The Complete Guide to Renovating a Bathroom in Mallorca
Key takeaways
- A renovation is a sequence: survey, layout, specification, order, strip-out and first fix, waterproofing, surfaces, second fix, snagging.
- The decisions at the top of that list are cheap to change; the ones at the bottom are not.
- Materials reach the island by sea; the fitting date is planned backwards from the delivery.
- The step that decides whether the room lasts is invisible the day after it is done.
A bathroom renovation looks like a tiling job and is not one. It is a sequence of decisions and trades in which the tiling is the last week, and this guide walks through it in the order it happens on the island, with the questions to ask at each step. The service page is the short version; this is the long one.
1. The survey
Somebody measures the room, finds where the water arrives and where the waste leaves, checks the depth of the floor, taps the walls, and asks how the bathroom is used and by whom. This is where the awkward answers surface: the drain with no fall, the wall that is stone under the plaster, the stack shared with the flat above, the floor that meets the ground. A quote given without a survey has guessed the expensive half.
2. The layout
Kept, adjusted or changed. Keeping the toilet, the drain and the water supply where they are is the single biggest saving in most renovations; changing them is right when the room does not work. Ask for the room priced both ways. On the island the layout question has an extra dimension: in a stone house a pipe through a wall is masonry, and in an apartment the shared stack decides how far a toilet can move.
3. Shower, bath, or both
The bath-to-shower conversion is the change asked for most in the requests we pass on, and the honest question is whether anybody in the house uses the bath. If not, a walk-in shower or a wet room in its place gives the room back. If the property will be let to families or sold, keep one bath somewhere.
4. The specification
Surfaces, furniture, sanitaryware, taps and glass named, so that three quotes price the same things. Large-format porcelain needs a flatter wall than a small tile; a stone floor needs a fall cut into it; a wall-hung toilet needs a frame the wall has to carry. The three big decisions – surfaces, furniture, fixtures – are made together because each changes the others.
5. Order and lead time
Sanitaryware, glass, stone and tiles reach the island by sea. The fitting date is planned backwards from the delivery, not forwards from the strip-out, and a second home is best renovated in a period when nobody is there.
6. Strip-out and first fix
The old room out, then the plumbing and electrical work while the walls and floor are open: supply and waste to each fixture, the frame for a wall-hung toilet, the shower valve set into the wall, power for lighting and a heated rail.
7. Waterproofing and falls
The step that decides the next twenty years and is invisible the day after. The floor is given its fall towards the drain, the membrane goes across the wet area and up the walls, and every corner, threshold, drain and pipe is detailed. Ask to see it before the tiles go on; a photograph of the membrane is the record. The waterproofing page has the questions.
8. Surfaces, second fix and snagging
Tiling or microcement, then the suite, the glass measured after the surfaces are on, the vanity, the taps, the sealing, and a snagging visit after the first weeks of use rather than before them.
The island, specifically
- In an apartment the community of owners has a view on anything that reaches a shared stack, duct or facade
- In a stone house the wall is the plan, and moving a pipe is masonry first
- A floor on the ground wants separating from it before anything is laid on top
- Salt air on the coast reaches every finish; specify for it
- Hard water marks glass and taps; coated glass and a shower head that comes apart are the practical answers
- A small window means ventilation designed rather than hoped for
How long does the whole thing take?
The work in the room is usually two to four weeks; the wait before it, for materials by sea, is often longer. Plan from the delivery date backwards, with a margin before the room is needed.
Do I need an architect?
For a bathroom inside its existing footprint, usually not; the company plans it. Where a new bathroom changes the outside of a house or the structure, an architect and the town hall may be involved, and the company will say.
What should I ask every company?
What the waterproofing system is and how far up the walls it goes; how the fall will be formed; whether the substrate is replaced or repaired; what is included after fitting. The answers are the quote.
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