Adding an En Suite to a Space Without an External Wall

All work completed by ukbathroomguru.com

We recently added a small en suite to a house in Boston Spa, Leeds.

The plan

We intended to add an en suite into the corner of this customers master bedroom.

We planned to build 2 x new stud walls with a chamfered corner to define the space, which would contain a toilet, basin, radiator & shower.

A chimney breast (that could not be removed as it was in use) made the job slightly more complicated than normal as none of the new en suite would be situated against an external wall, and this made running the drainage pipework a bit tricky.

The work

Once the plans were agreed, tiles and suite items were chosen and a start date was set…..

We started by erecting timber studwork to define the space.

Before we finalised the exact position of the studwork we assembled all of the suite items and checked how they would fit into the space (in addition to the drawn up plan above.)

We always do this with very small en suites to check that shower doors will not clash when opened, basin doors will swing open and not hit the toilet, users can sit on the toilet without banging their knees on the corner of the basin cabinet etc.

If we discover a small problem at this stage we can address it by adjusting the studwork or suite positioning slightly.

In this instance, we chose to move the door frame nearer to the edge of the basin to give a bit more room for the radiator on the other side of the door.

We had to install drainage pipework under the floorboards to drain the shower & basin to a rainwater hopper outside.

We also drilled a hole through to the bathroom next door behind the position of the toilet.

This would enable us to take the soil pipe around the chimney breast and outside to the existing soil pipe to make a new connection.

Above you can see the two drainage pipes that come from the house (the old one on the right serves the house bathroom toilet, and the new one to its left serves our new en suite toilet)

The drainage pipe was then neatly boxed in.

Walls were insulated once all cables and pipework was installed to reduce sound transmission……

…..and plasterboarded ready for plastering.

You can see where we’ve left a gap to add a small window to add a little bit of natural light which is important in a room with no windows.

An alternative approach here would have been to fit a suntube though this would have cost a lot more money.

Walls were plastered and 2nd fix joinery was carried out (fitting doors, skirting, architrave etc).

Walls were then painted with emulsion on the bedroom side and an anti mould bathroom paint internally.

The floorboards were covered with plywood and the edges sanded flat prior to…..

A sheet vinyl floor being glued down and skirting boards fitted.

The shower are was tanked prior to tiling.

Light, white ceramic tiles were chosen to keep the look clean and minimal and to bounce light around the small space.

The en suite design featured a small yet functional corner basin vanity unit which would serve to provide some storage for bits and bobs.

It also hid all of the necessary pipework required for the drainage.

The corner WC was fitted as it fitted the available space better than a standard toilet.

A large custom cut mirror was fitted above the toilet, which (combined with three LED spotlights) served to make this small en suite nice and bright, despite not having a source of natural light.

Here you can see that good planning and checking of suite items when originally building studwork, prevented problems that could have be overlooked e.g. the basin doors clashing with the toilet.

Finally, the enclosure was added….

….and the electric shower was fitted.

This would ensure that if the homewoner’s boiler broke down she would still have a source of hot water.

We sometimes recommend this approach when adding en suite showers.

The electric towel radiator was also fitted at this time and allows users to hang their towels at arms reach from the shower.

A simple timer operated the radiator in the bedroom.

Here’s the final before & after picture, with the original carpet rolled back & refitted.

Timescale

A job like this would normally take approximately 1.5 weeks for me and my team, and in this instance there was a lot more work to do than normal in getting pipework, cabling and ducting to where it needed to be!

Cost

A job like this is likely to cost £5-6K including:

• Planning / designing the room
• ALL of the work from start to finish i.e. ALL labour & materials (see below)
• Project management as standard
• Waste disposal
• All necessary completion certificates
• Building control fees & liaising with building control officers

How we helped this customer (and could maybe help you)

Even when installing a small en suite such as this, many trades(men) are required:

• Labourers / builders to knock down internal walls & support as necessary
• Plumber to fit pipework for the new en suite and position / fit suite items as required
• Tiler to prepare & tile the walls
• Carpet fitter to refit the bedroom carpet up to the new en suite & fit the vinyl floor in the en suite
• Plasterer to prepare & skim the walls & ceiling ready to be painted
• Painter to paint the newly skimmed surfaces
• Joiner to build the stud-work, hang the door, fit the skirting & architrave etc
• Electrician to fit the ceiling spotlights, an extractor fan & an electric radiator.

That’s 8 separate trades for one tiny en suite! (though there is always some crossover between the trades)

More importantly though, these trades all need someone (the lynchpin) in charge to plan & pull the whole project together.

Thats exactly what we do – project managed bathroom & en suite installations from start to finish.

Thanks for reading, ask me any questions you may have…..

Chris