Free standing baths

[johnkerr]

Hey guys,

The girlfriend has always wanted a free standing bath like the ones linked, although not necessarily from that retailer. I'm not too concerned about cost but I'm wondering if there are any problems that people have encountered with these baths and if it adds much to resale value. It'll certainly make our bathroom look a lot more modern I feel.

[Julie-Ann]

Hi Johnkerr welcome to the Decorating Forum. This type of bath might make the perfect Christmas present.
The issues I know about are:
As with all baths if you are not on a cement slab you need to make sure the weight of the bath can be supported.
You need to be able to get around all sides of the bath easily enough for cleaning. Although there is a version of free standing bath that sits against a wall that solves this problem. It's similar to the top left bath in this picture.



Also if you don't have it against a wall you need to consider where the plumbing will be placed. With these types of baths they generally have the taps coming from the floor.

Are you renovating a bathroom?

[Darkbyte]

One very important thing to consider with freestanding baths is how you are going to fill them up. Are you going to have a floor mounted mixer or a spout attached to the wall? This can greatly impact the cost of the entire project, especially if you have a taste for square floor mounted mixers!! Square floor mounted mixers are more expensive than round ones, unless you are looking an unbranded chinese one (which is then branded or named by the people selling it).

What material bath do you want? Acrylic, stone, composite? Acrylic baths come as either two piece or seamless - you will notice the difference in the price. Seemless is more expensive.

You have to remember to leave room to clean around the bath too. Space wise they arent very efficient.

When you are looking at baths, go to the manufacturer's showrooms, you will find retailers only align themselves with certain manufactures and dont always carry the full line. Marble trend do two piece acrylic baths, as does Lannark. Reece have their own, then there are stone ones - if you are in perth go to the stone superstore. They have some amazing composite stone baths at amazing prices. The bathroom outlet on ozzy park do a number of unbranded chinese baths and tapware.

another thing to consider with freestanding baths is that they do not all have an inbuilt overflow, so you may need to have a drain close to the bath.

I think they look stunning, however pick your market, I have noticed that as my mum is getting older she is having less and less baths (in a normal built in bath), simply because it is harder to get in and out of them. She will not attempt my freestanding bath. Which reminds me, make sure there is room to access it from the long side - my ensuite design is a little off in this regard.

Hope this little brain dump helps, any questions let us know

[clp]

They're also not very kid friendly either - and sometimes a ledge is really handy.

I see them ideally placed in an enormous master suite where they are in a room which is less bathroomy - ie where there is somewhere nice to look out or where the divide between ensuite and bedroom is hazy.


If you have an enormous main bathroom they can be great there too - I guess if you are not having to make too many sacrifices to fit one in they can be worth it.

I am not a fan of The Block habit of shoving them into tiny rooms with hardly any access around them.

[johnkerr]

Wow thanks guys, I didn't expect so much information. That's interesting about the weight issue, it makes a lot of sense I guess the weight would be concentrated on a few smaller points? I think we'll be ok but I'm definitely going to check that out.

As for the spout we've been looking through all the designer bathroom stuff linked here (same guys as the bath) and I really like the floor mounted ones but it's just too much outlay when we can just modify the current wall mounted spout to suit.

[Julie-Ann]

That is great that you can use the wall mounted spout. Do look at other retailers too. The company you are linking is very high end European products - stunning but often pricey. So shop around. I use Tradelink a lot as they sell a large range with a wide variety of prices too. Let us know which bath you choose.

[Darkbyte]

I agree RogerSeller is very expensive. There are plenty of other baths and fixtures around which are just as nice. Reecee, has one the fits against the wall, cant remember if it was the ozzy park or claremont show room (just call and ask).

There are plenty of showrooms in ozzy park. Abey has one, and you can see all of the designer gessi fittings and fixtures. You can get these through tradelink and negotiate a price to some degree. Novelli is cute too, they have a show room in ozzy park too.

Its well worth doing your research and hopping in and out of a few baths. there were some i loved and some i didnt. I like oval baths, square ones just dont hug me enough. tried an egg shaped bath, whilst it looked lovely, it was very short inside despite its external length being the same as many other spacious baths.

definitely go to the stone superstore website and look at their composite baths.... sexy! I would have brought the lumina(?) is i could have fitted it in the room!

[mummachicka]

We have a freestanding bath in our main bathroom however it is plenty big enough to accommodate it. I also have a floor mounted mixer tap. I looked at wall mounted ones however I would've needed to off centre the bath for it to reach or have the bath moved further against the wall which wouldve meant not being able to get a mop behind it.

See us women - we like to think practically too!

We have 4 kids and all of them love it. The littlest one cant get into it by herself yet but thats a plus for us.

If & when we renovate again I could definatly tell you that I'd get another one if space aloud.

[Jude]

Hi all,have you seen the ceiling mounted bath filler ?
It flows down just like a tap and certainly is a great conversation piece,have seen one in a nephews new home.
Kohler make one and I think there are other brands as well.
Regards Jude

[Julie-Ann]

Did your nepwhew's look like this one Jude?



Does the water spray or splash out of the bath?