How Much Do Wet Rooms Cost?

Let’s start with the value a wet room can add to a home. Say £10,000 according to a recent study. Then work back from that because it all depends on so many elements like the size of the space, sanitary ware, toilet, basin, what fittings you choose, how stylish and cool you want it to look – the wow factor.

Prospective purchasers of a new home seem to base a significant impression on just two rooms – the kitchen and the bathroom. We can understand that as a bathroom invokes a time for relaxation and recharging; a wet room that looks great will appeal to a buyer than an average family bathroom.

What Makes A Great Wet Room?

The beauty is in the detail, as with so many other things in life. For example, you want your wet room to have a shower area on the same level as the rest of the floor space, with beautifully tiled floor and walls that encompass you in a clean, stylish design. A common shower tray and cubicle ruins the aesthetics of your bathroom.
Glass panels without ugly supporting metal frames allow the eye flow through to take in the stylistic lines. Carefully engineered floor slopes and grout lines ensure that water from the shower does not get near the rest of the bathroom or fittings like towel rails and clothes hooks.

Linear drains that run parallel to the shower wall can appear almost invisible and are a joy compared with the ugly grating in the middle of the floor underneath where you stand. That level of attention to detail is what makes the difference between average and superb. For a hotel, this level of detail is what can attract repeat business.

What’s The Price Range?

It’s reasonable to assume that a starting cost will be in the region of £5,000 and the upper end totally depends to a large extent on the size (think floor and wall tiles at about £50 per square metre).

Specialist Labour Is Essential

Like any construction project, labour is one of the biggest cost elements – probably the biggest. You want to engage an expert and experienced team because a wet room is a specialist installation. A space within a home or a hotel where a high level of water flow is present, does require a high standard of care to install. At the basic level, it has to be fully and robustly waterproof with adequate tanking and flexible membrane to protect the fabric and structure of the building it inhabits. The last thing you or your client want is to have sneaking concerns about leaks and damp. Go with a top quality installer. It’s basically insurance against disappointment.

Using Kits & Fittings From Wet Room Materials

We supply wet rooms systems that are of the highest standard. Our expert installers ensure trouble-free installations, and we also supply materials and components to self-installers. You can browse our product range here.

Why not download our free eBook The Architects Wet Room Design Guide which answers many questions about the special features of our wet room systems and why we should be on your go-to list when considering wet room specifications and installations.

Important update to the NHBS Specifications 2018

Backing surfaces for tiling should;

• Be moisture resistant, where frequent wetting occurs 

When Tiling; 

• Proprietary water-resistant grouting should be used in accordance with the manufacturer 

Grouting should be: 

• As specified in the design including mix and colour 
• Cement-based, epoxy resin or a proprietary product 
• ‘Waterproof in and around shower enclosures and where tiling can be saturated’. 

Gypsum plaster should not be used where; 

• ‘Repeated or persistent wetting may occur’