Bathrooms and kitchens are usually the most important rooms in the house when it comes to renting and selling. So, it’s no surprise that when would be renters are looking round your rental property the bathroom is high up on their list of priorities! It’s vital that the bathroom (or shower room, and we’ll come to that!) is presented in the best way possible, looks clean and hygienic and is also going to be tough at withstanding any potential areas where leaks could occur. Some tenants can be less careful than you might like about where the water is going when they are in the shower! It’s also usually an expensive area to upgrade but with a little bit of thought, there can be some cheaper ways to update your bathroom.
Update the basics – if you have a really limited budget then a really deep clean throughout will help enormously along with updating the small things – so a new shower curtain makes a huge difference, new toilet roll holder – even a floor standing one- chuck out the manky old toilet brush (urgh!) and make sure the grouting and sealant are clean. The number of times I visit properties with discoloured sealant is amazing – its really easy to fix and definitely something you can do yourself! Perhaps new storage – so many cheap options – https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/home-and-furniture/bathroom/
See below before and after:
Coat of paint – bathrooms and normally pretty small spaces so a lick of paint will make a huge difference and shouldn’t take long – particularly if there are signs of any mould spots or flaking paint. It will smell fresher and be much more appealing to tenants.
Wet Wall Paneling– If you have a low or mid range rental property then wet wall paneling might be your saviour! These large water proof panels can be installed over old tiles and if done properly, can look great. They can go on walls or ceilings and there are loads of different designs to choose from – plain, glittery, shiny, matt, tile effect. (see https://www.wetwall.com/)
They are really cost effective to install, means you don’t have to remove old tiles usually or worry about the condition of the walls behind and because there is no grouting involved , they substantially reduce the chance of water penetrating through the grouting at the tiles, so less chance of leaks! It also reduces the need to re-grout every so often and they are wipe clean. The wipe clean is important particularly for small internal bath or shower rooms because any mould/ condensation gathering on ceilings can be easily cleaned , so more hygienic and less maintenance. We are using these more and more in rental properties as for landlords – less upfront cost, less maintenance cost + more hygienic for tenant+ attractive look = happy all round!
Here are some examples of wet wall before and afters.
