Remodeling a bathroom can be fun, especially if you have the foresight to prevent any hiccups along the way. You have the opportunity to make choices that affect not only design but functionality for the foreseeable future, so you want to make sure you get it right.
Luckily, the pros at Home Forever Baths have over 100 years of combined experience in bathroom remodeling and have seen it all. Here are a few mistakes they’ve seen over the years that will be helpful to keep in mind, whether you’re going DIY or hiring a contractor.
Forgetting the Fan
Bathroom fans are not just a pleasant amenity: they’re important to reduce humidity during and/or after bathing or showering. If your bathroom doesn’t currently have a fan, or if your current fan or the pathway behind it isn’t functioning optimally, don’t overlook this crucial aspect of your remodel. Without proper ventilation, your new bathroom will be looking the worse for wear much sooner than you’d like. Mold can develop in places seen and unseen, wood can warp, and some adhesives can come undone.
If you’ve got a fan but you’re not sure about its effectiveness, hold a piece of toilet paper up to it while it’s running. If it’s working well, the toilet paper will be held up against the fan by the airflow. If the toilet paper falls down, your fan will need attention.
Incomplete Plans
The Scottish poet Robert Burns said, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray,” but in the case of a bathroom remodel, definitely make sure you’ve got a tightly-composed plan before you begin. Especially if you’re relocating fixtures that involve plumbing, make sure you’ve already drawn out your plan and made sure that it leaves plenty of clearance. Building codes require minimum distances of clearance on the front and sides of a toilet, for example, and if you want to enjoy using your new bathroom, you’ll want to make sure you’ve left plenty of space for every feature to be comfortably accessible.
This goes doubly for shower doors and the door to the bathroom itself. Many DIY-ers have installed a beautiful new vanity only to discover that the bathroom door now opens right into it! If you are dealing with a smaller bathroom and would like a solution that doesn’t require leaving space for a door to swing, consider installing a pocket door.
Unrealistic Budgets
While we all want the best bathroom we can afford, it’s important to remember that we need to be able to afford it in the first place! Some people try to do a $20,000 job with $10,000, and it ends up requiring cut corners as the budget runs out. Some of those corners could be a pretty big deal and lead to trouble down the line.
Bathrooms are also some of the most volatile spaces in the home. During demolition, it’s not uncommon to discover problems like rotted joists, rusted pipes, or mold behind the wall. For that reason, it’s a good idea to establish a firm budget, then limit yourself to 80% of it as you draw up your plan. That will leave an additional 20% for solving any problems that come up along the way.
Not Fixing Problems as They Arise
An uneven tile or wild paint brush strokes might feel like something you can deal with later or learn to live with, but the best approach is to take care of them right away. It only gets harder as the project moves along, and if you can see it, someone else can, too.
Unnecessary Layout Changes
While it might seem refreshing to move fixtures around the bathroom, keep in mind that removing or building walls and rearranging plumbing is going to significantly increase the cost of the project. It might also turn out that your new layout creates problems in negotiating the space that you didn’t foresee. If you’ve been unsatisfied with the current layout of your bathroom, by all means you should consider switching it up. But if things are working well now, don’t change things just for fun.
Professional Bathroom Installation with Home Forever Baths
For more complicated installations, we’re here to help! Call Home Forever Baths today for a free consultation about a bathroom remodel in Northern Illinois. We are an official dealer of stunning, long-lasting Kohler fixtures and accessories, and we have what it takes to quickly install a new bathroom that will last a lifetime.
