go on, what do you all think? i'm trying to convince the husband that our teeny bathroom would be better as a teeny-but-extravagantly-fitted-out bathroom, and i suspect the best way to convince him would be if it added a sensible amount on to the value of the house.

by 'value' i mean purely in terms of cash, not the value of the house as an example of midvictorian architecture updated sympathetically for the modern middle classes, also representing a paradigm shift in the current social climate as opposed to that of 130 years ago.

thank you all.

as an afterthought, how much does one have to spend to completely replaster, retile, refit, reshower and resuite a small terraced house bathroom?

Oh definatley!

If we're looking at houses, my mum goes off the house straight away if she doesnt like the bathroom.

I'll ask her how much she spent to do ours, but it looks so much better!

If you can't afford the full suite, and if its in alright condition, maybe you could just repaper/paint and retile?

Oh definatley!

If we're looking at houses, my mum goes off the house straight away if she doesnt like the bathroom.

I'll ask her how much she spent to do ours, but it looks so much better!

If you can't afford the full suite, and if its in alright condition, maybe you could just repaper/paint and retile?


we can afford the whole bunch, thanks to a small grandparent-death-related windfall. i figure it's better to enjoy a legacy than store it up just to add to a handout for your own relatives when you die!

i'm with your mum on this one - a gross bathroom makes you feel kind of dirty. apparently kitchens and bathrooms are largely what sells a house...

Bathroom and Kitchen are the two main points that sell a house.


My mom was an estate agent for a few years and i have watched enough property programs.

Also another thing to maximise the potential in ur property, if u have a 3rd bedroom that you use as a study, try and dress it so it shows it can be used as a 3rd bedroom, no matter how small it is. People need to visualise the potential, dont presume they will do that cos they wont :thumbsup:

i haven't looked so not 100% sure if there is anything on there but look on channel 4's website, there might be something on there as most of the property programs are on channel 4

Good luck :thumbsup:

Agree that bathrooms and kitchens really sell houses. It's cos' the prospect of ripping out either room seems to be hellish in mess, time and expense. When actually the expense can be covered in adding value to the house.

If you see a horrible lounge when viewing a house you just think ' a lick of paint and it will be fine'.

Bathroom and Kitchen are the two main points that sell a house.


My mom was an estate agent for a few years and i have watched enough property programs.

Also another thing to maximise the potential in ur property, if u have a 3rd bedroom that you use as a study, try and dress it so it shows it can be used as a 3rd bedroom, no matter how small it is. People need to visualise the potential, dont presume they will do that cos they wont :thumbsup:

i haven't looked so not 100% sure if there is anything on there but look on channel 4's website, there might be something on there as most of the property programs are on channel 4

Good luck :thumbsup:

i'm glad you agree about the kitchen and bathroom thing, but i'm not actually wanting to sell the house at the mo, just convince the husband that a really nice bathroom is an investment and not just an extravagant luxury
:D

go on, what do you all think? i'm trying to convince the husband that our teeny bathroom would be better as a teeny-but-extravagantly-fitted-out bathroom, and i suspect the best way to convince him would be if it added a sensible amount on to the value of the house.

by 'value' i mean purely in terms of cash, not the value of the house as an example of midvictorian architecture updated sympathetically for the modern middle classes, also representing a paradigm shift in the current social climate as opposed to that of 130 years ago.

thank you all.

as an afterthought, how much does one have to spend to completely replaster, retile, refit, reshower and resuite a small terraced house bathroom?

My bathroom is small and ws really getting on my nerves, i had it totally refurbished which made it look bigger for about £3000 it looks amazing and never get tired of looking at it.

Also Kitchens will add money to a property Had that done last year Still needs tiling and the floor doing though

I've read that the kitchen and the bathroom is kind of a social point, and a luxury place in today's housing. So, if you want to sell, these points will draws people in to buy your place.

I've been costing a bathroom for a while, it can easily cost up to 2-3k alone. Yes. Quite pricey for what it is. I don't think it's the materials that are costly, but the manpower that's required to do the job. If you can do partial tiling, and leave the rest of the tiling to a proper tiler may reduce some of the costs. (That's a tip from someone on the SF, which I find useful too. It's too expensive to pay such lump sum at once.)

