Castle Bromwich Bathroom Renovation: Walk-In Shower, Tanking and Progress Photos
A good Birmingham bathroom renovation starts long before the tiles go on the wall. The best results usually come from the less glamorous bits: planning the layout, checking pipe runs, protecting the room from water, and making sure every waste outlet actually works with the space.
That’s exactly where this recent home renovation project began. This Birmingham bathroom is being transformed into a cleaner, more modern space with a walk-in shower, a low-profile tray for that wetroom-style feel, minimal tiling, and a large floor-standing vanity to give the room a solid, built-in look.
It’s also a nice example of how much careful work sits behind a bathroom that looks simple when it’s finished. Simple doesn’t mean basic. In Birminghan bathroom Fitters, simple usually means well planned.
A local Birmingham bathroom fitting journey that started in 2016
This project sits within a bigger story. The fitter behind the work is a local Birmingham Bathroom Fitter who has been transforming bathrooms since 2016, building up experience across family bathrooms, shower rooms, en-suites, and full rip-outs.
That kind of experience matters because older bathrooms rarely behave exactly as expected. Floors can be uneven. Existing pipework might not run where the client thinks it does. Waste routes can be awkward. Previous installations might hide shortcuts behind boxing, tiles, or bath panels.
After years of fitting bathrooms, you start to spot the warning signs early:
A shower waste that needs better fall
Walls that need checking before large-format tiles go up
Floors that need extra prep before tiling
Old pipework that should be replaced rather than worked around
Wet areas that need proper tanking, not just nice grout
That’s why the project didn’t begin with buying a shower screen or choosing a tile colour. It began with a conversation, a proper look at the room, and a plan that made sense for how the bathroom would be used every day.
In this Castle Bromwich home, the goal was clear from the start. The client wanted a modern showering space that felt open, easy to use, and easy to keep clean. A walk-in shower with a low-profile tray was the right fit.
The design consultation focused on daily use
The first consultation is where the style ideas meet the practical questions.
A bathroom can look great in a showroom, but it has to work in a real home. That means checking the size of the room, the position of the doorway, where the toilet and basin currently sit, how far the waste needs to run, and whether the floor build-up allows for the finish the client wants.
For this renovation, the client had a clear brief:
A modern walk-in shower
A low-profile shower tray
A wetroom-inspired feel
Minimal tiling rather than every wall tiled from floor to ceiling
Practical storage through a large vanity unit
Clean lines without making the room feel cold or plain
The low-profile tray was a key part of the design. It gives the bathroom that open, level-access look without necessarily turning the whole room into a full wetroom. This can be a smart middle ground. You get a sleek shower area, but the tray still helps manage water and define the shower zone.
A true wetroom usually needs more extensive floor preparation, gradients, drainage planning, and waterproofing across a wider area. A low-profile tray can offer a similar visual feel while keeping the installation more controlled, especially in homes where the existing floor structure makes a full wetroom more involved.
The consultation also covered where tiling would have the most impact. Rather than tiling every wall, the plan focused on key areas:
The bathroom floor
The shower enclosure area
Splash-prone zones where water protection and cleaning matter most
This approach can keep the room feeling warmer and less echoey, especially when paired with painted walls or other moisture-suitable finishes outside the direct wet zones.
Why tanking is one of the most important parts of the job
Tanking is one of those things most people never see once the bathroom is finished, but it can make or break the job.
Tiles are not a waterproofing system on their own. Grout can absorb moisture, silicone can fail over time, and movement in walls or floors can create small cracks. In a shower area, water will always try to find a way through.
That’s where tanking comes in.
Tanking means applying a waterproof barrier behind the tiled surface. This can include liquid waterproofing, sealing tapes, waterproof boards, or a tanking membrane system. On this job, the focus is on protecting the shower area properly with a membrane so that the structure behind the tiles has a reliable line of defence.
The aim is simple: water should stay where it belongs.
Industry guidance, including British tiling standards such as BS 5385, makes it clear that wet areas need proper preparation. The exact system depends on the room, substrate, and products being used, but the principle is the same. A shower is a high-water area, so it needs more than adhesive, tile, grout, and hope.
For a walk-in shower setup, tanking is especially important because splash zones can be larger than with a standard enclosed cubicle. With an open screen and a low-profile tray, water can spread further during normal use. Good waterproofing behind the finished surface gives the bathroom a much better chance of staying sound over the long term.
A proper tanking process usually includes:
Preparing the substrate so it’s clean, stable, and suitable
Sealing joints, corners, and board connections
Using waterproof tape where movement or gaps are likely
Applying or installing the membrane system as specified
Allowing the right drying or curing time before tiling begins
Corners and pipe penetrations deserve extra care. These are common weak points because they involve changes of plane, cuts, or small gaps around fittings. If water gets behind the tiles, it often finds these points first.
Minimal tiling keeps the finish clean and modern
Not every bathroom needs to be tiled from top to bottom. In this project, the tiling has been kept more focused, with the main tiled areas being the floor and shower zone.
