Bathroom Design
A measured survey and drawn layout options, so you can see the room properly before committing to anything.
Read more about Bathroom DesignLuxury Bathrooms In Sidmouth
Planning a new bathroom in Sidmouth?
Designed and installed bathrooms, wet rooms and en-suites for Sidmouth homes, run by one team from survey to handover.
Sidmouth combines the two hardest conditions we work with: a very high proportion of listed and conservation-area property, and hard borehole water. The listed stock means the design has to work within existing service routes. The water means the fittings have to survive the supply. Both are solvable, but neither is something you find out about halfway through a job.
Request A Consultation In Sidmouth
Tell us a little about the room and we will come back to you to arrange a visit. No obligation, and no pressure to decide on the day.
Local Knowledge
Working On Bathrooms In Sidmouth
Sidmouth grew as a Regency resort when the Napoleonic wars made the Continent inaccessible, and the Esplanade and Fortfield Terrace still read exactly as they were built. The result is a town centre where a large share of properties are listed, sitting within a conservation area split into three character parts, plus separate designations at Bickwell Valley and Salcombe Regis.
The demographic matters as much as the architecture. East Devon has a median age of 50 and around 30 per cent of residents are 65 or over, and that is concentrated in towns like this one. A good proportion of our Sidmouth work is therefore high-specification level-access showering - proper tanked wet rooms with concealed supports and thermostatic control, designed to look like a luxury bathroom rather than a grab-rail retrofit.
- High-End Projects
- 100+ High-End Projects
- Workmanship
- Guaranteed Workmanship
- Design Consultations
- Free Design Consultations
- Team, Start To Finish
- One Team, Start To Finish
Services
What We Do In Sidmouth
Every service below is available across Sidmouth and the surrounding villages. Most projects combine two or three of them.
Luxury Bathroom Installation
One team handling strip-out, plumbing, electrics, tiling and second fix, with a single point of contact throughout.
Read more about Luxury Bathroom Installation
Wet Rooms
Level-access showering with the whole floor tanked and graded, not just a tray dropped into a corner.
Read more about Wet RoomsWhy It Matters Here
What Is Different About A Sidmouth Bathroom
- The building stock
- A Georgian and Regency resort town - Fortfield Terrace was built in the 1790s for letting to the gentry - with Victorian marine villas along the Esplanade and clifftops, ringed by interwar and postwar estates inland at Woolbrook and Sidford.
- Hard borehole water
- Sidmouth is on the East Devon borehole supply, which South West Water classes as slightly to moderately hard. Thermostatic cartridges, glass treatment and brassware finishes all need specifying with that in mind.
- Ground and services
- Sidmouth's clifftop and valley-side properties often have long, shallow waste runs that were never generous to begin with. Approved Document H sets real limits on how far an unventilated branch can travel before it needs a ventilating pipe or an air admittance valve, and in a listed building the valve is usually the answer.
- Heritage constraints
- The Sidmouth Conservation Area comes in three parts - Town Centre, Sid Vale and Elysian Fields - with two further separate conservation areas at Bickwell Valley and Salcombe Regis. Sidmouth parish has 360 entries on the National Heritage List, three of them Grade I and thirteen Grade II*.
Reassurance
What Our Guarantee Actually Covers
- The workmanship, not just the products
- Manufacturers cover their own goods. What usually fails on a bathroom is the work around them - a tray that was not bedded, a valve set to the wrong pressure, tanking that stopped short of the door. That is the part we stand behind.
- Tanking and falls in wet areas
- Any fully tiled shower area or wet room we build is tanked as a system and the falls are set and checked before tiling. Water finding its way into a floor void is the single most expensive bathroom failure there is.
- Manufacturer warranties passed to you
- Every warranty on your sanitaryware, brassware and shower valves is registered in your name and handed over in writing at the end of the job, along with the specification of what was actually installed.
- Anything we got wrong, we come back for
- If something we installed is not right, we return and put it right. Most of our enquiries come from people who were let down by someone who stopped answering the phone.
Our Process
How A Sidmouth Bathroom Project Runs
Seven stages, in this order, every time. Most of the problems we get called in to fix on other people's work come from skipping straight from strip-out to tiling.
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Design consultation and measured survey
We come to the house, measure the room properly, and ask how you actually use it - who uses it, at what time of day, and what irritates you about it now. Where we can get a look behind panelling or under a bath, we do, because that is where the surprises live.
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Drawn layouts and full specification
You get two or three layouts to look at, not one. Alongside them, a written specification naming every tile, valve, tap and light - so the quote is for a defined room rather than a vague intention.
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Fixed written quote
Itemised, VAT inclusive, with the specification attached. If the survey turned up something that might need attention once the walls are open, it is written down as a possibility with a cost, rather than sprung on you later.
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Strip-out and first fix
Old suite out, back to the substrate. Pipework and cabling re-routed to suit the new layout, with electrics kept to the correct zones for a bathroom. This is the stage where an older property tells you the truth about its plumbing.
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Substrate, tanking and falls
Walls and floors boarded and primed. Wet areas tanked as a complete system rather than a coat of paint near the tray. In a wet room the falls are formed and checked with a level before any tile is cut.
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Tiling and set-out
Set-out is planned from the sightlines you will actually stand and look at, so full tiles land on the focal wall and cuts finish in the corners. Large-format and book-matched stone is dry-laid first to get the veining right.
