Can I move the toilet or put a shower where the bath was?
The biggest mistake I see is people picking out their tiles, shower and fittings before anyone's properly looked at the plumbing. In plenty of older houses around Cork, someone wants to move the toilet to the opposite wall or put a big walk-in shower where the bath used to be.
That's grand, but we need to see where the existing pipes and waste outlets are going first. Moving a toilet isn't always straightforward, particularly if we can't get the proper fall on the waste pipe.
Will my water pressure run the shower I want?
People spend good money on a fancy rainfall shower and then discover they've barely enough pressure to run it. I'd always check the water supply first.
Electric or mixer shower?
An electric shower heats cold water as it passes through, whereas a mixer shower uses your existing hot and cold supplies. If you've a gravity-fed system with a tank in the attic, you might need a suitable shower pump to get the performance you're expecting.
For an electric shower, we'd need a Registered Electrical Contractor to check the electrical supply and carry out the electrical work.
Should the towel rail run off the heating?
A lot of homeowners want a heated towel rail connected to the central heating, which is fine. Just remember that if the heating is off during the summer, that towel rail generally won't get hot either.
I'd often suggest looking at a dual-fuel model with an electric element, so you can dry towels without firing up the whole heating system.
Why does waterproofing matter before tiling?
It's the one thing I wouldn't compromise on. Proper tanking around the shower needs to be done before tiling, because tiles and grout alone won't keep water out.
What order should the trades come in?
Once those lovely new tiles are on the wall, the last thing anyone wants is me coming back with a hammer to get at a leaking pipe.
Get the plumber and electrician involved before the tiler. Decide where everything is going, check the water pressure, get the pipes installed and tested, and make sure the waterproofing is right.