Check out our free bathroom planning guide.
Australian bathroom standards – key dimensions required when working how how to plan a bathroom remodel – are often complex and difficult to understand. In our free bathroom planning guide they are explained by our industry leading team of bathroom designers.
Need to know where your toilet should be in relation to your door, how high the shower or wall-mounted taps need to be, how high your wall-hung vanity should be or how much space you really need (or can get away with) for your toilet or shower? Sydney interior designer and founder Matt Michel shares all this and more in this comprehensive guide to every bathroom dimension or query you could ever think of!
A well-designed bathroom should look great, be a peaceful sanctuary, and add value to the property. But bathrooms can be the most expensive room per square metre to renovate, so if you’re working out how to remodel a bathroom on a budget, it’s importing to get it right.
Much of the expense can be buried beneath the surface in work done before tiling, so you don’t want to leave decisions to the last minute. Make sure you read our bathroom remodel guide way before you start picking your tiles and soap pumps!
Preparing a scale drawing of the layout, with clearances, fixtures and fittings, materials, and finishes as far in advance as possible is essential. This is to avoid going shopping and getting your heart set on a particular bath or vanity cabinet and then finding it doesn’t fit in the space, won’t go through the door, around a corner, or up the stairs!
Typical Plan – Square Bathroom
Typical Plan – Long Bathroom
Typical Plan – Long Bathroom
Tips on layout
Your layout depends on the room’s dimensions and, often, where the door and windows are located.
A square-shaped bathroom allows the space to be divided into equal quarters. A shower, toilet, and vanity can be allocated to three of the four zones, with a doorway in the fourth. Each of these elements needs around 900 mm in width.
It is better to avoid opening the door to face the toilet, but that cannot be avoided in some renovations.
The minimum finished floor-to-ceiling height in non-habitable rooms like bathrooms, kitchens, and laundries is 2.1 metres.
Everything you need know about vanities
The trend for master ensuites – generally to accommodate two individuals getting ready for work at the same time – is for double basins in the vanity unit. In the main bathroom, other ensuites, and powder rooms, single basins suffice.
The height from floor to lip of the basin can fall between 850 and 950mm but is most commonly 900mm. The ideal height can be determined by the client’s height and the type of basin (undermount, drop-in, semi-recessed or benchtop basins will all result in varying finished heights).
If the main bathroom is shared by a few younger children, having the benchtop basin lip at 850mm from the finished floor height with an even lower benchtop, allows for easier access and use.
Most standard vanities are 460 to 600mm deep, but the average is 500mm from front to back. Plumbing can impact available storage, but many vanities allow space behind drawers or scoops to accommodate the p-trap waste.
If the vanity is wall-hung, with the floor tiles meeting the wall underneath and strong horizontal lines, it can make the room look bigger and often be easier to clean. An LED strip connected to a sensor switch inside the door achieves dimmed light for midnight toilet trips.
If a floor waste is located under the vanity, the plumber must have at least 300mm of clearance to reach in and clear the blockage.
Tapware and accessories tips
Tapware is becoming popular in all sorts of metallic finishes and colours beyond the standard chrome. Some finishes may not be stock standard and can take extra time to arrive, but they can add a real feature to a bathroom.
If selecting a wall-hung vanity with a benchtop mixer tap, the plumber might locate the basin waste inside the cabinet at 600mm from the finished floor level and hot and cold water slightly above on either side at 650mm.
If using wall-mounted mixers, set the centreline at a minimum of 1050mm from the floor with the spout centred on the basin and a single mixer offset of 100-to-150mm to the righthand side. Many wall-mount spouts can have a lip that dips down, so check there is at least 100mm to get your hands under.
Shower mixers are generally positioned at 1050mm from the floor, while bath mixers and spouts are often mounted 700mm high (keeping in mind the height of the bath: many baths can be at least 600 mm high).
Toilets
Concealed toilet cisterns in existing stud walls or new nib walls (short walls about 1100-to-1200mm high) can have colour-coded push buttons that make the toilet less of a feature in the room.