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Second fix, commissioning and handover
Sanitaryware and brassware fitted, thermostatic valves balanced to the pressure your house genuinely has, extraction tested against the required rate. Then we walk the room with you, hand over the warranties in your name, and leave a care guide for the finishes.
The Area
Things To Do In Sidmouth
We spend a lot of time in Sidmouth. If you are new to the area, these are worth your time.
Connaught Gardens and Jacob's Ladder
Green Flag walled clifftop gardens above Jacob's Ladder beach, bought by the council for £3,500 in 1930 and opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1934.
Learn more about Connaught Gardens and Jacob's LadderSidmouth Museum
Local history and Sidmouth lace at Hope Cottage, next to the parish church.
Learn more about Sidmouth MuseumNorman Lockyer Observatory
Working observatory named for the astronomer who identified helium in the sun's corona, with public open evenings.
Learn more about Norman Lockyer ObservatoryWhere Sidmouth Is
Feedback
What Clients Say
Rated 5 out of 5
“We had put off doing the main bathroom for years because the house is Georgian and we were nervous about what was behind the panelling. They took the whole wall back, found the old lead feed we suspected was there, and re-ran it properly before any tiling started. The set-out on the marble is what sells the room - the cuts all land in the corners.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Our en-suite is a small room in a Victorian villa with a horrible drainage run. Three other firms told us a wet room was not possible. This lot spent an hour with a laser level working out the falls, then built it. Two years on there is no movement and no damp anywhere near the joists.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“What I appreciated most was the drawings. We saw three layouts before committing, including one that moved the door - which we would never have thought of and which made the whole room work. Being able to see it properly first was worth every penny of the design fee.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Freestanding bath on a first floor in a 1930s semi, so the joists needed checking and doubling up in one place. They flagged it on the survey rather than discovering it halfway through, which is presumably why the quote did not move once. Filler position was marked out and agreed before the floor went back down.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“The thing nobody warns you about is the dust. They sheeted the landing and the stairs every single morning and hoovered before they left. Eleven working days, one team, same two faces throughout. My neighbour has now booked them.”
Budget
Bathroom Costs In Sidmouth
£12,000 – £35,000
Two Sidmouth-specific factors push cost: consent and careful working in the listed centre, and the hard water specification. On the plus side, existing period bathrooms here are often generously sized, so you are less likely to be paying to move walls.
Guide range for a complete room including all trades, materials and VAT. Your figure comes from the survey and written specification.
Full cost breakdownQuestions
Sidmouth Bathroom Questions
- Do I need permission for bathroom work in Sidmouth?
- Replacing a bathroom inside an existing room is internal work and does not need planning permission. Your local planning authority is East Devon District Council, and that is who to approach if a project affects the outside of the building or the property is listed. The Sidmouth Conservation Area comes in three parts - Town Centre, Sid Vale and Elysian Fields - with two further separate conservation areas at Bickwell Valley and Salcombe Regis. Sidmouth parish has 360 entries on the National Heritage List, three of them Grade I and thirteen Grade II*. Building regulations are a separate matter and can apply to drainage, ventilation and electrical work regardless of planning. Council arrangements are correct at the time of writing - Devon's councils are being reorganised into four unitary authorities, with the new arrangements taking effect in April 2028.
- What are Sidmouth properties like to work in?
- A Georgian and Regency resort town - Fortfield Terrace was built in the 1790s for letting to the gentry - with Victorian marine villas along the Esplanade and clifftops, ringed by interwar and postwar estates inland at Woolbrook and Sidford. Sidmouth's clifftop and valley-side properties often have long, shallow waste runs that were never generous to begin with. Approved Document H sets real limits on how far an unventilated branch can travel before it needs a ventilating pipe or an air admittance valve, and in a listed building the valve is usually the answer.
- Is the water in Sidmouth hard?
- Yes, and it genuinely changes what we specify. South West Water classes East Devon as the only hard-water area it supplies - the water here comes from boreholes drilled into the Permian and Triassic sandstone of the Otter Valley, rather than the soft moorland surface water that supplies Exeter. In practice that means thermostatic cartridges scale up over time, glass screens etch if water is left to dry on them, and cheaper plated finishes pit. We specify serviceable cartridges and finishes that tolerate constant wiping for Sidmouth jobs.
- How much does a bathroom cost in Sidmouth?
- Two Sidmouth-specific factors push cost: consent and careful working in the listed centre, and the hard water specification. On the plus side, existing period bathrooms here are often generously sized, so you are less likely to be paying to move walls. Across our whole area, complete bathrooms run from around £12,000 to £35,000 including all trades, materials and VAT. Our cost page breaks that down properly. For context, the average sale price in Sidmouth over the last twelve months was £455,954.
- Do you charge extra to travel to Sidmouth?
- No. Sidmouth is within our normal working area and travel is not a separate line on the quote. What does affect the price is the property itself - its age, construction and existing services - not its postcode.
Coverage
Areas We Cover
We work across Exeter and out into East and Mid Devon. If your town is not listed, it is still worth asking - the practical limit is travel time rather than a fixed radius.
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No showroom to walk around and no sales appointment to sit through. We come to the house, measure up, and tell you honestly what the room can and cannot do.