Wet Rooms in Dundee: A Practical Guide to Planning Yours

What a wet room actually is, and where it works

A wet room is a fully waterproofed, open showering space where the floor itself is graded to a drain, rather than a tray sitting on top of it. The whole room, or at least the showering zone, is tanked with a waterproof membrane before tiling, so splashes and overspill simply run away instead of finding their way into your joists.

They work particularly well in the compact bathrooms common in Dundee tenements and post-war semis, where removing a bulky shower enclosure can make a 2m by 2m room feel far bigger. They are also a strong choice for ground floor conversions, for example turning a box room or part of a garage into an accessible shower room for an older relative. The main trade-off is that towels and toilet rolls need to live out of the spray zone, and you will want good ventilation to manage moisture.

• Small or awkward bathrooms where a shower tray dominates the space
• Accessible bathing with level access, no step to trip over
• En suites and second bathrooms in loft conversions
• Homes planning ahead for changing mobility needs

What it costs and what drives the price

For a full wet room conversion of an existing bathroom in the Dundee area, most projects land somewhere between £7,000 and £15,000 including design, strip out, tanking, drainage, tiling, sanitaryware and making good. A compact en suite done to a sensible specification can come in below that; large format porcelain, underfloor heating and premium brassware push it up.

The biggest cost variables are the floor build-up and the drainage. Timber floors, which most upper floors in this area have, need the joists checked and often need a former installed to create the fall to the drain, plus a decoupling layer so movement never cracks the tanking. Moving soil pipes or achieving enough fall to an existing stack can add a day or two of labour. Be wary of quotes that look dramatically cheaper, because the corners that get cut in a wet room are exactly the ones you cannot see until water appears on the ceiling below.

Tanking, drainage and heating: the details that matter

Tanking is the single most important part of the job. The whole floor and the wet walls should be covered with a proper membrane system, lapped into the drain and carried up behind the tiles to at least 1.8m in the shower zone. Tile adhesive and grout are not waterproof on their own, whatever a bargain installer tells you.

Drainage needs a consistent fall, usually around 1:80 to 1:100, towards either a central gully or a linear channel drain along one wall. Linear drains suit large format tiles because the floor only needs to fall in one direction. Ask any installer how they will form the fall on your specific floor, and whether the trap is accessible for cleaning. Electric underfloor heating is worth serious consideration too; it costs a few hundred pounds at this stage, dries the floor quickly between showers and takes the chill off tiles through a Scottish winter.

How long the work takes and living through it

A straightforward conversion of an existing bathroom typically takes two to three weeks on site: strip out and first fix in the first few days, then tanking, screed or former, tiling and finally second fix of the sanitaryware and glass. Tanking membranes and adhesives need proper curing time, so a firm promising a finished wet room in under a week is rushing the stages that protect your house.

If it is your only bathroom, ask how the installer will keep a working toilet for as much of the job as possible, and expect two to four days without a usable shower in the middle. Building warrant requirements are worth checking early as well; a like-for-like bathroom refit usually does not need one, but forming a new drainage connection or converting a different room often does, and a reputable design and build firm will handle that paperwork with the council for you.