Walk-in shower, Widnes
Bath out, level access in. A 1970s semi where the bath had not been used in years: the soil connection moved, the walls tanked, a low-profile walk-in shower fitted and the room retiled floor to ceiling in large-format porcelain.
The project in photographs
What the job involved
The owners had a full-size bath they had stopped using and an over-bath shower that was awkward to climb into. Neither of them needed level access yet. They wanted it while they were still choosing it, rather than while they were coping without it.
We took out the bath and the boxed-in pipework, moved the soil connection around 400 mm to suit the new layout, tanked the walls and fitted a low-profile tray with a 1200 mm fixed screen. The room was retiled floor to ceiling in large-format porcelain, with a thermostatic mixer and a heated towel rail on the return wall.
- Soil connection relocated 400 mm
- Walls tanked before tiling
- Noggins added beneath the tray
- Thermostatic mixer and heated towel rail
Moving a soil connection is the point at which a bathroom job stops being cosmetic. Waste needs a consistent fall, and the further a pan or a tray moves from the stack the more carefully that has to be set out. Where a project alters drainage or forms a new connection, it is worth confirming the position with building control before work starts: the GOV.UK guidance on building regulations approval sets out when an application is needed.
What we found once the floor came up
Two things turned up that were not visible at survey, which is normal in a house of this age and the reason we price a contingency rather than pretend nothing will.
Joists reinforced
The joists beneath the old bath had been notched for a waste run, deeper than they should have been. We added noggins between the joists and packed the notched sections before the floor went back down.
Waste reset
The old waste had been running at a shallower fall than it should, which the previous owners had lived with as a slow-draining bath. Since the connection was moving anyway, it was reset properly rather than reconnected as found.
Walls tanked
Full tanking behind the tray and up the wet wall before tiling, so the large-format porcelain sits on a sealed surface.
The finished room
The tray sits flush enough that there is no real step, the screen is fixed rather than hinged so there is nothing to swing into, and the towel rail went on the return wall where it is reachable from outside the shower rather than from inside it.
Large-format porcelain was chosen partly on looks and partly on grout lines. Fewer joints across a floor that gets wet means less to keep clean and fewer places for water to find a way through. The floor tile carries a wet slip rating rather than being picked purely on how it looks dry.
Nine working days on site, start to finish, with the room usable again on the last of them.
Thinking about the same change?
Fitting a wet room or walk-in shower is one of the more common jobs we take on around Widnes. We look at your room, say what is realistic, and put a written scope together before anything is lifted. Materials and workmanship carry a twelve-month guarantee, and we hold £1 million public liability insurance. Level-access bathrooms start from £4,700 as a guide.
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