Bathroom Planning Questions

[k3am]

Radiant Flooring? I know there was another thread and people a very in the "pro" category for radiant floors. We live in CA. We will never fall into the snowy weather category, but we do get some cold mornings (30) in the winter. Master bath is on the second floor over the garage. Would you still do it in this case?

Faucets - any pros/cons for a single handle faucet vs a wide spread faucet. 

Anyone have a good link for recessed medicine cabinets? We don't have one right now and I really, really miss it. If we can find something on the larger side that's stylish (and doesn't look like a medicine cabinet), I'd love to have one for each of us.

Any other bathroom features we should be considering putting in that preferably don't break the bank?

We're scheduled for shopping for tiles on Saturday, so hopefully we're able to find something that makes us both happy... DH's front runner at this point? I actually don't hate it, but I definitely don't love it. And it doesn't match. At all. So I obviously have some work to do. 

[sandandsea]

I would love heated floors but in the end it wasn’t worth the money for us so we passed.

I prefer the look of two handles but functionality of one. We had two before and still have two because that was the faucet we liked best and in the end didn’t have a strong enough preference to make a different choice.


ETA. We found our medicine cabinet on wayfarer. It’s huge, frameless, and recessed and I love it.

[TBM]

Oct 9, 2019 17:15:53 GMT -5 k3am said:

Radiant Flooring? I know there was another thread and people a very in the "pro" category for radiant floors. We live in CA. We will never fall into the snowy weather category, but we do get some cold mornings (30) in the winter. Master bath is on the second floor over the garage. Would you still do it in this case?

Faucets - any pros/cons for a single handle faucet vs a wide spread faucet. 

When we lived in CA, my H always wanted radiant floors. Our master was over the uninsulated garage, and was really cold.

I like single handle faucets because it is only one thing to clean around instead of three. I also find it easier to control the temperature. We still have a widespread in our master bath, (hoping to remodel soon), and I hate it. It probably doesn't help that it is a really cheap, not great quality faucet, and all of the other faucets that we have replaced the ones that were here when we moved in with are really nice.

[dr.girlfriend]

We wanted heated floors in our bathroom but our contractor forgot and it’s the one thing that didn’t happen! We were going to do that heated electric pad, not radiant heat though. DH really wanted a single-hole faucet but almost every vanity was pre-drilled for widespread, so unless you’re doing a custom vanity and counter you may end up with widespread out of necessity. If you do single-hole, Costco has a few Hansgrohe faucets for a good price.

Other things we planned for were grab-bars everywhere for when we get older. We have one in the shower, one by the toilet, and one by the freestanding tub. They have pretty ones these days that don’t have that “hospital” look. We also did the thermostatic shower controls which I hadn’t heard of before but sound nice.

[Susie]

I really like radiant heat in the bathroom.  We made room in the budget to make it happen when we renovated.

Faucets - I think single handle is easier/faster to operate than wide spread, although I think wide looks nicer.  We opted for single in our bath reno.

Recessed medicine cabinets - we put in a pair of Kohler Archer recessed medicine cabinets over the sinks.  I like them.  The only thing is that if the water is on (the faucet handle is up), the bottom of the arched medicine cabinet door hits the faucet.  Since we can't adjust heights (due to tiling and recessing) we may someday switch to shorter faucets.

ETA:

[Deleted]

I would have radiant heat in my entire downstairs if it wasn't so dang cost prohibitive. We currently have electric baseboards which really handcuff us when it comes to furniture arrangement and curtain lengths. That said, I told my H that no matter what, radiant heat will make it in to the budget when we redo the bathroom. Right now with our current vinyl flooring, it's nbd, but when we put in tile, I'm definitely going to want it.

As for the faucet, I definitely prefer a single handle. As a matter of fact, we recently upgraded the plumbing in our bathroom to change the tub from dual handles to just one, and all of our sinks except one have this set up. If I'm washing my hands, it's because they are dirty and I really don't want to mess around with multiple handles.

I'm no help with the medicine cabinet question

[simpsongal]

I'm planning a bathroom reno for next year. I want to do the heated floor w/the pad, my friend got it and said it wasn't even a huge expense.

I'd love to have an outlet in a drawer or cabinet but I'm not sure it's up to code, perhaps w/a kill switch (but even then I'm not sure).

eta: I want a basic recessed medicine cabinet on the wall to the side of our vanity - I don't think I can do recessed cabinets under the vanity mirrors b/c that's an exterior wall.

