Friday, 28 March 2014

Renovating your HDB Flat - The Bathrooms - The Bath Tub


The single most expensive thing in your toilet might be the bathtub. If you like to have long relaxing soak in hot steamy water, this is your chance to invest in a bathtub for your own home. Why do I call it an investment? Because it can be quite expensive and you might end up not using it often. Questions you want to ask yourself include..

Do you want a jacuzzi or a simple bathtub? For jacuzzi, you need to have power going into the tub. And their sizes are usually quite big and might not fit in most HDB toilets. But of course, they are the pinnacle of luxury living But then, having looked at quite a number of jacuzzi, I decided to just stick to a normal bathtub. Jacuzzi are just too expensive for me to afford!

Do you want a free-standing tub or a build-in tub? A free-standing bathtub means I just need to move it into place and have a plumber hook up the pipes underneath, to the drain. A built-in bathtub, means I need to have my contractor build the cement base for me to slide in the bathtub from the top. I picked a free-standing tub, even though it is more expensive overall. This is because if one day I need to throw it away in the future, I can just rip and throw.

What materials are there available? A decision that you might have not thought of, is what material is the bathtub made of? Typically in Singapore, you will see acrylic or fibreglass bathtubs. The material will determine the quality of the bathtub but will also push the costs up, so you have to strike a balance on what you want.

Can you actually move it in? Make sure you have space to move the tub into place. This includes your main door, corridor and toilet door. Most bathtubs will not be easily moved into place. Your bathtub's length should not be an exact fit for your bathroom's walls. My bathtub almost did not make it into my bathroom. Took a lot of manoeuvring to get it in place.


You should still have some leeway on the edges or else you will have problems fitting it in. Also take note that the toilet bowl and the shower will also get in the way of installing your bathtub. And if you end up with a bathtub too small to lounge in, then you're better off without it!

Consult your contractor. Discuss with your contractor on whether he can help settle the bathtub installation. Ask for his opinion as he may have experiences he could share, which can help you guide your own decision.

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