Colliery terraces, estate houses and the odd farmhouse
Chirk was a coal town before it was a castle town for tourists. Black Park and Brynkinallt collieries worked from the seventeenth century into the twentieth, and the terraces that housed their men still make up much of the older town. Those houses have solid masonry walls, a bathroom that was usually added in a back extension or carved out of a bedroom, and waste pipes that take whatever route the plumber of the day could find. The common job for us is moving the toilet and basin into a sensible layout, boxing the soil pipe neatly and fitting a walk-in shower where a short bath used to sit under the window.
Lodgevale Park and the other developments on the edge of town are a different proposition: plasterboard walls, timber floors, a family bathroom and often an ensuite built to the developer's budget. Replacing a developer ensuite with a better shower and wall-hung furniture is a one-week job, and a wet room over the timber floor is straightforward. Around the castle and out towards the Ceiriog valley there are older stone houses, where we expect uneven walls and plan for boarding before any tiling.
Two water companies in one town
Chirk itself (LL14, Wales) is supplied by Hafren Dyfrdwy. Chirk Bank and Weston Rhyn, across the River Ceiriog in Shropshire, are on Severn Trent, and the Weston Rhyn zone is listed by the supplier as hard at 239 milligrams per litre. That border matters when we specify a shower: on the English side we steer customers towards thermostatic valves with easy-clean heads and glass with a limescale-resistant coating, and we mention softeners. On the Welsh side we do not state a hardness figure because the supplier does not publish one for Chirk's own zone; we measure pressure and flow at the survey and choose the shower from that.
Which council, which rules
Welsh Chirk comes under Wrexham County Borough Council's building control, and the Welsh Building Regulations, which run the same Part P and drainage rules that matter for a bathroom. Chirk Bank is in Shropshire Council's area under the English regulations. Either way the notifiable electrics are done by the registered electrician we work with, and you get the certificate. The town centre around St Mary's Church is one of Wrexham's conservation areas, so on a street-facing cottage we think about where an extractor vent comes out and route ducting to the rear where we can.
No showroom in Chirk, so we bring the showroom to you
Chirk has no bathroom showroom of its own. The nearest displays are in Wrexham (James Hargreaves, Easy Bathrooms, Wickes, City Plumbing) and in Oswestry on Maesbury Road, both an easy drive. Most Chirk customers either choose from a shortlist we put together and look at samples at the kitchen table, or visit one of those showrooms with our list of what to check. Either route ends with an itemised quote that prices every item.
Bathroom work we do in Chirk
- Full renovations in terraces and estate houses, one team throughout
- Developer ensuites replaced with a better shower and storage
- Bath out, walk-in shower in, three to five days
- Wet rooms over timber floors on the newer estates
- Tiling and wall panels on walls that are first made flat
- Toilet, basin, shower and towel rail replacements
- Leaks, running toilets, resealing and regrouting
- Bathrooms for landlords letting to Kronospan and Mondelez shift workers
Example scenario: a colliery terrace near Black Park
A two-up two-down with a bathroom in the back extension, 2.4 metres long and 1.6 wide, window at the end and a cold solid wall. We board and insulate the external wall, fit a 1200 walk-in shower across the end under the window, run the toilet and basin along one wall with the soil pipe boxed in, panel the shower, tile the floor, and fit a humidity fan and a towel rail. Five working days.
Leaks and floods in Chirk out of hours
If a pipe goes or a toilet overflows in Chirk, send a WhatsApp or call at any hour: the town is about 17 minutes down the A483 from our base, well inside the area we cover for emergencies. A leak in the street is the water company's job, Hafren Dyfrdwy's on the Welsh side and Severn Trent's in Chirk Bank and Weston Rhyn.