Full Bathroom Refit in Exeter: Walk-In Shower, Back-to-Wall Bath and Terrazzo-Effect Tiles

The Brief: One Calm, Modern Room

The customer wanted a bathroom that felt bigger and calmer than the one they had, with a proper walk-in shower as well as a bath, and nothing fussy. The answer was one tile everywhere. Running the same large terrazzo-effect tile across the floor and all four walls takes away the visual breaks that make a small bathroom feel chopped up, and the speckled pattern hides water marks far better than a plain tile.

The finished room from the door: bath under the window, vanity and mirror, toilet by the oak door.

And from the other end: vanity, backlit mirror, walk-in shower and toilet.

The Walk-In Shower

The shower is a low-profile tray with a single fixed glass screen, so there is no door to catch and nothing to clean but one sheet of glass. The valve is a chrome thermostatic bar with a riser rail, a hand shower and a large round rain head overhead. Thermostatic means the temperature holds steady if someone runs a tap elsewhere in the house, which matters in a family bathroom.

Behind the tiles the shower area was tanked before tiling, and the tray waste and the hot and cold feeds were run in new pipework. Getting the falls right on a low tray is the bit nobody sees and the bit that stops a walk-in shower from pooling, so that was set and tested before the tiler went near it.

Thermostatic bar shower, riser rail and round rain head inside the screen.

The rain head and hand shower, both on the one riser.

Bath, Vanity and Mirror

The bath is a square-edged back-to-wall design that gives the look of a freestanding bath without the gap behind it that collects dust. Instead of taps on the rim it is filled from a matt black wall-mounted filler, which keeps the top edge clean and means the pipework is hidden in the wall rather than boxed in under a panel.

The basin sits on a wall-hung vanity with an oak drawer front, matched with a black mono mixer to tie in with the bath filler. Hanging the vanity off the wall leaves the floor tile running underneath, which is easier to mop and makes the room read as larger. Above it is a backlit LED mirror on its own fused spur.

Back-to-wall bath with the matt black wall-mounted filler and the oak vanity beyond.

The LED mirror switched on, with the shower screen to the right.

Bath and vanity from above, with the obscure glass window for daylight.

Close-coupled toilet and the new oak door. The same tile runs under everything.

What a Full Refit Like This Involves

A room like this is a sequence of trades done in the right order, and most of the plumbing happens while the walls are bare. Roughly:

I do the plumbing and fitting myself and work alongside a tiler and an electrician I have used for years, so there is one person to ring from the first visit to the last day. A full refit of a bathroom this size is usually two to three weeks on site, depending on the tiling.

Thinking About a New Bathroom in Exeter?

Absolute Plumbing & Heating has been fitting bathrooms in and around Exeter since 2010. I will come and look at the room, talk through what will and will not fit, and give you a written price for the whole job rather than a day rate that drifts. More finished rooms are on the bathroom installation page.