Remodeling & Renovations Blog

I was standing in the bathroom fittings department of a large building supplier, and was pondering why one shower mixer cost $99 and another $347. Surely this could not all be down to the design elements – incidentially, the design of the $99 fitting was better than many at around $200.

So I asked the sales person and struck gold – he was so knowledgeable and willing to put in the time, even after I told him I was just in the scouting phase.

I was in a dilemna. One of my shower mixers had stopped working – the hot water would not come through. I didn’t want to invest a lot of money in a fitting that may only be in use for 6-9 months, yet I wasn’t ready to commit to buying a complete matching suite of fittings for 2 bathrooms + 2 cloakrooms. Until the full building price for the rebuild was more ‘reliable’ – which is probably after we are halfway through the rebuild’ I didn’t know whether I would be able to complete the bathroom refits during the rebuild or at a later date.

This is what he shared with me:

Shower Mixer - The cheaper fittings generally have the same functionality as that more expensive fittings, however the copper used is a cheaper grade, and not as durable. In addition, the warranty on lower cost options were on a 12 month ‘return to store’ basis. This means if something goes awry, you have to dismantle the shower, take it back to the supplier, who in turn send it to the manufacturer. In the meanwhile, you are without a shower for a few weeks. More expensive items are sold on a 5 year ‘on site repair’ basis – no fuss. The supplier arranges for the manufacturers remediation crew to fix or replace the unit at your house.

Shower Heads - these are designed for either pressurized or mains pressure systems. The way you can tell which system you are on is by turning on a shower. Now turn on another tap in the house. If the pressure in the shower reduces significantly, then you are on a pressurized system. In a mains pressure system there will only be a slight drop.

Also watch the layout of the holes. Some have a ring of holes on the outer rim, then another close to the center – this ends up giving a very uneven flow of water. More modern heads have a ‘rain water’ system where a double hole is used so that the two streams of water collide to reduce their speed from needly piercing velocity. If you like to use your shower to massage your shoulders – get a pulse system, but make sure the layout of the holes is not compromised.

In considering the rebuild I had to look at the overall strategy:

1. Tear it all down and start from scratch
2. Repair current house as is – add nothing new
3. Repair current house, plus add a little

Start From Scratch

In considering tearing down the whole house and rebuilding from scratch, I looked at whether i could build something substantially different from the current design, it confirmed that the current layout is the best for the site. Hence there would not be a great value add by starting from scratch.

Repair Current House As Is

This would be extremely depressing. Spending over $200k for something that looks exactly the same – no value add is not something I can mentally handle.

Repair Plus

The third strategy – tear down all the rotting parts of the house, redesign those areas that were leaking to prevent further problems, and add a few extras to make me feel like I was getting something new for all my pain.

The third option was definitely the most appealing. After years of court battles and trying to work out how to finance the rebuild after paying out the legal fees, I decided that I would allow myself a limited budget to add a few improvements.

For instance – the kitchen will need to be pulled out and will most likely be further damaged – so a new kitchen is a good start

The upstairs main living floor does not have a visitor cloakroom. Instead it has lobby access to my personal en-suite bathroom. Fortunately this bathroom is a good size and with a little additional floorspace added – I can close off the existing toilet, add a handbasin and voila – a new cloakroom. The additional floor space can be used to add a new toilet into the ensuite, plus convert the existing shower into a bath/shower combo.

The downstairs bathroom [bath+Shower] has a separate toilet that is not accessible to the main bathroom – since it is immediately below the upstairs bathroom, the identical additional floor space can be used to add a toilet into this bathroom.

Obviously, this will all cost more than my limited overspend budget, but if i focus on getting the additional floorspace built, the internal fittings can remain where they are and the internal structure can be added bathroom by bathroom at a later date.

As for the kitchen – since i don’t want a kitchent that is conservative – I don’t need to buy expensive stone, granite or marble countertops – hence i have a sleek design that should be a real bonus to the house for less than $10,000, including appliances. This also gives me the opportunity to totally redesign the layout, which could certainly be improved from an entertainers perspective.