to add value to your home. Because more people are spending time in their bathrooms these rooms are becoming increasingly more lavish. By choosing to spend more money on bathroom vanities and faucets, you can make your renovation dollars stretch further and get a better return on your investment.
Whether it is warm and welcoming or streamlined and spa-like, a bathroom can make a statement about you and your personal style. Accessories can help but it is the structural elements of the bathroom that make a statement and it is these that you should be spending your money on.
Bathroom vanities are important for storage and esthetics. There have been a number of trends lately in bathroom vanities. Some of the most popular ones include dual sinks or vanities where the sink actually sits on top of the counter instead of being recessed. You might look at choosing vanities that look like beautiful custom made furniture and storage units that coordinate with other pieces of furniture that are in the room as well.
You want to make sure that the bathroom vanities you are choosing are beautiful and functional. They should have enough drawers and cupboards to store your items. Consider getting drawers that have organizers built in. This can be especially important if you regularly put make up on in your bathroom. Not having enough storage in bathroom vanities can be one of the biggest complaints many people have about the rooms in general.
You also need to make sure that you are choosing faucets that are functional as well as beautiful. Faucets can be found in a number of styles and are now being created with features that make them much easier to use. They can range from highly modern to beautiful and classic, and may be low and lean or high and arched.
Keep in mind that the style of the faucets you choose should coordinate with the other furnishings and elements in the room including ones used on the bathtub and shower. You don’t want ones which are very modern if all other elements in the room are classic. You want to choose good quality faucets that will not break down after only a short period of time. This does not mean that you need pay top dollar but you should pick a manufacturer with a reputation for making quality products.
When picking faucets, you need to know whether you need single hole faucets or widespread faucets. If you are getting one with a single hole, that means that the controls are on the faucet itself and it is all part of one unit. Widespread faucets have taps which are separate. If you are replacing the sink at the same time, you may have more choice but if the faucets are the only things you are replacing you may need to choose a different model but in the same basic style.
The right choice in your bathroom can mean the difference between adding value to your home and one which can actually cause your house to remain unsold.
The first thing in any renovation is to begin with a budget, and stick to it. After a budget is set, one must decide on how serious of a project the renovation will be. Surface alterations can be done fairly, when rearranging the layout of the bathroom, such as moving the toilet to a new location, will be more labor intensive, and need a contractor to move plumbing lines. A complete tear out is quite difficult as well as money and time consuming, but is sometimes necessary if several years of moisture has started to rot the bathroom’s framework.
Many bathroom renovations revolve around the shower or tub. For the do it yourselfer, installing prefabricated shower enclosure or tub is possible. The other option is a tiled shower or tub which includes building a frame from scratch, and is best left to a professional carpenter.
Installing a new countertop or benchtop can spruce up a bathroom as well. There are many popular styles and stones that are fairly easy to install. There is a wide range of countertops are available that you can consider while renovating your kitchen.
Cost of Bathroom Renovation
Depending on the degree to which you do them, bathroom renovations can be quite expensive. Much of the work may require to be sub contracted out and that makes for an expensive remodeling project, even though this is the smallest part of your home. There are some things that you can do, though, to save money on the bathroom renovations that you take on. Saving money can be done if you do the changes by yourself. But there are some things that cannot be done by yourself and need professional’s help.
With little research, you will find lots of reliable professional’s that help you in bathroom renovations in a cost manner. All you need to do is to go through their services & prices and find the right for you.
Adriatic Stone offers a fabulous range of options for all areas of home, including bathrooms and kitchens. Whether you are working on a new development of bathroom renovations, Adriatic Stone can offer huge array of creative ideas and quality surfaces.
I have a dual sink drainage issue. I am in near completion of our bathroom renovation. It originally had a dual sink vanity. Each sink had it’s own p-trap leading to the same drain. The configuration is exactly the same. I am not sure how it was before, but now, when the sink to the left drains, water comes up the drain on the right side. Same goes when draining on the right side, the water comes up the sink on the left.
“Each sink had it’s own p-trap leading to the same drain.” is a typo meant to type:
Each sink HAS it’s own p-trap leading to the same drain.