Things to Consider Before Plumbing a Bathroom

Although often overlooked, plumbing is an essential part of a home. Whether building or renovating, there are many things you need to consider before you see your dream bathroom come to life. Here’s a quick checklist of a few of the most important things to ensure that your bathroom project runs smoothly:

Budget
Like with any project, figuring out how much you’re willing to spend as well as how much you can spend (the absolute maximum or upper-limit of your budget) can be very helpful. It gives you an opportunity to separate your costs and allocate them to things like: labor, fixtures, tiling, paint, and a few added extras for decoration and finishing touches. It is important in this stage to decide what expenses are essential (such as hiring a professional plumber to make sure that everything works and there will be no problems later on down the line) and to allocate a larger percentage of your budget to those.

Hiring the Best
As with anything in life, those with expertise just do it better. Hiring a professional can mean a fully done bathroom with zero to little flaws, fully functioning fixtures, and in accordance with all laws without you ever breaking a sweat.

Although DIY is often encouraged for those who are on a tight budget – it’s probably more realistic for both your skills and sanity to hire a professional as sometimes even the most basic bathroom changes can become complicated tasks. You can definitely take control of the style and design features, painting and installing simple fixtures like towel railings; specifically avoid the more dangerous and difficult tasks like plumbing, electrical and waterproofing.

Layout
Figuring out what you want your bathroom to look like and drawing up a preliminary or rough layout before you start renovating can help you keep your vision on track during the build phase, when things can get very overwhelming. Hiring professional contractors and plumbers to help you plan your layout is a good idea – they will know what works and what is possible in terms of space, size, structure, and location of your bathroom.

Keeping enough space for doorways, fixtures, and storage will be one of the things they’ll help you do. Accurate measurements also tell you what type and size of fixtures would be best suited to your bathroom and give you direction when shopping for fixtures. Hiring a professional plumber will also ensure that your bathroom meets all building codes and conforms with the existing plumbing in your home.

Planning
Although it may not seem like it, remodeling a bathroom can be a lot of work and can take longer than expected. This is why it is crucial to plan ahead for all circumstances. Simple things such as making sure that there is always a bathroom available for your family and the contractors in the house will make your life much easier in the long run. Hiring professional contractors and plumbers can ensure accurate and realistic planning so that you can structure your real life around your build.

Planning can also include making a problem list – which again can be well directed by a professional. Be it leaky, corroded piping, badly vented plumbing, old plumbing that no longer satisfies building regulations or just wanting to move fixtures to more convenient places; problem lists can help ensure that everything in your new bathroom is fully functioning and problem free.

Even though bathrooms seem like small rooms – they are often mammoth tasks to renovate. Taking it a step at a time and addressing these few steps before the builders pull everything apart will make the job a lot easier to handle and will take you one step closer to your completed dream bathroom.