What does a loft bathroom cost in the Lothians?
Our guide range in the Lothians is £6,200–£12,500 including VAT. Prices in the Lothians run at about 4% below the UK guide, based on Scotland labour rates.
Refit
- Existing loft shower room
Signature
- Fitted furniture to the eaves
New loft bathroom
- Ventilation and electrics to regulations
Guide prices for The Lothians including VAT. Your itemised written quote after the free survey is the price that counts.
Which towns do we cover in the Lothians?
Supplies across most of the Lothians are soft. If that holds for your street in Livingston, limescale on shower glass and heads builds up slowly and a squeegee after use is usually enough. Hardness varies street by street, so check the figure for your postcode with your water supplier. If your Livingston house has a combi boiler, a loft shower can usually run on mains pressure without a pump.
What the job includes
- A survey of the headroom across the room, with the usable height marked at each fitting position
- Electrics by a qualified electrician, tested and certified, then tiling, testing and handover
- Fitted furniture made to the eaves, so the low space behind the slope becomes storage
- A check of your hot-water system and of the pressure and flow you actually get at loft level
- A drainage route from the loft to the soil stack with enough fall, or a pumped waste or macerator where the rules allow it
- A check of the floor joists where a bath or large shower tray will sit
Decisions to make first
Gravity or pumped waste
Gravity is silent and maintenance-free. A pumped waste or macerator lets fittings sit away from the stack, provided the house has a WC on gravity drainage elsewhere.
Where the shower goes
Under the ridge or in a dormer, where the full height is. A walk-in shower with a single panel is usually easier to fit to a roof line than a framed enclosure.
Bath or no bath
A bath under the slope makes good use of low space, but the floor has to carry it when it is full of water and someone is in it.
Roof window
A roof window over the bath or shower brings daylight and fresh air, but plan the blind for privacy and expect condensation on cold glass.
Rules that apply in Scotland
A bathroom inside an existing loft room does not usually need planning permission, but forming one is normally building-regulations work because of the new drainage, extract ventilation and electrics. A macerator or pumped WC is acceptable only where the home also has a WC on gravity drainage. Under the water fittings rules, a shower pump must never be connected directly to the mains supply.
In Scotland, forming a new bathroom in the loft or altering the drainage may need a building warrant. The Technical Handbook uses 15 litres per second extract for a bathroom, and water fittings are covered by the Scottish Water Byelaws 2014.