A dated family bathroom stripped back and completely rebuilt into a modern, practical space — completed in just under three weeks with minimal disruption.
Mrs Sherborne had been putting up with the same bathroom for over twenty years. The suite was avocado green — original to the early 1990s — and the room felt cramped, poorly lit, and tired. She wanted a fresh, clean space that was easier to maintain and felt more like a modern family bathroom. She also wanted a proper walk-in shower rather than the old bath-shower combo she'd been working around for years.
The room itself is a good size, but the layout wasn't making the most of it. Our job was to rethink the layout, handle all the plumbing and tiling, and hand back a bathroom she'd actually enjoy using.
We started with a site visit to measure up and talk through exactly what Mrs Sherborne had in mind. She'd saved a few ideas from magazines and had a clear picture of the finish she wanted — large format grey tiles, chrome fixtures, and a clean, minimal look. That made it straightforward for us to put together a materials list and quote.
Day one was the full strip-out: the old suite, all the wall tiles, the floor, and the ceiling where it was damaged from an old leak. We chased the pipework into the walls to keep everything neat and repositioned the waste for the new shower tray location, moving it from the end of the room to the far corner where it made much better use of the space.
With only one bathroom in the house, we knew speed mattered. We had our plumber and tiler working in sequence so there was no downtime between trades. The tanking, tiling, and grouting were done over five days, and the second-fix plumbing followed straight after. Mrs Sherborne had her bathroom back in use within eighteen days from the start of the strip-out.
Design detail: We fitted a frameless glass shower screen rather than a full enclosure, which keeps the room feeling open and spacious. The wall-hung WC and floating vanity unit free up floor space and make cleaning much easier — small choices that make a big difference day to day.
When we pulled the old tiles off the wall behind the bath, we found that the plasterboard underneath had been water-damaged over a long period. The bottom third of the wall was soft and starting to crumble — likely from years of splash damage where the sealant had failed around the old bath. It wasn't visible before the strip-out because the tiles had been holding it all in place.
We removed the damaged sections and replaced them with moisture-resistant board, which is the correct product for a wet area like this. Before tiling, we applied a full tanking membrane across all the shower walls and the floor of the wet zone to make sure the same problem wouldn't happen again down the line. We explained to Mrs Sherborne what we'd found and what we were doing to fix it — she appreciated us catching it rather than just tiling over the top, which unfortunately is something we see from time to time on older jobs.
The repair added about a day to the programme but didn't affect the overall finish date because we'd built a buffer into the schedule. It's something we always try to do with bathroom work — older properties in particular tend to have hidden issues behind tiles and panelling.
The finished bathroom is a completely different room. The large format tiles and consistent colour palette make the space feel twice the size it used to, and the walk-in shower has been a real improvement over the old setup. The heated towel rail and LED lighting give it a bit of a hotel feel, which is exactly what Mrs Sherborne was after.
It's one of those projects where the before-and-after photos really speak for themselves. A well-planned bathroom remodel doesn't have to take months or break the bank — it just needs the right approach and trades that know what they're doing.
I'd been dreading having the bathroom done for years because I thought it would be a nightmare — dust everywhere, no bathroom for weeks, all the rest of it. The DaNeW team were brilliant from start to finish. They were tidy, they turned up when they said they would, and the quality of the tiling is spot on. I actually look forward to having a shower now, which sounds daft but that's how much of a difference it's made. I wouldn't go anywhere else.
Homeowner — Kingsholm, Gloucester
Whether it's a full remodel or a simple refresh, we'd be happy to take a look and give you an honest quote.
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