Bathrooms in Warwick, priced in writing before anything starts.
A bathroom is a question of where the water can go, and in central Warwick the outside of the building is usually protected, which narrows the options considerably.
An external soil stack on a listed building or a conservation area frontage is not something to move on a whim, and on the narrow plots in the centre there is often only one elevation it could sensibly go on anyway. We work the drainage out before a suite is chosen rather than after, because the layout follows the waste run and not the other way round.
Floors are the second constraint and historic floors are their own case. Long spans, joists sized by eye, and three centuries of previous trades cutting notches wherever suited them. Where a waste run needs to cross joists we work to the permitted zones, and on a floor already weakened we strengthen rather than add to the damage.
Ventilation matters more in an old building than a new one, because the fabric is less tolerant of trapped moisture. An extractor discharging into a roof void puts water into historic timber, which is a slow and expensive kind of damage.
Tanking is not optional on a walk in shower. Our bathroom installations page sets out what a full refit involves.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Warwick District Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our bathrooms page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Warwick street to the next.
In a house with one bathroom the whole household is affected, so we plan the strip out and first fix in the same week and leave the existing toilet connected as long as the plumbing allows. Cast iron waste and lead supply pipe both turn up regularly in Warwick’s older stock.
In a listed building, removing original fittings or altering a room can need consent. We ask before anything comes out, because putting it back is considerably harder than leaving it alone.
On a listed building a bathroom is not simply an internal matter. Subdividing a historic room to form an en suite, removing original joinery or cutting into a decorative ceiling can all require consent, and doing it without is an offence rather than an oversight. Where a room really cannot take a bathroom without damaging what makes it worth listing, we will say so, even though it is not what anybody wants to hear.
Part of our wider building work in Warwick.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
