What kind of shower for a loft conversion in ED?

[Goodliz]

Hi, Not sure if posting in correct section.

We have always had a downstairs bathroom but after 8 years in our house we are finally modernising. Whoopee!

We are bringing bathroom upstairs onto first floor and also converting our loft.

I am new to all this and thought I would seek the advice on the forum as I am sure lots of people have already done this.

As bathroom has always been downstairs our pressure has been fine. Not too sure what it will be like upstairs.

We are thinking of putting in a valve shower in the family bathroom but wandered if an electric shower was better for the loft shower. Builder can recommend I am sure but just wandered what other people have done please.

Many thanks

Liz

[ed_pete]

What kind of shower you can have in the loft is dictated by what kind of hot water system you have.

If you have a conventional system with a cold water tank (in the loft) and a hot water cylinder then you can have a normal shower valve but it would need to be boosted by a shower pump because the shower head is likely to be higher than the height of the cold water tank (assuming that you keep that and it's relocated around the conversion) as the water from the tank can't flow upwards !

If you have a combi boiler then you may get away with a normal shower valve depending on the flow and pressure you achieve in the loft. If the flow/pressure is not good enough then you may have to opt for an electric shower unless you are prepared to change your hot water system to one that supplies mains pressure hot and cold water - one commonly adopted solution to this is to install a Megaflow system but that is quite expensive. Hope that helps.

[Goodliz]

Thanks ed_pete. WE are on a budget so megaflow is out of our league. Thanks for replying. I shall carry on researching and we are not in a rush so plenty of time.

[womanofdulwich]

I have never had a decent electric shower. Ok for weekend guests but not for eveyday use after all those fantastic running sessions you do!

The guys at Bells Lordship Lane were really helpful talking this through with me. They have plenty of brochures and Mira and Aqualisa are good makes. If you have a plumber lined up then they can advise too- we used Gary Cooper who is a recommended plumber.

We had a http://www.tapoutlet.co.uk/quartz-digital-concealed-shower-mixer-with-harmony-hand-shower-gravity-systems.html for getting extra power from a normal ground floor boiler.It was for a good shower over a bath. Works very well, especially for teenagers who stand there for 10 mins.