Clearance for electrical and plumbing? Is this idea workable?

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Some more stupid questions.

I'm thinking about different ideas for a bathroom remodel and I want to swap the taps to the other end of the bath and mount them and the shower on the wall. My idea is to box in the area from the top of the bath to the ceiling to put the plumbing in, because the existing wall isn't hollow. I'd also like to move the condensate drain from the boiler into this boxing, as it currently runs through a pipe on the wall behind the bedroom door.

Would 6cm or so be enough clearance to mount the taps etc. there in the first place? If not I would have to change to having a 1500mm bath instead of the 1600mm, unless I can find one in an in-between size. The current one is 1575mm but so far the only ones I've found in that length are the L-shaped shower baths, which I don't think will work unless we move the radiator.

My husband is worried that my boxing idea would put the plumbing too close to the electrical stuff on the other side of the walls. There is some surface mounted conduit and a light switch on the wall in the hallway, and a wall-mounted outlet near the floor in the bedroom on the other. I made a quick scaled drawing to show my idea. The distance between the approximate place where the plumbing would go and the conduit is 22cm, and to the outlet is 27cm. The existing wall between the bath and the outlet is approximately 10cm thick.

Is this whole idea totally stupid or pointlessly complicated? Does the location of the existing drain and electrical stuff make this a non-starter? Or can you have the drain and the taps at opposite ends?
 

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Are you moving the drain end of the bath? That could be a showstopper if you can't get adequate fall on the waste pipe.
The rest of it will work, though the condensate pipe will be a nuisance (it has to run in a straight line so your 60mm will be a bit tight for 32mm condensate plus insulated 15mm water pipes where they cross,
If the room behind the toilet wall is a bedroom, build your boxing frame attached to side walls & ceiling only and fill the void with acoustic wool, it'll reduce noise transfer. And use tile backing board rather than plasterboard ,(denser so again less noise transfer)
 
If there is a physical barrier put in between the electrical and water services then you shouldn't fall foul of any regs.

You may be awful tight trying to get wall mounted taps and outlets jammed into a 60mm space. Some come with mounting kits that sit inside the void but they need to be mounted onto a solid surface (wood/brick, etc), and that's usually the wall at the back.

What I would say though is that the taps and shower would normally go at the drain end of the bath, being the end you would stand in. It has a straight end n it and is typically the stronger end. The other end of the bath usually has a greater slope to lie against making it a little less easy to stand in, unless you fit a double ended bath of course.
 
@oldbutnotdead The toilet backs on to the external wall of the house, so noise isn't too much of a problem. How much vertical space do you need so that you get adequate fall?

@Madrab I know that it's the normal way to do it, but is it essential? I've seen a few baths or even "shower baths" that are straight at that end. If it were possible to keep the drain on the external wall and put the shower & taps on the inside, that would be ideal. But maybe they just aren't designed that way.

One of the other annoyances I forgot to mention is that the window on the right overlaps the bath by about 10cm. This means that the shower curtain hangs a little too far inside the bath so you're constantly fighting with it. But also the boxing in idea wouldn't work very well on that side, and I'm still left with the exposed condensate pipe on the bedroom wall.

Any ideas for what might work better? Originally there was an electric shower on the wall where I'm imagining putting boxing, but I'd rather not get another one. My main goals with this redesign are to conceal the condensate pipe and eliminate the problem of the taps being so close to the wall, really.
 
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No, certainly not essential and it's not regulation but from a HSE point of view and occupational health etc then they frown upon it being at the more slippery end of a single ended bath for obvious reasons. Ultimately if you are happy with the increased risk of slipping then it's up to you and will allow the bath waste etc to stay where it is.

No reason not to drop the condensate into the space tool along with the other pipework as long as there is room but where is the boiler and where does the condensate drain into?
 
@Madrab The boiler is in the loft just outside of where the bathroom door is. I don't remember now if the previous one simply didn't have a drain, but we wanted this one to join up to the drain from the bath because the soil stack (right term?) on the outside of the house wasn't accessible from inside the house. So the pipe runs from the boiler, across the loft, through a hole in the ceiling, down the wall, and then through another hole into the wall and under the bath, where it joins the bath drain. Originally we wanted to put it through the wall and then under the bath but the wall isn't the kind of 2x4" timber stud + drywall panels that I'm used to.

Maybe a bath that's non-slip all the way along is available? Swapping the drain to the other end might be easier, though. Or maybe this is all a dumb idea and I just need a different style of tap.
 
No, I wouldn't say it's a bad idea, I just think you need to have a good picture in your head of how it's all look finished and if that's what you want/are happy with.

You can get non slip coating's on baths but not sure how comfortable it would be to sit on. As suggested though, you can get a double ended bath, most do tend to have a centered waste but it shouldn't really be an issue to move the current waste by 600 odd mill.
 
Right, I made a somewhat modified drawing that shows approximately where the drain from the boiler goes. I'm sure it could be moved slightly so that it goes through the ceiling and behind my imaginary boxing and still have plenty of room to run straight.

So, if it's fairly trivial to change the location of the waste to the side for a double-ended bath, what's to stop you moving it all the way to the other end for a more conventional bath? Could you still mount the taps and the shower on the end where the boxing would go if you had the waste in the centre?


 
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Of course, no reason not to turn the bath around, you'd just need to have it at it's max height to ensure you get a suitable fall on the waste run, if the outflow is through the wall at floor level at what would then be the opposite end.
 
I turned bath around, wife did not want to shower next to window, and it resulted in around an inch of water in bottom of bath at end of shower, once water started to flow it was OK, so very little difference emptying a bath, and with a long shower the water would start to build up then flow, but it tended as a result not to flush away hair, and I was for ever cleaning it. Both my wife and I have long hair, but mine is much tougher being from my beard, as these sink unblocking compounds don't seem to work.
 
That is a curious problem. Why would turning it around change the drainage? I wouldn't have thought that would change anything assuming that the drain underneath the bath is sloped down enough.
 
I must agree, as long as the bath is high enough and the fall is then sufficient then there shouldn't be any drainage issues. Fitted too many to count like that without issue.
 

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