How do I add a bathroom/ en-suite to my house?

In my experience of being an estate agent, we all know that adding an ensuite to a bedroom is always going to increase the property value, if not the saleability. But how difficult is it to put an ensuite on a bedroom?

The first thing I've always said, any bathroom ensuite, wet room, just think pipes. Because no matter where you put it in the house, these pipes. So your loo is a 4 inch pipe, your shower and base an inch and a quarter, inch and a half. If it's a long run, it's 2 inches. You've still got pipes that have got to get to the outside of the house, or in modern houses, a soil pipe in the middle of the house, you've got to get pipes out. So if you're doing a loft conversion and you know that below here's a bathroom, it makes sense to do your en suite here because easy access to take your pipes out and drop them into the existing.

There is another system that people can have that I must admit I'm not very keen on because I've had it in the past. It's a macerator. They're sometimes called. Saniflo's brand is Saniflo. Would you recommend a macerator?

Sometimes you've got to use them. If you're doing a basement, obviously you're going uphill. Waste doesn't go uphill without help. So you need a macerator. I think if you can, as I said a minute ago, keep thoughts on pipes.

What would be the minimum size you would make an ensuite? Because I know a lot of people are very restricted in space. They can't have an ensuite this size. What's the minimum size you would make an ensuite?

See, that is really interesting for me. You said not many people can have an ensuite this size. This is only about 6 foot square. It seems big because of the light walls, the light floor. Obviously got a white ceiling, the correct way of doing it on something like a loft conversion. So suspension, timber floor, you have your floor joists, let's say they're running this way. And then most people would just put ply on top. Or an OSB ball, which is a sheet of wood that covers and then you tile onto it. A wet room is where the tray is under the floor.

So there is actually a shower tray underneath.

There's a shower tray there because you still got the fall, the gradient of the water going to the waste and then going out. Whereas a normal bathroom, you put it on top of the floor. So the key to leaking is obviously the craftsmanship, the materials. But I think importantly, this is what we call tanked. So if I was to kick this tile out, well, take it out with a hammer or a breaker, you could pour buckets and buckets of water in it. It could not physically drop below. It would just literally fill up. So the way it's almost, there's two forms. You obviously have a sheet, like a plastic sheet. Or these days you can get a liquid membrane you paint on and it almost dries like a rubbery finish, so it stops any water going down. So wet rooms done properly will last 50 years.

So a leaking wet room is a thing of the past.

So to recap, ensuites, bathrooms, wet rooms, just think three minimum requirements for most of them. Which is your loo, your shower, your basin. Think layout, what works? Which way do you swing the door? Where do you put the shower screen? Where do you put the loo? Put pipes, 4 inch pipes, got to get out. Generally new builds, they lose them in the middle of the house. Get into the existing rather than try and run it around floor joists. And also, if you're doing it, do it right. Tank, as in make your wet room or bathroom floor waterproof the subfloor. So if there is a cracked tile, water is not going to go everywhere. But certainly now en suites and bathrooms are a lot easier to do, better materials, and it means you can get a relatively small space into a great wet room or ensuite, which will add value.

Yeah, add value and add saleability as well.