Why order matters more in a small bathroom
In a bathroom of only a few square metres — typical of many seafront apartments or of 1970s and 1980s blocks in central Torrevieja — every decision directly affects the next. Choosing the wrong fitting or shower tray before knowing the exact dimensions of the available space usually means redoing work already completed, something that goes unnoticed in a large bathroom but shows up immediately in a small one.
Step 1: settle the layout before touching anything
Before requesting a quote from any trade, be clear whether the current layout of fittings and shower tray is staying or changing. Moving the toilet or the shower tray means moving the soil stack too, which in older buildings can run into structural limitations in the floor slab itself. Keeping the existing layout and changing only the elements is normally considerably faster and cheaper than relocating the whole bathroom. When the work is in a holiday rental this weighs even heavier: any decision that stretches the job beyond what is strictly necessary carries an added cost in bookings that cannot be accepted while it lasts.
Step 2: plumbing before tiling
Any change to the water or drainage installation — including replacing an electric cylinder or gas heater if it is being renewed in the same job — must be resolved before the tiling is touched. Opening a wall once the new tile is laid to correct a plumbing fault is exactly the kind of delay that wrecks a tight schedule.
Step 3: shower tray or bath
In small coastal apartment bathrooms, replacing an old bath with a level-access shower tray is by far the most requested change, because it frees up visual and physical space in a confined room. Measure the available opening precisely before buying the tray, since standard market sizes do not always fit exactly into the space a removed bath leaves behind. The screen deserves attention at this point too: in very small bathrooms a sliding screen usually makes better use of the space than a hinged one, which needs an opening radius that often is not there.
Step 4: tiling and material choices
In a small bathroom the size and colour of the tile strongly influence the sense of space. Large-format pieces with few visible joints generally feel more spacious than a mosaic of small pieces, though the final choice also depends on budget and the style you are after. Light tones, combined with good recessed lighting in the ceiling or beneath the basin unit, reinforce that sense of space further in a confined room.
- Define the layout of the fittings before requesting quotes.
- Resolve all plumbing before tiling.
- Measure the opening precisely before buying a shower tray or screen.
- Choose a large-format tile if the goal is maximum sense of space.
- Leave paint and finishing trims as the final phase.
Common surprises in older buildings
Opening the wall of a bathroom several decades old frequently reveals old lead or fibre-cement pipework that appeared on no plan, or a soil stack in worse condition than it looked. These findings are not exceptional but rather the norm in renovations of older buildings, so reserve some margin of time and budget for surprises of this kind before fixing an over-tight schedule. In apartments where the soil stack is shared between several stacked properties, any change to the drainage installation is worth discussing with the residents' association beforehand, since a badly executed change on one floor can affect how the bathroom below works. Consulting the property manager in advance, however much it feels like extra paperwork, avoids trouble later and in some cases is a requirement written into the association's own rules.
| Phase | What gets resolved |
|---|---|
| 1. Layout | Decide whether fittings stay or move |
| 2. Plumbing | Pipework, drains, cylinder or heater |
| 3. Fittings and shower tray | Precise measurement before buying |
| 4. Tiling | Choice of tile format and colour |
| 5. Finishes | Paint, silicone and final trims |
Coordinating the trades without losing time between phases
A small bathroom renovation normally involves a plumber, a tiler and a painter, and the biggest risk of delay lies not in any one trade but in the dead time between them when each professional works independently without coordination. Having a single point of coordination that plans the order in which each trade arrives stops the job dragging on purely for lack of communication between those involved. In holiday rentals this is even more critical: every extra day of work is a day less available for bookings, so plan the renovation outside high season and with the trades already coordinated before the existing bathroom is stripped out.
If you are considering renovating a small bathroom in your apartment, Manitas covers the whole Vega Baja and quotes free of charge to plan the job from start to finish.
