Is 600mm too high for a bath? Builder has just raised mine on bricks...

In a complete bathroom rebuild, my bath has just been replaced in its old spot (well, the new shower enclosure is 30cm wider so it is 30cm to one side of its old spot). They have put the bath's feet on bricks so they could attach the waste - so the whole is now at least 7cm higher than it used to be. The top of the bath is about 600mm above the concrete floor. The builder and plumber just say it has to be like this, to get the fall on the pipe. I wish they had mentioned before they fitted it that it would be so much higher.

This looks high to me. Advice online says 510mm plus or minus 10mm. I can see their problem but I don't want to spend the next 20 years clambering in and out of an excessively high bath.

Fixing it isn't easy but we just want back roughly we had. The plumber says the fall was wrong before (it worked fine) and he has put it back at the height it should be. There's not much flexibility as it is a concrete floor. The pipes track about 11 feet round the bathroom with a gentle slope, before crossing the landing buried in concrete and joining a downpipe outside.

Is there any solution? All I can think of is to cut into the concrete just before the pipe joins the buried waste out of the room so it can join a bit lower (2in may be possible) and we can achieve a greater drop along the run from the bath to that junction of the waste. We have two pipes tracking round, the shower and the bath, shower one above the bath one, so perhaps they could be connected, but that wouldn't increase the fall.

I am not a plumber, but a Gasman. But I think they may be trying to cover up a mistake - although I am not there to see every side of the issue. Has the bathroom been finished? What are you using for a bath panel? An "off the shelf" one will not fit, which adds weight to your argument:

Chatsworth Graphite 1500 Traditional Front Bath Panel | Victorian Plumbing UK

Look at the dimensions. My statement is based on an all encompassing and thorough survey of TWO bath panels ( ), so it is possible that others are bigger - you will need to get Googling.

Thanks FiremanT - they should be putting back the old bath panel which suited the old height, 8 cm lower. A pretty standard size so almost certainly the same size as your survey identified

Their plan is to add taller skirting below it.

So far all that is in place is the shower tray (which they put on a huge plinth two bricks high, not entirely sure why, it was previously on feet to raise it above the waste, but the old tray was more substantial. Now there is a solid plinth the waste has to track further to go round the outside the of the plinth they insisted on. The bath went in on Thursday and that's when we saw the issue.

The shower is also higher than it was.
I'm thinking of telling them to redo it all (just gave them £5K to fix another error they made, I know it is stupid but it is very hard to fight them). It would only mean redoing the plinth and re-plumbing bath and shower waste.

I would rather risk it not draining, I think (it drained fine before) than step 8 inches up to get in the shower and have a 2 foot high bath... Trouble is they are running late and eroding their profit margin, so already they are arguing every point.

Definitely sounds like a poor job to me, albeit with good intentions. Building regulations say that the fall on a waste pipe can be between 18mm per metre and 90mm per metre, although the ideal is 44mm per metre (2.5 degrees). You could suggest that you'll sign a disclaimer saying that you won't hold them liable if it blocks...

Our waste is nigh on horizontal and we've never had any issues in 14 years.

Thanks, that all cheers me up, will aim to confront them and tell them to lower it...

What is the distance from the water level in your trap to the grating?, you could maybe gain a bit there with a different bath waste/trap
configuration.

It's a shame that you are in this mess, and I don't wish to add to your woes, but a 'two brick' (3 - 7") step DOWN when coming out of your shower with potentially wet feet onto wet tiles could be particularly hazardous.

@MeldrewMate - you're right. It is about 2 inches higher than before so I was just hoping for the best...
I can see the concrete floor is an issue but surely it is a known problem and a better solution could be found...

It's a lashup. Did you specify the bath or did you just tell plumber/builder what you wanted and leave them to specify and supply? Had a similar issue - fitter selected and supplied new bath but wanted to raise it by 60mm cos the waste on his bath fouled the waste pipe from the toilet. Told him to poke it- either fit to standard height or forget getting paid (this was for a place I am renting out so didn't need any additional hazards). Ended up paying an extra £50 (which was how much more the tub that would work cost than the cheapie he originally tried to fit) which to me seemed a relatively painless way of getting the job done.
And then I had to faff about for hours sorting the stupid pop-up waste out (they are very sensitive to routing of the Bowden cable from the control to the waste). Next bath I get is having an old fashioned plug on a chain!

This is renovation following a burst pipe so both the bath and the bath panel were the old ones and were onsite throughout repairs. I expected them to go back at the height they originally were. Same with the shower (although we couldn't buy a tray as deep as the old one, more silly fashions like popup wastes ...Total renovation cost is over 100K so this is a small part of it..

I do feel for punters sometimes................

Everyone here would say to get quotes and check specs and make sure you know what you are agreeing to

Also -

Everyone here would say that punters who ask a lot of questions and for prices are going to be trouble so avoid

Just sayin'

Hope its not too late to reply here, but during some DIY I have found a problem very similar to this. We live in a 1999 built 3 storey town house with a bathroom and en-suite on the top floor. The shower doesn't drain properly and the bath leaks so I have some work today. Starting with the shower I found the problem is that the waste pipe runs behind tiled walls to the stack, and is 6cm up from the floor board level. Obviously if a low shower tray or normal bath is fitted then we do not have enough fall. the bath has already been raised to 600mm height and a new one will have to do the same to allow fall. I suspect your plumber may have been attempting to get the correct fall. As another note our waste pipes are also flat and must have ''standing'' water in them, against building Regs. This can only be rectified when we have a totally new bathroom/ en-suite in a few years time, and we can gain access behind the tiled walls.