Most bathrooms in Cardiff terraces and semis measure somewhere between 1.7m by 2m and 2m by 2.5m, which leaves little room for both a bath and a standalone enclosure. So the real question is whether to keep a bath that doubles as a shower, or drop the bath entirely for a dedicated shower. Both can work well in a small room, but the right answer depends on who uses the bathroom, how the pipework runs, and what you plan to do with the house.
A standard shower bath is 1700mm long and between 700mm and 850mm wide, with the wider end at the tap side so you have elbow room when standing. P-shaped and L-shaped versions are the common choices, and both fit the same footprint as the straight bath most Cardiff houses already have. That matters because the waste and hot and cold feeds are usually already in the right place, so the plumbing changes are small.
A separate shower enclosure can be as compact as 760mm by 760mm, though 800mm by 800mm or 900mm by 760mm feels far less cramped. Removing a 1700mm bath and fitting an enclosure at one end frees up roughly a metre of floor, which is enough for a slimline vanity unit or simply more standing room. In a narrow bathroom that is often the difference between a room that feels workable and one that feels like a corridor.
If you have young children, a bath is hard to give up. Bathing a toddler in a shower tray is awkward, and the bath will get used far more than any adult expects. A shower bath with a curved screen and a decent thermostatic mixer gives you both without touching the footprint, and it is the option we fit most often in family homes in Whitchurch, Llanishen and Rumney.
If the household is adults only, or someone has limited mobility, a separate shower with a low profile tray or a level access wet floor is the better choice. Stepping over a 550mm bath rim every morning is a genuine hazard for older users, and a walk-in shower removes it. For rental properties and flats in the city centre, a separate shower is also simpler to keep clean and tends to suit tenants better.
One honest point: showering in a bath is never quite as good as showering in an enclosure. The screen leaves a gap, the standing area is narrower, and water tends to escape at the tap end. It is a compromise, but a sensible one where the bath still earns its place.
A like for like swap from a straight bath to a P-shaped shower bath with screen and mixer typically runs from around £1,200 to £2,500 fitted, depending on the bath quality and whether the wall tiles need replacing. Removing the bath and installing a separate enclosure usually costs more, often £2,000 to £4,500, because the waste position moves, the floor needs levelling, and the wall behind the old bath needs finishing and tiling. A full wet room with tanking and a linear drain is higher again.
Water pressure is the detail most people forget. Plenty of older Cardiff homes still run on a gravity fed hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard, which gives weak flow at an overhead shower. A shower bath with a mixer will feel the same as your current shower, but a new enclosure with a large rain head may disappoint unless you add a pump or move to a combi boiler or unvented cylinder. We check flow rate before recommending a shower head for exactly this reason.
Drainage is the other one. Shower trays need a 40mm waste with a minimum fall, and in a first floor bathroom with joists running the wrong way the tray may need raising on a plinth. That adds a step and eats into headroom under a sloping ceiling. A bath waste, by contrast, is already in place and rarely causes trouble.
Estate agents in South Wales will generally tell you that a house with no bath at all can narrow the pool of buyers, particularly for three bed family homes. If your house has only one bathroom, keeping a bath is the safer choice for value. If you have a second bathroom or an en suite with a shower, then removing the bath from the main bathroom is a much easier decision.
In practice, most of the small bathrooms we work on end up with a shower bath because it keeps every option open. The people who go for a separate shower are usually those with a second bathroom, a mobility need, or a strong preference for a proper enclosure and no interest in baths. Neither is wrong, but be honest about how you actually wash rather than how you imagine you might.
Call Simon for an initial chat, or send a couple of photos of the space and Sycamore will come back with a quote the same week.
A few photos and a sketch of the room is usually enough for a first quote. For anything structural or tricky, we come and look.