The bathroom is the room with the highest technical content per square metre in a home, and the one that tolerates mistakes least. Because it is a wet room, a defect is paid for late: the wrong fall, missing waterproofing or a poor joint does not show immediately, it appears months later on the ceiling of the flat below.
For that reason we treat a bathroom renovation first as a waterproofing and plumbing job, not as a visual refresh. Tiles, taps and furniture come second. The first stage is getting the floor, the wall bases, the fall to the drain and the routing of the pipework right.
The sequence matters because there is no going back. Once the tiling is done, the only way to reach the layer beneath it is to take a newly finished bathroom apart. That is why we close no layer without checking it.
Bathroom Renovation: What the Service Covers
The following items are included as standard in our Bathroom Renovation service. Every item is listed separately in the quotation prepared after the site visit; nothing is left vague about what is and is not included.
- Removal of existing tiles, furniture and sanitaryware
- Renewal of supply and waste pipework
- Pressure test and leak check
- Electrical circuits, socket positions and mechanical ventilation
- Liquid-applied or two-component waterproofing
- Screed, fall to the drain and drain integration
- Floor and wall tiling, grouting
- Shower tray or concealed channel drain, glass enclosure installation
- WC, washbasin, tap and bathroom furniture installation
- Lighting, mirror and accessory installation
Bathroom Renovation: How We Work
- Site visit and survey: The size of the bathroom, ceiling height, drain positions and the material of the existing pipework are established. We specifically ask whether there has been any damp or staining in the flat below; that is the most reliable information available about the state of the current waterproofing.
- Layout and selection: The positions of the WC, washbasin and shower are set. If a drain is to be moved, the achievable fall is calculated in advance. Tiles, taps and furniture are chosen from samples.
- Strip-out and pipework: The pipework is renewed after the strip-out. Before the lines are closed, the system is pressurised and the pressure confirmed to hold. No wall is closed before that test passes.
- Waterproofing and screed: Waterproofing is applied to the floor and the base of the walls and left to cure. The screed is then laid with a fall towards the drain, and the fall is checked with a level.
- Tiling and installation: Tiles and grout are applied, followed by the sanitaryware, taps, glass enclosure and furniture. Silicone details are done last, on dry surfaces.
- Testing and handover: Drainage, watertightness, ventilation and lighting are tested. The room is cleaned and handed over with its guarantee documents.
Bathroom Renovation: Conditions Specific to Antalya
Three local conditions in Antalya bear directly on bathroom work. Material and detail decisions follow from them.
Hard water and limescale
The mains water hardness is high. Limescale builds up quickly on taps, shower heads and water heaters. Shower heads with silicone nozzles have an advantage because the scale breaks off mechanically; on taps it is the body material rather than the outer plating that matters. The lasting answer is a water softener at the incoming main.
High summer humidity
In a bathroom without mechanical ventilation, mould in the grout and silicone is inevitable — that is a design problem, not a cleaning one. We plan an extract fan as a standard item even in bathrooms with a window, because in summer opening the window does little more than bring the outside humidity in.
Flats that stand empty for long periods
If the property is unoccupied for part of the year, the water in the drain traps evaporates and drain odour enters the room. Where that is the pattern of use, a dry trap or an odour-barrier solution should be specified; leak detection with an automatic shut-off valve is also worth considering.
Bathroom Renovation: Common Mistakes
These are the decisions we meet most often on site and the hardest ones to put right afterwards. We go through all of them during the site visit.
- Skipping the waterproofing. This is the most expensive mistake and it gives no sign at all in the short term. The leak travels beneath the tiles, saturates the screed and then shows on the ceiling below. At that point the new bathroom has to come out entirely and the neighbour's ceiling has to be repaired as well.
- Tiling over the old tiles. The floor level rises, the door undercut disappears, the condition of the existing waterproofing cannot be seen, and any problem travelling underneath is simply covered over. It is only worth considering in bathrooms with new pipework, known waterproofing and a suitable floor level.
- Setting the fall by eye. If the fall towards the drain is insufficient, water pools on the surface; if it is too steep, the shower tray and glass enclosure will not sit properly. The fall should be checked with a level at the screed stage and tested with water before tiling.
- Leaving sockets and switches until later. Mirror lighting, a hairdryer socket and the supply for a shower toilet all have to be planned before the walls are closed. Every circuit added afterwards means either a surface conduit or breaking newly laid tiles.
- Treating ventilation as optional. In a bathroom without an extract fan, moisture collects at the base of the walls and in the grout. Within a few years that returns as regrouting and redecoration. Ventilation is as fundamental as the design itself.
Bathroom Renovation: Material and Detail Notes
There is no single right answer in material decisions; every option has a strong and a weak side. Below we summarise those differences in terms of real use rather than marketing language.
Tile format
Large-format tiles reduce the number of grout lines; the surface reads as a whole and is easier to clean. In return they are far more sensitive to how flat the substrate is and demand more skill to lay. In small bathrooms, carrying the same tile across floor and wall removes the boundary and makes the room feel larger.
Grout and silicone
Standard cement-based grout is porous and stains over time. In a wet room, epoxy grout is markedly more resistant to staining and mould. In bath and shower corners, however, the joint should be flexible sanitary silicone rather than grout; otherwise it cracks as the structure moves.
Shower solution
A shower tray is simpler to install and carries a lower watertightness risk. A level-access solution with a concealed channel drain gives a far more open result and is better for accessibility, but it requires the fall and the waterproofing detail to be faultless. Where the floor level allows it, it is worth choosing.
Sanitaryware and taps
A wall-hung WC leaves the floor uninterrupted, which makes cleaning easier and the room look bigger; the concealed cistern needs sufficient wall depth. In taps, cartridge quality matters far more than the external appearance; in hard water a poor cartridge starts dripping quickly.
Bathroom Renovation: Engineering Note
In a bathroom the most critical item, from an engineering point of view, is the layer no one will ever see. Waterproofing applied correctly is never noticed; applied badly it takes months to surface, and the cost is not limited to the bathroom. That is why we do not confine it to the floor: we carry it up the base of the walls and, in the shower area, to a defined height up the wall itself. The second critical matter is the fall to the drain, which is set at the screed stage rather than at tiling, and cannot be corrected afterwards. The third is the request to move a drain — relocating a wet room is not always possible, because the new route may not have the level difference needed to achieve an adequate fall. We calculate that before moving to design, and if it cannot be done we propose an alternative layout.
Bathroom Renovation: Pre-Handover Checklist
Every item below is checked before handover and the results are shared with you. If one item is outstanding, we do not hand over.
- Pipework pressure test carried out, pressure held
- Waterproofing applied without gaps to the floor and wall bases
- Fall to the drain tested with water, no pooling
- Tiled surface checked for hollow spots and level differences
- Grout and sanitary silicone details complete
- Glass enclosure and door swing direction checked
- Extract fan and ventilation working
- Sockets, lighting and earthing measurements complete