That choice suits the design really well. It keeps the room practical where it needs to be practical, while avoiding a heavy all-tile finish. It also lets the large vanity become more of a feature rather than being lost against a fully tiled backdrop.
The floor tiling will help tie the room together visually. Bathroom floors take a lot of wear, especially around the shower and basin, so tile remains a strong choice when installed over the right preparation. The shower area will get the full wet-zone treatment, with tanking behind the tiles and careful detailing around edges and corners.
The result should be a room that feels modern without being overdone. That’s often the sweet spot with bathroom design. A few strong choices, fitted properly, can do more than trying to cram in every trend at once.
The large floor-standing vanity adds storage and weight
A large floor-standing vanity is going into this bathroom, and it’s a practical choice.
Wall-hung vanity units can look very sleek, but they’re not always the best fit for every room. They need strong fixing points and careful planning, especially when storage load and pipework are involved. A floor-standing vanity gives a more grounded look and can make installation simpler in some settings.
It also gives the client useful storage, which is one of the biggest quality-of-life upgrades in a bathroom. It’s easy to focus on the shower, tray, taps, and tiles, but everyday clutter can spoil a finished room quickly. A larger vanity gives space for toiletries, cleaning products, spare toilet rolls, towels, and all the small things that usually end up sitting around the basin.
For this design, the vanity also helps balance the open feel of the walk-in shower. The shower side can stay clean and minimal, while the vanity side adds function and visual weight.
First fix pipework set the job up properly
Before the exciting finishing work, the first fix had to be sorted.
First fix is the stage where the hidden services go in. For a bathroom, that usually means hot and cold water feeds, waste routes, shower supply pipes, basin feeds, toilet connections, and any changes needed before walls and floors are closed up.
On this renovation, the first fit of incoming pipes was a key part of getting the layout ready. Pipework needs to be in the right place before tiling starts, because changing it later can mean lifting floors, chasing walls, or cutting through fresh finishes.
The incoming supplies for the shower and vanity have to line up with the planned fittings. That includes thinking about:
The height and position of shower controls
The reach of the shower hose or fixed head
The basin tap position
Service access where needed
Neat pipe routes that don’t create awkward boxing
Good first fix work often disappears once the bathroom is finished, but it affects everything. If the pipes are in the wrong place by even a small amount, the finished fittings can look off-centre or feel awkward to use.
Waste management also needed proper planning. Shower wastes and basin wastes rely on gravity, so the pipe needs enough fall to carry water away. If the fall is poor, drainage can be slow, noisy, or prone to smells and blockages.
Core drilling helped create a better waste route
Core drilling was carried out as part of the waste management plan.
Core drilling is used to create a clean, round opening through masonry or another solid structure. In bathroom work, it can be needed when waste pipework has to pass through an external wall or through a section where a neat route is required.
This is one of those stages where accuracy matters. The hole needs to be in the right place, at the right angle, and suitable for the pipe size. A badly placed waste opening can cause problems with falls, external pipe runs, or how the finished bathroom lines up inside.
For a shower, the waste is especially important. A modern walk-in shower looks simple, but the drainage has to keep up with real use. The tray, waste, pipe run, and fall all work together. If one part is wrong, the shower can hold water or drain too slowly.
That’s why waste planning was handled before the finishing stages. It’s much easier to solve these things while the room is open than after the tiling has been completed.
The progress photos show the work behind the finish
Progress photos are always worth looking at on a bathroom renovation. The finished room tells one part of the story, but the build stages show the care that went into it.
For this project, the progress photos capture the room at the point where the key hidden work is taking shape. You can see the preparation, the first fix, the developing shower area, and the groundwork before tiling starts.
That’s helpful because it gives a more honest view of what a proper renovation involves. A bathroom doesn’t go from old suite to glossy finish overnight. There are stages where it looks stripped back, messy, and unfinished. That’s normal.
The important thing is what’s happening during those stages:
The old layout is being assessed and improved
Pipework is being run for the new design
Waste routes are being created properly
The shower area is being prepared for tanking
Tiled areas are being planned around real wet zones
Storage and furniture positions are being set before final fitting
Those steps are what make the finished bathroom last.
What happens next after tiling
The next big visual change will come once the tiling is completed. That’s when the design will start to look much closer to the finished room. The floor will bring the space together, and the shower area will begin to show the modern wetroom-inspired look the client wanted from the start.
After tiling, the later stages usually include fitting the vanity, installing final sanitaryware, sealing edges, fitting screens or shower panels, connecting taps and shower controls, and checking everything works as it should.
The final details matter. Silicone lines, trims, grout finish, screen alignment, and tap positions all affect how the room feels when it’s handed over. A bathroom can have quality products, but if the finishing is rushed, it shows.
For now, this Castle Bromwich bathroom is at that satisfying midway point where the hidden work is coming together and the final look is just around the corner.
Check out the progress photos from the renovation so far, and keep an eye out for the next update once the tiling has been completed. That’s when the walk-in shower, low-profile tray, minimal tiled areas, and large floor-standing vanity will really start to show how the whole design comes together.
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