The distance between the front of the toilet and any other permanent fixture (like a vanity unit or shower wall) should be no less than 530mm (760mm is the recommended clearance).
Regarding the width of a toilet space, the distance between the centre of the toilet and the nearest wall or basin should be around 450 mm, for an overall width of 900mm. The minimum overall clearance is 760mm.
Where possible, toilet roll holders should be mounted 200mm in front of the toilet (to allow clearance between the user and their knee) and 660mm from the floor.
Test toilets and baths for comfort in the showroom, as they cannot be returned once fitted.
Baths
If two people plan to share the bath, place the spout in the middle of the wall between them, and the mixer on another wall nearby so it is easy to access before jumping in, or if you’re an adult trying to wash young children.
If using a freestanding mixer spout, ensure plumbing can pass through the floor underneath it.
The current trend is for freestanding baths or back-to-wall baths that look freestanding from the front and sides but are easier to keep clean along the back. Allow 50-to-100mm clearance around the lip for cleaning access. Check the bath spout reaches past that span; often longer spouts at 250mm are available with general basin spouts measuring around 200mm).
Electrical
Always discuss first with your builder and electrician, as there are strict rules on the location of electrical items and lighting in bathrooms.
Mount ladder-style heated towel rails at 600mm from the floor (depending on the overall height). You should also consider which corner post the wiring comes from.
Many vertical heated towel posts are popular as they do not take up much room and seem easier for children to hang up towels instead of on the floor.
Heated towel rails have minimum requirements for how close they are to volumes of water, like a bath or shower. There are many low-voltage versions suitable.
Wall lights adjacent to mirrors can add even light to the face when applying makeup, but make sure they’re suitable for a bathroom.
Powerpoints inside shaving cabinets allow recharging of toothbrushes and shavers, as well as convenient access for hairdryers and straighteners.
If your shaving cabinet has more than one door, consider where the lines in the mirror will be in relation to your reflection.
Lighting it hugely important. If you are planning on lighting shower recesses, the electrician needs to happen prior to the area being line and waterproofing applied. Lighting must also be able to hold up to water spray.
Shower screens
These must be a minimum 900×900 mm in width or 760x1300mm if over a bath.
Showers can be considered the most important space in a bathroom, so wider feels better.
A square shower can look nice, but check that the shower door is at least 600mm wide and opens unimpeded; otherwise, put the door in a diagonal corner.
Fully frameless shower screens must be at least 10mm thick toughened safety glass. They must be mechanically fixed as silicon is technically considered a sealant, but metal patch fittings and hinges are available in all the finishes to match adjacent tapware.
Toughened glass must be made to measure, so consider a height of 2100mm, which may line up with grout lines in tiles and stop any water from splashing out. Hinges allow doors to swing in both directions in case someone falls over, but be aware it might hit the shower rose if you swing it in.
You do need at least 100mm air gap above the shower screen for ventilation and airflow.
Important note for bathrooms in apartments
If you live in an apartments, it is no longer possible to renovate a bathroom yourself (DIY), as licences for the builder and trades are required along with detailed plans, materials and finishes specified to submit to the strata committee for approval.
Our qualified designers who specialise in bathrooms have extensive experience dealing with strata and body corporates and can help with all the complex processes.
We hope you have found our free bathroom planning guide useful.
Remember, good planning is essential to designing a great bathroom and avoiding costly mistakes.
Bathrooms are usually the smallest rooms in the house, but often have the biggest impact, particularly when it comes time to sell. So, if you’re planning a bathroom renovation, why not let our team of experienced interior and bathroom designers take your ideas and vision, and help you bring them to life. Let us do the hard work for you.
Contact us today to discuss your project.
CONTACT US
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Our address:
Loft of Suite 302,
20 Dale Street
Brookvale NSW 2100
Mailing address:
PO Box 7162,
Warringah Mall NSW 2100
Phone:
0411 887 427