Wear & Tear in You Bathroom Could Cost More Than Just Money If You Don’t Plan Ahead

Is Damage To Your Bathroom Wasting Energy & Resources?

Can all those little things really add up?

If you are talking about continued use, accidental damage, and redecorating – then it’s a great big yes! I am staying in a holiday cottage at the moment and they have made some big mistakes in the bathroom that could save them a lot of time, money and resources in the long run; the planets resources!

Bearing in mind they are going to get different people with different lifestyles and ethics, they should make it almost ‘normal’ to be green. But instead, they have made it quite acceptable to waste products and to allow damage to the fixtures and the bathroom in general.

Here is a general summary of the worst offenders:

1) No Handle In The Bath

They have opted for the half-bath here to limit the amount of water used (as they could have fitted a full size one easily) – however, it has no side handles.

Now although I am still agile enough to get in and out of the bath without them – I am causing a bit of a moist mess in the process! I have to hold the side of the bath to steady myself or to get out – and as a result all the water from my hand and arm is sliding over the edge of the bath, down the front of the wooden bath panel and down behind the wooden skirting that encircles the entire bathroom.

Needless to say, this continued moistening is gradually going to cause damage and the mis-shaping of the panel front until it all needs replacing. Unless, like me – everyone who stays here dries off while standing in the bath to avoid the drips!

2) No Window To Outside

As always, no window from this moist room means that there needs to be an electric fan running all the time you are in there – wasting energy.

They are also very ineffective, I find, over time and so the whole room will be susceptible to damp and mould growth. And to get the best results from the fan, it means that the door to the bathroom needs to be kept closed all the time – sealing it in.

This room also needs a light on all the time otherwise the fan won’t work (as they are seemingly always linked together). This also means that when you are not having a bath or the room isn’t damp but you need to use the bathroom for anything else – you have to have the fan on as well! What if you just need to nip in to clean your teeth, or grab your nail clippers from the shelf – on comes the fan for another 5 minutes!

A simple window would eliminate this waste of energy and make the whole place lighter, dryer and fresher. I mean what creates damage more than a damp, dark, small, sealed room?

3) Proper Sealing

The floor is tiled but the skirting is wood – so there is no waterproofing of the floor for cleaning purposes. I know that it isn’t a full wetroom, but when you mop these tiles, you are going to get the wooden panels wet and allow excess water to seep down behind them and into the floor – not such a good idea really.

Why not use tiles as the skirting so that you can virtually waterproof the room by using the same grout as the floor and so protect the walls and ground beneath from absorbing moisture.

Same goes for the sink. Why not get a sink with a raised protective back that reaches a little way up the wall. So, rather than the white sealant between the wall and basin holding a layer of soap or toothpaste-filled water and eventually going yellow and rotten or becoming mildew – the sink itself is in one piece so feeds the excess water back into the sink and down the plughole!

It will eliminate all of the above problems and reduce the amount of cleaning and maintenance needed to virtually nothing.

4) Protect The Walls

I don’t know about you, but I always hit the wall with the swinging light pulls – the larger the handle the more banging seems to occur! As you can imagine, each bang is damaging the wall.

Also, people can’t always find the string in the dark, so end up touching the paintwork or – as I have done if the pull string is too near the wall (as it is here) – chipped off some paint and sometimes plaster under my fingernails!

As you can imagine, it doesn’t take long for the paint to become patchy or the wall to become a bit dirty – so why not protect the wall with a tile. If you put a large tile or 4 smaller ones in the area where the most contact and therefore most damage will occur, you can save having to repaint the entire wall for just that dirty patch!

A few tiles or a whole tub of paint?

5) More Hanging Space

There are only 2 of us here, but the hanging space in the bathroom is virtually non-existent – so what do we do with the wet towels?

Well, you have to hang them somewhere else which will inevitably be the backs of wooden chairs or over other wooden furniture like the stair rail. Don’t forget that we are in a little self-contained unit away from home and without a garden – a drying horse or washing line just aren’t an option unless supplied by the rental.

Needless to say, the moisture from the towels is now being absorbed by the furniture and the room so as a result this could all be reducing their workable lifespan. And seeing as this property is designed to be used almost continually by family after family it is going to get through furniture a lot quicker anyway.

The Answer:

Well, there is nothing much I can do here as it has already been installed by the owners, but it is certainly worth considering these things when redecorating or improving your own bathrooms.

The future is looking towards sustainability and the longevity of our resources – so why not help by reducing the amount of repair and replacement your bathroom needs!

PS – it’s not quite damage to the bathroom itself, but one other thing they did is certainly a big no no and was very uncomfortable too:

The Toilet Roll Holder

The owners have put it right behind the toilet, so you have to reach right round to pull off a few sheets. Inevitably you pull off way more sheets than you actually wanted as you are bent sideways and you sort of flick back to facing forwards. But now loads of sheets are now all unrolled and in your hand – you are going to use them all aren’t you?

Who would leave a few sheets to one side and use them later?

By swapping the toilet with the sink in this room, they could have had the toilet roll holder to the side of the toilet reducing the excessive use of this already over-used resource.

All so simple.