Adding a new Bathroom Suite to sell your house fast
When we decided that we wanted to move house we began walking round making notes of what needed to be done. With the current housing market as it is, unless you want to sell for peanuts, your going to either fall into 2 different house selling categories:
- Top Value
- Do-Up Value
As we had lived in our house for 5 years already - and had made some significant improvements already - we decided that we wanted to get the top value we could for our house. However, with the current market as it is, there was no point spending a lot of money on a suite that would not add the same amount of value (we will save that for the next house).
First things first, we needed to do some research into our current area and house prices. Once we had a figure that we thought was achievable, we began to work on planning our bathroom to make it neutral - yet stylish.
Its all very well dropping in a shell style suite - but this would no compliment the rest of the property, nor would we feel confident in saying "look at the lovely new bathroom suite". We decided to budget our bathroom at ?400 for fixtures and fittings, and a further ?200 for wall coverings.
What type of suite do we need?
To start with, measurements for the suite needed to be spot on. We didn't want to mess around with the plumbing for the taps (this reduced the cost of a plumber), nor did we want to put the same large items in our bathroom. Having a nice suite that overcrowds the space is a massive turn off for prospective buyers.
The current bathroom suite was a shell suite, which over the years has taken a good hammering from the family, but the suite was very 90's and quite curvy in places. For a small room, the curves created a negative space effect and actually made the room seem much smaller than it was.
Tip: Did you know that bathrooms and kitchens are one of the main features people look for when buying a house?
We decided that a straight suite was needed, one that had definitive lines and obviously in white. White is definitely the colour for bathrooms these days - it gives a clean look and you can accessorise with any other colour quite easily. Its not like the 1980's where sage green bathroom suites were the rage!
So now we have 4 factors that need to be considered before making a final decision on a suite:
- Price - max price ?400
- Size - Same size (dimension wise to save on plumbing)
- Style - Straight edges to enhance bathroom space
- Colour - White, White, or White :)
Taking the time to browse the internet to find a suitable suite can take some time, so Cheap UK Baths was setup allowing us to compare the prices, styles, colours and size of each of the bathroom suites. A quick search for bathroom suites returned hundreds of results. Then by adding the price "low to high" we were able to find bathroom suites in our price range very easily, here are some:
As you can see, for a couple of hundred pounds, you can get a lovely new white suite delivered to your door. Being a fairly competent DIYer (and having a great Dad!), we began by turning off the water to the bathroom using the stop tap in the kitchen.
Taking care not to disturb the existing plaster we cut the silicon sealant around the bath and sink, loosened the bolts and removed the old suite. Baring in mind the suite was a few years old, we decided that to make our lives much easier when fitting the new bathroom suite, we would replace the copper piping that connects to the taps with some flexi piping fittings.
Once your plumbing is sorted, dropping your new bathroom suite into position is fairly easy. Always start with the bath! As its the biggest item, its also the most difficult to fit snugly. After adjusting the metal legs to ensure its level, connecting up the waste and taps, your ready to drop some bathroom silicon sealant around to ensure you don't ruin your walls and floorboards with excessive splashing.
Once your new suite is in position, and your water is turned back on, ensure there are no leaks by leaving the taps running and checking each of the joints, for leaky joints, try a small turn on the nut - making sure not to split the olive. We also recommend using PTFE tape on all screw fittings.
In Conclusion
Taking the time to add a sleek looking bathroom suite can make selling your house much easier. Try and visualise what your buyers will see when they first walk in, if they see a dirty old bathroom suite, that's all the more reason not to purchase your house, or knock you down on price. By fitting a bathroom suite yourself, your not only saving money, but when your showing potential buyers around you can feel proud at what you have accomplished - and this will definitely show.
Be sure to see our next article on "What wall covering should i have in my bathroom" (coming soon)