How much does a wet room cost?

Wet rooms are quoted at a fixed price after we have surveyed the room, because the floor construction, drainage route and specification change the work substantially. Quotes are free, and the fixed price only moves for genuinely unforeseen problems found behind walls or under floors.

Can a wet room be installed upstairs on a timber floor?

Usually yes. The deck normally needs strengthening or replacing and the drain has to be positioned to suit joist direction, which we assess at survey. Rooms above living space get the most careful tanking and testing because the consequences of a failure there are the greatest.

Will the rest of the bathroom get wet?

Not in a well-designed wet room. Falls are graded so water runs to the drain, and a fixed glass panel keeps spray contained while still leaving level access. Beyond the graded area, floors stay dry in normal use.

How long does a wet room take to install?

Longer than a straight bathroom swap, because the floor build-up, tanking and tiling each need to be done in sequence and given time to cure. You get a realistic written timescale with the fixed-price quote rather than an optimistic figure on the phone.

Is a wet room suitable for someone with mobility difficulties?

Yes — level access is one of the main reasons people choose one. We also fit grab rails, seats and safe layouts as part of our accessible and disability-adapted bathroom work, planned around the person who will use the room.

How is the waterproofing guaranteed?

Workmanship is guaranteed for one year on plumbing and parts and two years on tiling, and we hold £2 million public liability insurance. The room is tested before handover rather than at the first shower.

Do wet room floors get slippery?

Only if the wrong tile is chosen. We specify floor tiles with appropriate slip resistance for a permanently wet area, and textured porcelain gives good grip without being difficult to clean.

Can you convert my existing bathroom into a wet room?

In most cases yes. The existing room is stripped back, the floor prepared for the fall, drainage re-routed if needed, then tanked and tiled. Whether it is practical depends on the floor and the drainage route, which is exactly what the free survey establishes.

Do you cover wet room installation outside Ampthill?

Yes — Flitwick, Bedford, Luton, Dunstable, Milton Keynes, Hitchin, Harpenden, St Albans and the surrounding Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire villages.

What if a wet room leaks later?

Call us. Emergency cover runs 24/7 at £120 per hour for urgent leaks and the phone is always monitored, and anything falling inside the workmanship guarantee is dealt with as our responsibility.

07533 646033 fourseasonsplumbinguk@gmail.com Ampthill, Bedfordshire

24/7 emergency cover — phone always monitored

Wet Room Installation in AmpthillBuilt to Drain Properlyand Stay Dry for Years

A level-access wet room that is fully tanked and correctly graded, so water goes to the drain every time instead of into the floor — designed, waterproofed and tiled by one team on a fixed price.

Request your free estimate 07533 646033

Qualified plumber since 1998 · £2 million public liability insurance · tiling guaranteed for two years

25+ years

Plumbing experience behind every waterproofing detail

9.83 / 10

Checkatrade score across 172 reviews

2 years

Guarantee on tiling, one year on plumbing and parts

£2 million

Public liability insurance

24/7

Emergency cover, phone always monitored

What a wet room is, and what makes one succeed

A wet room is a bathroom where the shower area drains directly through the floor, with no tray lip and usually no enclosure door. The whole floor, or a defined section of it, is graded towards a drain and the room is waterproofed as a single sealed envelope. Done properly it is the most durable and most accessible form of shower there is. Done badly it is a controlled leak into the structure of your house.

The visible part — tiling, glass screen, drain grate — is the easy part. The part that decides whether the room works is underneath: a floor build-up that can take the fall, a tanking membrane lapped correctly at every junction, a drain sized and positioned for the flow, and a shower valve matched to the property's water pressure. Owen McDonagh has been a qualified plumber since 1998 and holds an NVQ Level 2 in Plumbing, and wet rooms are built here with the same in-house team that handles our full bathroom installations, including our own tiler and electrician.

We install wet rooms for homeowners who simply prefer the look and the ease of cleaning, and for households who need level access because a step into a bath or tray is no longer safe. Both are quoted the same way: a free survey, then one fixed price after we have seen the floor construction, the drainage and the water pressure, supply-and-fit or labour-only.

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Who this is for

Households needing level access

Where stepping over a bath side or tray lip has become a fall risk, a wet room removes the obstacle entirely without making the room look clinical.

Small bathrooms and en-suites

Removing the tray and enclosure frees usable floor area and makes a tight room feel considerably larger.

