Macclesfield bathroom fitting, from weavers' garrets to Tytherington

Silk-town houses and what they allow

Macclesfield had 71 silk mills in 1832, and the town still holds the houses that went with them: early nineteenth-century workers' cottages and three-storey weavers' garret houses with wide top-floor windows that lit the looms, built hard up to the pavement. The Town Council's 2024 character appraisal notes that many now have replacement windows and rendered fronts and little room for bins or parking. Inside, the rooms are narrow and the stairs steep, so a bathroom in one of these houses is a careful fit: a short-projection toilet, a slim vanity, a shower rather than a bath, and every item measured against the staircase before it is ordered.

Hurdsfield Road has its own row of silk weavers' cottages with large third-storey windows, inside a conservation area, while behind it the post-war estate is mostly two-storey semis with some bungalows. On Prestbury Road the houses are Victorian villas with room to spare.

Tytherington, Broken Cross and the villages

Tytherington was built from the 1960s as meandering roads and cul-de-sacs off Manchester Road, first around Rugby Drive and then around Dorchester Way, with a newer estate around Springwood Way. Broken Cross keeps its old village round the roundabout, but most of the housing between Prestbury Road and Chester Road is 1960s and 1970s estate building. In both, the bathroom is a standard family room, often with a separate toilet, and the usual job is a full renovation with a walk-in shower or a new ensuite in the main bedroom.

Prestbury, to the north, has seen many large houses replaced by much larger ones, and its bathrooms are the biggest jobs we quote in the area. Bollington, under White Nancy, has mill buildings converted to homes, including the upper floors of Clarence Mill, where a bathroom refit means working around shared services and the building's rules.

Soft water from the hills

United Utilities supplies Macclesfield from three zones, all soft or moderately soft. Tytherington and Bollington average about 44 milligrams per litre, the town centre, Prestbury, Hurdsfield and Upton Priory about 57, and Broken Cross about 62. Limescale is a small problem here, so you can choose glass, chrome and rainfall heads freely. What we do check is pressure, because a garret house with the bathroom on the second floor can be a long way from the incoming main.

Cheshire East building control and Macclesfield's conservation areas

Cheshire East Council handles building control for Macclesfield. On a bathroom job it needs to know about new drainage and structural changes; the electrics are self-certified by our electrician. Macclesfield and its villages have a long list of conservation areas, among them the Town Centre, Christ Church, Park Green, Hurdsfield Road, Prestbury Road, Prestbury, Bollington and Kerridge. In those streets we take extractor ducting out of the back of the house.

What we do in Macclesfield

• Compact bathrooms in weavers' cottages and garret houses, planned around steep stairs
• Full renovations and ensuites in Tytherington, Broken Cross and Upton Priory
• Large bathrooms in Prestbury and the Prestbury Road villas
• Mill-conversion bathrooms in Bollington
• Wet rooms, walk-in showers and downstairs toilets
• Tiling, wall panels, plumbing, fans and lighting (electrician certified)
• Repairs, resealing and regrouting

Leaks at night in Macclesfield

Macclesfield is the furthest town we work in, so for a burst pipe or an overflowing toilet at night, call a local plumber first. We then come in for the repair and any refit, which in a narrow silk-town house is often the moment to rethink the layout as well.

Which towns we reach in an emergency