[k3am]

simpsongal, I've requested an outlet in our hutch so I don't have to constantly unplug my blowdryer and straightener. Designer doesn't think it will be an issue, but is going to run it by the electrician, so we shall see.

dr.girlfriend, regarding countertops, we'll be doing custom, so predrilled holes won't be an issue. And based on the layout of our house (2 story, all bedrooms upstairs) and our location (hello expensive everything and astronomical taxes), this probably isn't a home we plan to age in long-term. (My dream is that my kids will both relocate to some common ground affordable area and we can follow them there. Probably not likely. Luckily our housing prices being absurdly high here means that - hopefully - when it's time to retire/move on, we'll be able to easily go just about anywhere.)

Radiant flooring will add an extra $2k or so. And we have to run a dedicated line for it. The alternative is putting in a heater with the exhaust fan.. which also would require a dedicated line. The bathroom is so big that without a heater, even with our CA temps, I end up cold getting out of the shower. I think I've talked myself into it. But I can't let DH know until it comes time to negotiate a design decision.

[aspentosh]

I would for sure do in floor heating. We plan to when we redo our bathroom.

The mirror we used in our daughter's bathroom (smaller so needed medicine cabinet) is great. It's a 20x26 from Kohler. It's a simple rectangular shape so it doesn't scream HIGH END but it's clean lined and is working great. I love the ones Susie posted :-D

Another vote for love the look of two handles but functionality of one. Just be sure you have space between the faucet and the medicine cabinet opening so it doesn't bang.

If I could pick one thing I'd love, it's dedicated storage (somehow) for my styling tools like flat iron and blow dryer. Something that is heat resistant so I can put them in there still warm. Not sure this is possible.

I've seen a cool idea on Pinterest for a tall skinny cabinet on the side above the sink with hidden storage and a hidden outlet. It was simple but really smart.

[simpsongal]

aspentosh, it's almost like you need the "appliance garage" for the stylign items that have become common in kitchens.

re faucets - I plan on going double. I can deal w/double faucets for the 2 x's day I need warm water to wash my face. In the kitchen, single is a must.

[rooster222]

We decided the cost wasn't worth it for the heated floors. We ended up using LVP instead of tile so I don't notice them being cold at all.

[atarianna]

We did radiant floors and because of the location of you bath I absolutely would do it. Our bathroom above the garage was always much colder than the rest of our room/floor and heated floors would have made such a huge difference. We were in Georgia, so not extremely cold winters but colder than CA.

When we built, we did radiant floors because our bath is above the unfinished area in the basement and we are in a much colder climate. We haven’t actually turned it on yet, but it was only about $350 more to do it versus typical tile floors. Thanks for mentioning it because I need to find the manual and figure out how it works.

[sandandsea]

If i remember correctly it was going to be at least $3K more for us. For under $1k we would have done it!

[bhnumbers]

We did the heated floor in our bathroom and, in the winter, it was awesome. Our bathroom is partially over our screen porch and even though they did some special, extra layer of insulation, our architect said it would be pretty cold without the heated floor. And the floor feels amazing They didn't run the heat coils under our vanity (for obvious reasons) and one day back in January right after we moved in, I dropped a makeup brush and it rolled under the vanity. When I felt under there to get it I could tell exactly how cold the floor would be without it!!

That said, I don't keep mine super warm all the time. I think the highest we ever set it was to like 75 because it definitely makes the room warmer and i don't like to be hot when I'm getting ready. I turned it off sometime back in April and haven't turned it back on yet...I'm in the DC area and it's definitely still too warm!

The only thing I'd do differently is getting a control panel for it that I can control remotely. I've been spoiled by our Nest thermostat and I want to be able to turn off the heated floor if I forget when we go out of town. Our contractor was the worst and never gave us any choice there.

I like the widespread faucets better because I prefer that look and, for me, the functionality isn't all that big of a deal, both are pretty easy

[k3am]

bhnumbers our contractor gave us the choice between a regular control or smart control but says 99% of the time, people opt for the regular controls.

[k3am]

We picked just about everything out this weekend - floors, accent tile, shower tile, and fixtures. I honestly had no preference on fixtures, so I can tell you that they’re brushes nickel, widespread for the sink, rain shower head for the shower.

I’m annoyed by code- we would like the option to only need one valve setting to operate the regular shower head and the handheld at the same time, which CA doesn’t go for, but that’s the whole reason we want the handheld shower head.. for when we’re both in there.

[dr.girlfriend]

We just did hung mirrors but put a tall recessed cabinet in the side wall. It has an electrical outlet in the side. You can buy ones that have them already in them, but they are crazy expensive. My contractor just installed one.