Homeowners tired of cleaning enclosures

Fewer frames, seals and channels means fewer places for limescale and mould to gather.

Loft, ground-floor and extension bathrooms

New rooms where the floor build-up can be planned from the start, which is the ideal time to specify a wet room properly.

What goes wrong when a wet room is not built correctly

A wet room concentrates every litre of shower water onto a floor that has to be both graded and sealed. If the tanking membrane is missed at a corner, stopped short at a doorway or punctured by a fixing, water passes straight into the floor structure. On a timber first floor that means saturated joists, staining and then collapse of the ceiling below. On a ground floor it means damp travelling into adjoining walls. Because the failure is under the tiles, it is invisible until the damage is substantial.

Falls are the second failure point. Too little fall and water pools around the drain and creeps towards the doorway. Too much fall over too wide an area and the floor feels uncomfortable underfoot and tiles are hard to lay flat. Getting the graded area, the drain position and the tile format to agree with each other is a setting-out problem that has to be solved before tiling starts, not during it.

The cost of putting a failed wet room right is almost always higher than the cost of building it correctly, because it means removing tiles, membrane and often floor deck to reach the fault, then replacing damaged structure and redecorating the room below. Where the water has reached lighting or wiring, the work becomes urgent as well as expensive. This is precisely why we tank fully, grade deliberately and test before the room is handed over.

Common mistakes we are called in to fix

Relying on tile adhesive and grout as waterproofing — neither is a tanking system.
Tanking the shower zone only, leaving the rest of a room that will inevitably get wet unprotected.
Fitting a drain rated for less flow than the shower valve actually delivers, so water backs up across the floor.
Grading the floor after boarding rather than designing the build-up and fall from the start.
Choosing large glossy floor tiles with no meaningful slip resistance in a permanently wet area.
Cutting the membrane for a fixing or screen after tanking, then sealing it with silicone and hoping.

How the job runs

Survey of floor, drainage and pressure

We check the floor construction, joist direction, existing waste and soil stack positions and the property's water pressure, because those four things dictate what kind of wet room is achievable.

Design, specification and fixed price

Drain type and position, graded area, screen layout, tile format and shower valve are specified together, then quoted as one fixed price with a realistic timescale in writing.

Strip-out, structure and first fix

The old room comes out, the floor is prepared or re-decked as required, the drain is set to the correct level, and waste, supply pipework and electrics are run for the new layout.

Forming falls and full tanking

Falls are formed to the drain, then the floor and wet walls are tanked as a continuous membrane with reinforcement at corners, upstands and every pipe penetration.

Tiling, testing and handover

Our own tiler lays slip-appropriate tiles to the fall, junctions are sealed with flexible sealant, then the room is flood and flow tested before handover. Tiling is guaranteed for two years, plumbing and parts for one.

What you actually get

Level access with no step

No tray lip to climb over, which makes daily use easier now and keeps the room usable as circumstances change.

Waterproofed as one sealed envelope

Full tanking with reinforced junctions rather than a waterproof patch behind the shower head.

Drainage sized to the shower

Drain type, position and flow rate are matched to the valve fitted, so water leaves as fast as it arrives.

Easier to clean, fewer failure points

Without a tray, frame and door seal there are far fewer places for limescale, mould and leaks to start.

More usable floor space

Removing the enclosure footprint often makes a small bathroom or en-suite feel a size larger without moving a wall.

Guaranteed and insured

Two-year tiling guarantee, one year on plumbing and parts, £2 million public liability insurance and a Which? Trusted Trader endorsement behind the work.

Wet room construction: materials, methods and variations

Wet rooms vary far more than the finished photographs suggest. These are the main decisions we work through at survey stage for installations in Ampthill, Flitwick, Bedford, Luton and the surrounding villages.

Timber floors versus solid floors

On a timber floor the deck usually has to be strengthened or replaced and a former or graded build-up installed between or over the joists, with the drain positioned to suit joist direction. On a solid concrete floor the fall can often be screeded, and the drain outlet has to be planned against the existing waste run. The two routes have different costs and different lead times, which is why we look at the floor before quoting.

Formers, screeded falls and drain types

Pre-formed sloped panels give a consistent, predictable fall and suit most tile formats. A screeded fall gives more freedom on shape and drain position. Drains come as centre point gullies or linear channels; linear drains suit large-format tiles because the floor can fall in one plane rather than four.

