Your bathroom is where you start and end your day. It’s an essential part of your routine and a high-traffic area of the house. But it can also be overlooked – in need of an update, but often not at the top of your priorities list.
Bathrooms are often not comfortable spaces. They get drafty in New England’s cold winters, while humid summers make it unpleasantly steamy. They can feel cramped, with outdated materials that require a lot of work to keep clean and grime-free.
A refresh can dramatically change the space – creating a comfortable, welcoming, efficient bathroom that suits your needs. Here are a few questions to ask if you want an update, but aren’t sure where to start.
Rethinking Your Bathroom
Certain aspects of the bathroom are, of course, difficult to move. Re-arranging it completely requires re-routing supply lines and waste pipes, which means major renovations of flooring and walls. You can’t switch the place of your toilet just as easily as moving a couch.
But even if you can’t easily move them, you can change existing plumbing fixtures. Maybe you want to switch out the old-fashioned shallow tub for a soaking tub – especially if you don’t currently have a tub at all. Maybe you want to get rid of tubs entirely for a larger shower. Or maybe you want to see if you can have both, just arranged better.
Another key consideration: If you haven’t updated your bathroom in a while (or ever) you might also not realize that new bath and tub materials have improved a lot. New, high-tech polymers inhibit the growth of mold and mildew, and they’re much easier to clean, too.
Improving your tub/bath is the single biggest change you can make to how your space feels, because these usually take up the biggest amount of space and are key for how you enjoy your day-to-day. And with updated materials that resist mold and clean off more easily, you can opt for fixtures that are easier to maintain for the long term.
Key Questions to Ask About Bathroom Updates
Here’s an important one:
How long do you expect to stay in your home?
- If you’re planning to sell in the next few years, maybe you want a nicer tub to enjoy now – and add to resale value later.
- If you’re in your forever home and rarely use the tub anyway, maybe you want to convert to a low-barrier shower – that way, you get a more pleasant shower experience that you won’t have to change again as you or your family members grow older and need more accessible fixtures.
What are your own preferences?
If you have young kids, bathtubs are still a must-have. But if not, you have a few more options.
- Replacing your bathtub: Would you use your bathtub more if it were nicer? A deeper soaking tub is a far cry from the typical shallow bath/shower combo, and provides a spa like experience.
- Replacing your shower: New showers are more aesthetically pleasing, and easier to get into and out of. A new shower can take care of leaks or older materials that look dated.
- Converting from bathtub to a shower: This can make your bathroom feel more spacious – even if a large walk-in shower technically takes up the same amount of space, the glassed-in shower gives an airier feeling.
Updated Materials Make a Difference
Regardless of the components you want to add or subtract to your bathroom, you have better options for materials on your fixtures.
Older materials usually included porcelain or fiberglass, which chip and stain easily. Shower tile grout gets grubby very quickly in humid bathrooms and has to be strenuously cleaned very often. Newer materials for bath and shower are made of easy-to-clean high-tech polymer, which is infused with Microban®, an antimicrobial agent that inhibits mold, mildew, and surface bacteria from forming in the first place.
The high-tech polymer is also an insulation improvement on older materials – with a higher thermal rating, it retains heat better.
Bathroom Upgrades for Efficiency and Comfort
New fixtures can make your bathroom cleaner, warmer, and more aesthetically pleasing. It’s worth thinking about what you want out of the space, and looking up your options.
Call (781) 618-6711 or contact our team to schedule a no-cost home energy assessment. Our team is ready to help you take the first step toward a more comfortable, efficient home!