How to plan your bathroom remodel
Bathroom remodels have become one of the hottest and most profitable types of remodels that homeowners are doing today. Not only are there a multitude of fun choices that you can make for your bathroom with a little careful planning you can make your investment of time and money pay off big in the value of your home. Yet whether you are looking to simply upgrade your bathroom or completely install a new one all design experts recommend beginning your remodel with some careful planning. So here is what you need to know about how to plan your bathroom remodel-
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- Begin with a written plan-This should include: where the door is, where all the window(s) are placed, all water connections, where the electrical points are and
- where you presently have lighting. Also you need to include full room measurements.
- Inspect the existing bathroom thoroughly-You may want to begin with the floor. We have all come to understand a lot about bathroom hygiene in the last decades and people are enthusiastically ripping up bathroom carpets all over the country in favor of a solid heated floor and maybe using a washable bathroom rug. While you probably don't want to start lifting up your old bathroom carpet until you really begin work, you do want to find out what there is underneath it! You may be pleasantly surprised in finding original wooden bathroom flooring that you can clean, seal, tint or paint and finish. Be sure to check and see if the tiles and grouting are sound. You can whiten grouting and replace the odd tile if you can find the same ones or you may consider replacing them with one of the many wonderful options available today. Next take a look at the sink. Ask yourself-Do you already have a reasonably nice white bathroom suite installed? Is the sink generous enough? If you are happy with the sink you may only have to apply water tight sealant around it. If you having to do a complete bathroom makeover this is a great opportunity to have a specialist check out all of your electrical connections when they are rewiring for any changes and lighting additions you want to make, and make sure that the changes come up to bathroom wiring code. After checking the floor, the walls and the fixtures, you can begin focusing on the design aspects of the bathroom.
- Now that you know what you are working with you have to decide if you are happy with the location of each fixture or if your available space can be better used by moving something around. In addition if you have a small bathroom, it is also a good opportunity to investigate the possibility of augmenting your bathroom's size. Keep in mind though that no matter how appealing that taking away a small bedroom to make a bigger bathroom (especially if you only have 2-3 bedrooms) will not increase the value of your house. It is also important to note that the cost of your bathroom remodel will go up exponentially depending on how many fixtures and the accompanying plumbing you decide to move. By using the bathroom floor plan you have already drawn it can help you decide if you really need to move anything and find out how you can make your design plans come to life.
- Once you have decided on the "bones" of your remodel then the fun decisions come into play. This is where you can choose colors, accessories and add-ons to your new bathroom. Design experts recommend using few colors in the actual bathroom fixtures (preferably shades of white or cream) and using one or possibly two strong colors as your theme colors. Theme colors would be mainly used in your accessories; this will help bring your bathroom decorating idea and theme together.
