Property types
Bathrooms in a dormer bungalow
Questions to ask any fitter
Waste from an upstairs dormer bathroom often needs to route through boxing along a ground-floor ceiling to reach the stack, so the position of that boxing should be agreed before tiling starts.
The short answer
A dormer bungalow typically has ground-floor rooms built to full height and upper rooms shaped by the roof pitch, so a bathroom in the dormer section faces the same sloped-ceiling and headroom problems as a loft conversion while the ground-floor bathroom behaves like an ordinary single-storey room. Waste from the upper bathroom usually has further to travel down to the stack than in a standard two-storey house.
What the building imposes
- In the dormer section
- the shower and WC generally sit under the higher part of the ceiling created by the dormer itself, leaving the sloped eaves for storage or the basin.
- Waste from an upstairs dormer bathroom often needs to route through boxing along a ground-floor ceiling to reach the stack
- so the position of that boxing should be agreed before tiling starts.
- Roof insulation standards in older dormer conversions vary
- and a cold ceiling in the bathroom is often the first place condensation shows up as it is usually the most humid room in the house.
Questions we get asked
Can a wet room work in a dormer bathroom?
Yes, but the sloped ceiling limits standing height in parts of the room, so the shower zone needs to sit under the flattest section for it to feel comfortable.
Why does the ceiling in our dormer bathroom get damp patches?
It is usually a sign of poor ventilation or a cold spot in the roof insulation rather than a leak, and it is worth checking the extraction is ducted properly to the outside.
Where this fits with our work
Not sure which option suits your property?
Most of these decisions come down to what is behind the wall and under the floor. A site visit settles it quickly.