Common Bathroom Renovation Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
For this blog, we teamed up with Adam Jenkinson from Banana Bathrooms to go through common bathroom renovation mistakes and pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Adam is the Director of Newcastle based Bathroom Renovation company Banana Bathrooms. Banana Bathrooms was founded back in 2016 by Adam, who is a fully licensed Kitchen Bathroom Laundry Renovator and Plumber. In 2022 Adam and his team renovate over 100 bathrooms a year across the Newcastle region, so they come across all sorts of situations!
Adam says renovating a bathroom is a stressful and challenging renovation project. However, with proper preparation and research, the rewards for you and your family can be tremendous.
“Many inexperienced renovators often run into the same issues leading to delays, additional costs and an underwhelming finish.”
TILES: La Riviera Botanical Green Wall Tiles (can be found at Tile Warehouse)
Here are Adam’s insights and eight common bathroom renovation mistakes, and tips on how you can avoid making them yourself.
1.) Not Being Adequately Prepared
When renovating, it’s essential to have a plan. Without a plan, mistakes can happen! It doesn’t matter what your space is; a plan will help you precisely determine what you need to achieve your ideal space.
Please do your research by reading blog posts on expected budgets, how long it takes to renovate a bathroom, the stages of a bathroom renovation etc, so you know what you’re going to be in for.
2.) Mixing Your Style
Adam says it’s essential to understand the style you are trying to achieve and what materials, colours, and textures will best compliment your chosen style. It’s also vital to consider your existing home’s overall look, feel, and style and whether your new bathroom will complement or detract.
3.) Getting The Layout Wrong
Each bathroom reno will have different needs and purposes depending on who uses the space. For example, families need lots of storage and wall space for towel rails and a bath for the kids. Conversely, elderly clients may need easy access to showers and baths or more room to move around freely and quickly access regularly used products.
The layout design is a personal decision and varies significantly from one client to another. No one size fits all but consider your electrical, plumbing, and lighting needs in this phase.
4.) Not Enough Storage
The key is smart storage combining both eye-level storage and under-bench storage that will give you a home for everything you need to store without swallowing up too much precious space in your bathroom. Look to incorporate different-sized drawers in your vanity to accommodate items of various shapes and sizes. Recessed mirrored shaving cabinets with shelves are also great for all those daily products you use, don’t forget generous towel rails, and recessed wall nooks for extra storage.
5.) Waterproofing Failing
If you take one thing out of this article, says Adam, let it be this. Don’t skimp on your waterproofing!
Waterproofing is one of the most common significant defects that cause damage to your property. It’s so common that Fair Trading has now classed waterproofing as structural works, and any failure to the waterproofing is now classed as a structural defect.
You don’t want to get through your significant bathroom investment only to rip it out due to a waterproofing defect.
6.) Inadequate Ventilation
The old bathroom fan can often be overlooked in your bathroom renovation’s bigger scheme, specifically, buying an appropriately sized fan. Without proper ventilation in your bathroom, humidity gets trapped in the enclosed space, which is the perfect breeding ground for mould and mildew. Mould and mildew degrade paint, grout and metal, along with a host of adverse health side effects.
7.) Cheap Fixtures & PC Items
Adam says cheap bathroom fixtures will show their wear within 6-12 months, sometimes quicker in large families. Quality will always serve you well in a bathroom as the fixtures are touched and handled multiple times a day by all household members. Choose the best quality finishes on tapware and fixtures you can afford.
8.) Unrealistic Budget
According to Adam, many people don’t spend enough time researching the costs before starting a bathroom renovation, causing setbacks like skimping on fixtures, making sacrifices on design, or, worst case, not finishing the bathroom.
Banana Bathrooms recommend adding a buffer of about 10 per cent to the budget to pay for any unexpected costs that crop up during work.
TILES: Bracca Bianco Bathroom Tiles (can be found at Tile Warehouse)
There you have it from one of Newcastle’s best bathroom renovators!
You can read a more in-depth version of this article over on the Banana Bathrooms website; Common Bathroom Renovation Mistakes.
Adam and the Banana Bathrooms team love designing and building bathrooms using new and innovative products to turn your bathroom dream into reality. They take the time to get to know you personally so they can provide and suggest the best products to achieve your dream bathroom. They’ll give you a personal and custom Bathroom Renovation to your exact needs and taste!
Don’t forget to check out a selection of our Bathroom Tiles, or visit our Warners Bay showroom for our full range with thousands of tiles on display.
