It’s important to draw plans of your existing bathroom and your future bathroom. This will help you see what changes you need to make to the electrical wiring and plumbing. Start by drawing a plan of your bathroom as it is now.

This should show:

• The positions of the new sanitaryware and furniture you want

• The changes you need to make to the plumbing, such as any water and drain pipes you need to remove, relocate or install new
• What the plumbing system is like now, including where the hot and cold water and drain pipes are located
• What changes you need to make to the electrical wiring, such as any cables and sockets you need to remove, relocate or install new

Bathrooms contain various items connected to the electricity supply, water supply and drains. To dismantle your old bathroom safely, do the job in the following order: first remove the electrical appliances, next remove the furniture and finally remove all the items connected to the plumbing.

Electrical appliances

Once you’ve removed all the fixtures and furniture, the next step is to remove the old floor and wall tiles.

Remove the floor tiles

Depending on how you want to lay out your new bathroom, you may need to modify the plumbing. Here’s a list of possible changes:

• Moving or eliminating drainage points
• Moving or eliminating water supply points
• Making new drainage channels

Important! Take care with pipe diameters. Supplies and drains have different requirements. So you can’t re-use the old pipes if you replace a washbasin with a toilet, for example.