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Renovating laundry and bathroom

Hi there,

We have an 80s double brick home with only one bathroom. We want to update our laundry to include a shower and renovate the bathroom, but we're not sure the best way to go about it.

In the bathroom, we have a bath/shower combo that we want to change to a free standing bathtub and a separate shower. In the floor plan image, the blue arrow is how we'd like the tub to be facing (with taps on the wall) and the X is where the shower would go. The vanity will also be replaced to go the whole length of the space it's in.

Floor plan of bathroom and laundry

Before we update the bathroom, we would need to update the laundry to include new cupboards and a shower. Currently there is a toilet (blue box by back door) and the X is where we think the shower should go. The door at the back is never used, so we're thinking of changing it to a large window. Do you think that would work? We want to replace the old style sink with something newer, and have the washer/dryer stacked to the left of the sink (taps and power point are here). At the moment, there's a big chunky wooden freestanding cupboard in the space behind the door (it stops the door opening fully) that we want to replace with a linen closet. We have high ceilings so big cupboards along the wall is an option

Tiles in both laundry and bathroom will be changed

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Jason

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @CurlyCatherine and thanks for joining in the discussion. We're looking forward to seeing how you can transform your laundry and bathroom.

Have you seen our new guide How to plan a bathroom renovation by experienced member @Adam_W? It should be a great resource for getting started.

Let me also tag some experienced members in @tom_builds, @RohanH, @housetohome, @prettyliving and @stelz for their thoughts about your plans.

The wonderful @EricL will also be more than happy to provide input when he is back on the site on Friday. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

It's great to have you join us and look forward to reading about all your other projects and plans for around the house and garden. We're sure you will get plenty of helpful information, advice and inspiration from our amazing community members.

Jason

tom_builds

Hi @CurlyCatherine, welcome to the Workshop!

And thanks for the tag @Jason

If you could upload some photos that would help us to provide even better suggestions. It would also be helpful to know if you're floor is above a concrete slab or stumps and joists.

I think that you would create a lot of value by turning the laundry into a combined laundry/bathroom as you intend to do. From my experience, especially with brick homes, adding additional plumbing fixtures can sometimes be a very involved job and therefore more expensive than doing so in a wooden framed house. The same goes for redoing drainage plumbing in a concrete slab as opposed to floorboards and joists.

That said neither of those tasks are impossible, it might just be worthwhile trying to group together as much of the plumbing as possible to save your plumber having to chase out big sections of brick to install new pipes.

Your plans for the bathroom seem spot on in this regard as the plumbing is all staying in the same parts of the room. In the laundry it might be easier to plumb a new connection from the existing bathroom vanity through the wall and placing the shower in the corner attached. I've altered your plan to give a better idea of what I mean.

Laundry and bathroom.PNG

I also like your idea of replacing the door witha window, which will make the room feel less like a thoroughfare which will be good for using it to shower (don't want people walking through to the backyard by mistake).

In terms of redoing vanities and sinks etc there are heaps of projects on here to gain inspiration from, I posted one myself not too long ago, here is the link for it Bathroom refresh

Hopefully some of this is helpful but feel free to ask follow up questions and we'll do our best to help you out

Cheers and good luck!

EricL

Hello @CurlyCatherine

Thank you for sharing your question about renovating your laundry and bathroom.

It's great that you've received excellent advice from @tom_builds. The suggestion of joining all the plumbing works in one go is very sound. It will certainly save you a lot of callbacks if you decide to move appliances out of their regular spots. Turning the other bathroom into a combined laundry and shower is a very practical idea. Due to space limitations, I had to move some of the appliances to accommodate the proposed layout. Below are my suggestions.

Combined Laundry and Bathroom:

Place the shower at the very end of the room to provide maximum shower space. Moving the shower to the center will not give you enough space between the washing machine cabinets and the shower enclosure.
Place the toilet at the entrance of the room. It puts the toilet out of the line of sight and maintains space for adequate use.
Using a mid-sized pantry prevents the room from looking too crowded.
I suggest a sliding door to maximize the use of the bathroom floor space.
I recommend a tall frosted window to allow ambient light in the shower.
A soap and shower nook for convenience.

Main Ensuite:

I suggest moving the shower to the current location of the vanity. This will maintain the balance in the bathroom and prevent the bath from blocking the flow of the bathroom.
Move the vanity to the left side of its current location. Since you have plenty of space, moving the vanity to this new spot will not have a big impact on your existing area. This also allows you to use the biggest vanity you can fit in.
Leave the toilet and bath in their current location. It is already plumbed and saves you from having to spend money having the facilities moved.
I suggest sliding doors for all the rooms to get full use of the bathroom area.

Aside from these suggestions, I always encourage renovators to use the best possible 3 in 1 bathroom heat-light-fan combo for excellent ventilation in the bathroom. I've made some basic drawings for you to see my suggestions. Please have a look and tell me what you think.

We look forward to seeing the start of your renovation.

Eric

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