Good luck in getting yours sorted. It can be a bit of a hassle.

hi you could be talking at least £5000 in value or yrs of pleasure which is worth more .when are you thinking of getting it done my husband and partner are bathroom fitters with 15 yrs of experience they do the whole package done a few jobs for ppl on here .we can come and give you a quote and maybe help with design we can fit ppl in from october

My bathroom is small and ws really getting on my nerves, i had it totally refurbished which made it look bigger for about £3000 it looks amazing and never get tired of looking at it.

We did the same thing for about the same amount. I get tired of looking at ours after about 25 minutes of solid looking so maybe you got a better deal.

P.S. definitely pays for itself in terms of value if you are planning to sell in the short term.

Sorry to disappoint but as far as I`m aware the only sure fire way to add value to your house (in terms of getting it back in the value of the property) is to add rooms/floorspace, or land of course but this isn`t usually practical.
My wife and I are looking for a house at the moment and things like a nice bathroom/kitchen are exactly that, nice, but no more. Our attitude is you can change the decor, what we`re more concerned about is the things you can`t change. The latter being ;
1 Location
2 Size of the rooms AND THE GARDEN.
3 Potential to extend the house if required, preferably without having to use
a flat roof (which are an abomination).

I ripped out the brown bath, green basin and loo and blue tiles (dont ask!) from mine when I first moved in...got a plain white suite from b and q, with power shower and accessories like towel rails etc.the cost including tiling and fitting and all the new electrics for the shower came to around £2500 all in (including replacing the floor covering). all i had to do was paint the walls! (replastering a small room completely will be around £250 depending on the tradesman)
enjoy your new bathroom!

We are looking at houses and found that although we are looking at bathrooms (and kitchens) we are only put off when they look really manky, meaning that we feel that we would not like to be in the bathroom/ kitchen. If they are okayish then we think we can replace it in due course and could live with it in the first few months.
But when we put our house on the market we were told by the estate agent that the new bathroom in our house added to the value of our house.

Don't think it adds much if any value to the house, but it may make it easier to sell. Obviously it'll be much nicer for you to live in as well. You spend a lot of time in there (all of us I mean!) so if it has a 'hotel quality' feel then it is a big plus.

This is especially the case in small terrace houses (like a lot in Sheff formed by shrinking the original bedroom 2) the bathrooms are often very small and if you can re-design it so it makes best use of the space (smaller suite, big mirrors, good lighting etc so it looks bigger) then that can really help. If I'm looking at a house with a top-notch bathroom then it gets a big tick.

The guide price for a bathroom suitable to the property always used to be about *licks finger and sticks it in the air* 5-10% of the property value. This is part of the reason why we are all happy to spend silly quantities of money on such a room. A terraced 2-up 2-down is now worth in the ballpark of £100k in Sheffield - warranting a bathroom of £5-10k :shocked:

When we first contemplated returning to Sheffield, you could get one of these places (in the wrong part of town) for £6k - equating to £600 for a bathroom, and not worth bothering to refurbish really.

If you do some canny shopping, you'll find you can add significantly to the saleability of your house - though going OTT on the fixtures and fittings will be money 'lost' if you exceed the expectations of the 'market' for your area/street. (so no solid platinum taps, and marble sinks ;) )

Luckily, with the current interest in upgrading bathrooms, the prices of 'luxury' fittings have plummeted, and even wetrooms are no longer the preserve of the wealthy :) (though I hate those, coz the water gets everywhere :roll: )

Have a rummage round ebay for unused bargains from the over-ambitious DIY set :D

Improved bathrooms and kitchens help sell a house but they do not add value. i.e. if you spend 3k on a bathroom it will add 3k to the value of the property. It may however sway a buyer over to making an offer on your property. However, this is within reason, if you spend 10k on a bathroom with, for example, handmade tiles or something equally as lavish you will not get 10k back.

It depends what your motivation is. When are you planning to sell? If it your forever house then who cares... lavish it anyway you please. If you are planning to sell in 10 years or so, any improvements you make now might need redoing before you sell.

Also, the rest of the house should all be done to the same standard. If you are a buyer looking around a house with an amazing 10k kitchen but the rest of the house is just OK, you are left thinking yes the kitchen is amazing but the rest of the house needs work to bring it up to scratch. You should always aim for a sense of continuity as this is what makes a home. People aren't buying an amazing room, they are buying a home unit.