Tanking systems and detailing

We use a liquid-applied membrane with reinforcing tape at internal corners, floor-to-wall junctions and pipe penetrations, lapped so water can only travel towards the drain. Fixings that must pass through the membrane are sealed as they are made, not afterwards. Doorways get particular attention because that is where an under-graded floor lets water escape.

Tiles, slip resistance and grout

Floor tiles in a wet room need a suitable slip rating and a format that can follow the fall without lipping — smaller formats and textured porcelain work well on multi-directional falls, larger formats suit linear drainage. Walls can take almost any format. Movement junctions are finished with flexible sealant rather than rigid grout.

Screens, doors and layout

A fixed glass panel keeps spray off the rest of the room while retaining level access. Hinged returns, walk-through layouts and fully open designs all work, but each changes how far water travels, which changes how much of the floor must be graded and tanked.

Heating, extraction and drying out

A wet room that cannot dry out will always look tired. Underfloor heating under a tiled floor and correctly sized extraction, wired by our own electrician to bathroom zone requirements, remove moisture quickly and keep grout and sealant in better condition.

Wet rooms in flats, en-suites and upstairs rooms

Rooms above habitable space carry the highest consequence if waterproofing fails, so detailing and testing matter most there. Pumped waste can extend where a wet room is possible when gravity drainage is not available, and we will say plainly at survey if a location is not suited to one.

Common questions

Anything not covered here, call Owen McDonagh on 07533 646033 and ask. Quotes are free and the phone is monitored 24/7.

How much does a wet room cost?: Wet rooms are quoted at a fixed price after we have surveyed the room, because the floor construction, drainage route and specification change the work substantially. Quotes are free, and the fixed price only moves for genuinely unforeseen problems found behind walls or under floors.
Can a wet room be installed upstairs on a timber floor?: Usually yes. The deck normally needs strengthening or replacing and the drain has to be positioned to suit joist direction, which we assess at survey. Rooms above living space get the most careful tanking and testing because the consequences of a failure there are the greatest.
Will the rest of the bathroom get wet?: Not in a well-designed wet room. Falls are graded so water runs to the drain, and a fixed glass panel keeps spray contained while still leaving level access. Beyond the graded area, floors stay dry in normal use.
How long does a wet room take to install?: Longer than a straight bathroom swap, because the floor build-up, tanking and tiling each need to be done in sequence and given time to cure. You get a realistic written timescale with the fixed-price quote rather than an optimistic figure on the phone.
Is a wet room suitable for someone with mobility difficulties?: Yes — level access is one of the main reasons people choose one. We also fit grab rails, seats and safe layouts as part of our accessible and disability-adapted bathroom work, planned around the person who will use the room.
How is the waterproofing guaranteed?: Workmanship is guaranteed for one year on plumbing and parts and two years on tiling, and we hold £2 million public liability insurance. The room is tested before handover rather than at the first shower.
Do wet room floors get slippery?: Only if the wrong tile is chosen. We specify floor tiles with appropriate slip resistance for a permanently wet area, and textured porcelain gives good grip without being difficult to clean.
Can you convert my existing bathroom into a wet room?: In most cases yes. The existing room is stripped back, the floor prepared for the fall, drainage re-routed if needed, then tanked and tiled. Whether it is practical depends on the floor and the drainage route, which is exactly what the free survey establishes.
Do you cover wet room installation outside Ampthill?: Yes — Flitwick, Bedford, Luton, Dunstable, Milton Keynes, Hitchin, Harpenden, St Albans and the surrounding Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire villages.
What if a wet room leaks later?: Call us. Emergency cover runs 24/7 at £120 per hour for urgent leaks and the phone is always monitored, and anything falling inside the workmanship guarantee is dealt with as our responsibility.

Related services

See everything we cover, read more customer reviews or go back to the homepage.

Where we cover

Based in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, we carry out wet rooms across the county and into north Hertfordshire.

Ampthill
Flitwick
Bedford
Luton
Dunstable
Milton Keynes
Hitchin
Harpenden
St Albans

Find out whether your room suits a wet room

Book a free survey and we will check the floor, the drainage and the water pressure, then give you a straight answer and a fixed price — including telling you if a wet room is the wrong choice for that room.

Need someone today?

Emergency cover runs 24/7 at £120 per hour and the phone is always monitored.

07533 646033

£2m public liability insurance · Which? Trusted Trader · 9.83/10 on Checkatrade

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