This article shows how ukbathroomguru added an en-suite to a dormer bedroom in Guisely, Leeds.

“Beforehand, the website’s detail about the process, plus a thorough and accurate quote, made clear what the project would involve.

“Chris and his team – Jay, Seth et al – were polite, informative and professional throughout.Intuitive about our requirements, they offered suggestions where appropriate, while never imposing ideas upon us. Work was carried out without fuss and the room professionally cleaned on completion. Would definitely recommend.”

Introduction

This is a case study which shows how we can add an en suite to your bedroom in about 2 weeks with everything taken care of from start to finish:

  1. Free site survey to assess feasibility of plans & design formation
  2. Free itemised, written quotation & plans for submission to the council as required
  3. Installing the en suite, which consisted of the following trades
  • Scaffolding & waste disposal
  • Building work – replacing UPVC windows to suit the new layout
  • Joinery – for building new stud walls, hanging doors & fitting skirting / architrave etc
  • Plastering
  • Painting / staining woodwork
  • Plumbing
  • Wall & floor tiling
  • Electrics (lighting, electric towel radiator & extractor fan in this example)
  • PLUS – liaising with building control throughout the process to ensure everything gets signed off and supplying all necessary materials from our local suppliers as needed eg tiles, bathroom suite items, doors etc…

Essentially, everything you need from start to finish, all starting with free site survey.

Value

5% is the amount the addition of a well-designed en suite could add to a property according to Nationwide Building Society. This equates to £10,00 on a £200,000 house – significantly more than the cost of installation.
Therefore, adding an en suite could be a worthwhile iNVESTMENT in the long run AS WELL AS making your life better during your tenure of the property.

Permission

To add an en suite you shouldn’t need to apply for planning permission but you should apply for building regulations approval from the local council.

This will ensure that any new electrical wiring, windows, ventilation or drainage all comply with building regulations (though many electricians self-certify their work). At the end of the work, you will be issued with a completion certificate which you may need when you come to sell your house.

Feasibility

The existing plumbing & the space available will be the main factors in determining whether you can have an en-suite, but there are other factors such as lighting and ventilation that should also be considered.

All of these things and more are covered in my free guide to adding an en suite, and I assess all of these factors and more during my free site survey.

Planning

We worked with the customer to produce a plan that would give them everything that they would want and would also function correctly and meet all legal requirements.

We planned to block off the corner of this dormer bedroom to create a nice square(ish) en suite consisting of a toilet, handbasin, shower enclosure and electric towel radiator, whilst also changing the window for one that had obscured glass for privacy.

We worked closely with our local bathroom suite supplier to ensure all suite items would fit correctly and would not clash with each other when installed.

Similarly, we ensured that the sloping ceiling would not interfere with users stood in front of the basin or WC, or with users getting in and out of the shower enclosure.

Basically, everything was planned out on paper prior to the customer purchasing anything so they could be confident that everything would work when completed.

This en suite was approximately 1.5m x 1.9m, and made use of the houses’ existing drainage. This was possible as it was sat directly above the house bathroom so all necessary plumbing connections were (relatively) straight forward.

PS The minimum space required for an en suite consisting of a shower enclosure, basin and toilet is approximately 0.8m x 1.8m.

Please see here for a small en suite example.

Installation

The space was first cleared, and the wrought iron railing removed so we could build a wall in its place.

Studwork was built to define the en suite from the bedroom.

The new wall intersected the existing window in the middle of a large pane of glass.

We planned to replace this large window with 2 smaller windows.

One featuring obscured glass would go on the en suite side of this new wall, and a larger window featuring clear glass would go on the bedroom side of the wall. This took some careful measuring & up front planning!

Luckily we have the expertise and local supplier knowledge to carry out jobs of this nature. Ordinarily, we would have fitted this window 1st but co-ordinating the joinery, plumbing, scaffolding and lead times of the window manufacturers meant we had to be a bit creative in the way we carried out the work in this instance.

The old window frame was removed…..

….and the new frames fitted.

Here you can see the finished result from the outside featuring obscured glass for privacy within the en suite section of the window.

We built out a section at the rear of the en suite to conceal a wall hung frame for the WC which would also serve to conceal the waste pipework for a neater finish.

This pipework was run through the eaves and joined up to the drainage pipework outside.

The positioning of the WC, shower & basin was double checked prior to final installation to make sure there was enough space in practise as well as on the plan. Small micro adjustments could have been made at this stage if required and it’s always best to check.

For example, we could have swopped this 800x800mm quadrant tray for a 760x760mm quadrant tray, and procured a short projection WC wall hung pan (if the gap between the WC & shower enclosure was thought to be a bit too tight.)

The remaining studwork was then insulated & plasterboarded ready for skimming. Above you can see all the electrical wiring for the light switches, sockets and electric underfloor heating.

Walls were skimmed externally….

….and internally. You can also see that we have prepared and tiled the floor with underfloor heating beneath.

An electric radiator on a simple timer was installed behind the door, so the customers’ towels would be nice and warm for their daily shower, whether the central heating was on or not.

An extractor fan was added to take moisture out of the en suite to comply with building regulations in the only place it could do in this particular instance.

The basin was custom made/selected to make the best use of the space.

We essentially sourced and supplied an undermounted basin from our local supplier and dropped it into a custom shaped piece of oak worktop (from another local supplier), onto which we attached the mixer tap. We combined this with a chrome bottle trap and painted the underside of the basin to complete the look.

This allowed us to fit a basin against an awkward wooden purlin that would have made 99% of all other basin options either project too far out into the room or have their taps clash with the purlin above when the basin unit was sat flush back to the wall behind. A rather inventive solution to a potentially difficult problem!

We chose to curve one corner of the oak ‘base’ to ease the flow of users past the basin to the shower / WC.

An 800 x 800mm quadrant shower enclosure was added to the corner of the room and the size of this enclosure was carefully considered at the outset when designing the space. (Essentially it was the maximum size that allowed us to fit a standard sized (2 foot) door alongside it, whilst also maintaining access to the WC.)

PS The enclosure featured a sliding door so we didn’t have to worry about a door that opened out into the en suite which could have been problematic.

We fitted a removable wooden cill on top of the WC ‘shelf’ for maintenance as well as….

Custom cut mirror fitted over WC

…..a large custom cut mirror over the WC which served to bounce the light around the room and make the space appear much larger than it actually was.
We can install custom cut mirror to most shapes and sizes and can look great when used creatively as here.

The final view from the bedroom looks like the space has always been there, thanks to the careful design details such as reinstating the original skirting salvaged from the corner of the room and staining all new woodwork to match the existing woodwork as closely as possible.

Summary

2 weeks, < £8K, project managed en suite installation in Leeds from start to finish with all the bits in between taken care of:

  • No having to find all the different trades required: window fitter, plumber, then a tiler, a separate electrician and joiner, oh and also a plasterer / painter…..
  • No having to manage & communicate with all these trades to bring your plan to fruition (as well as liaising with local building control)
  • No need to find all the independent suppliers required: waste disposal, scaffolding company, bathroom suite retailer, tile supplier, UPVC supplier, oak worktop supplier, joinery supplier, underfloor heating store, glass supplier……
  • Ability to pick suite items from a local showroom (for personal choice without overwhelm)

Anything else?

If you have any questions or thoughts about this article or any others, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

Chris