Rhyl's housing, and what it asks of a bathroom fitter
West Rhyl is the part of town that was built for the Victorian holiday trade: tall townhouses that were split into flats and bedsits as the resort faded, and which the regeneration of the last decade has been steadily thinning out and renovating. Bathrooms in those conversions were often squeezed into a landing or a former box room, with the waste running a long way to a shared stack, and they are where we see the oddest plumbing. On Edward Henry Street a block of 33 disused flats has gone and 13 three-bedroom family homes have taken its place, and the council has been buying Victorian terraces on Aquarium Street to turn back into family houses; those projects show the direction the town is moving in.
Away from the seafront, Rhyl East, Rhyl South, Trellewelyn and Ty Newydd are mostly twentieth-century semis and bungalows with a standard-sized bathroom and a sensible soil stack, which makes a full renovation or a bath-to-shower conversion a straightforward week. Many of those houses belong to older residents, and a level-access shower with a seat and rails is the most common request we get from the town.
The 2013 flood and ground-floor bathrooms
On 5 December 2013 a tidal surge got over the sea defences and flooded somewhere between 140 and 200 homes around Garford Road and the Coast Road, most of them lived in by elderly people. A 28 million pound defence scheme followed. If your house is in that part of town and the bathroom is on the ground floor, it changes what we recommend: a fully tanked floor, wall panels or porcelain rather than anything that swells, and fittings that can be dried out and cleaned rather than replaced. It is a small cost at the design stage and we raise it at the survey rather than leaving it to you to remember.
Water and building control in Rhyl
Rhyl is supplied by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water. Rather than quote a hardness figure we cannot verify for the LL18 zone, we measure what matters at the survey: the pressure and flow at the bathroom, which decide whether a rainfall head will perform and whether a pumped or electric shower makes more sense in a flat with a shared supply. Building regulations here are Denbighshire County Council's; new drainage connections, structural changes and bathroom electrics are the notifiable items, and the electrics that need certifying are done by a registered electrician we work with, and you get the certificate. In a converted building, the shared soil stack and the freeholder's permission are the two things we check before quoting.
Seeing suites and tiles in Rhyl
Rhyl is better placed than most of the coast for choosing a bathroom in person. Topps Tiles on Vale Road carries the tile ranges, B and Q at Clwyd Retail Park has bathroom displays, and Jewson on Cefndy Road has a bathroom showroom alongside the builders' merchant. If you would rather we did the shortlisting, we bring samples to the house and price every item on the quote so you can swap anything you like.
What we do in Rhyl
- Full bathroom renovations in houses and flats, four to five working days on average
- Level-access showers and wet rooms with seats and grab rails on proper fixings
- Bath-to-shower conversions in semis and bungalows
- Bathroom refits for landlords and agents between tenancies, including HMOs
- Ensuites and downstairs toilets
- Tiling, wall panels, plumbing, towel rails, fans and lighting (electrician certified)
- Repairs: leaks, running toilets, resealing and regrouting
Example scenario: a West Rhyl first-floor flat
A converted Victorian townhouse flat with a narrow bathroom off the landing, a bath nobody uses and a waste that runs six metres to the shared stack. We fit a 1200 by 800 low tray with a fixed screen where the bath was, re-run the waste at a proper fall with an accessible trap, wall panels on three sides, a wall-hung basin with a drawer, a quiet humidity fan ducted to the rear, and new lighting. Four working days, agreed in advance with the freeholder and the neighbours below.
Burst pipes on the coast at night
Rhyl, Kinmel Bay and Towyn are outside our same-night emergency area, so a local plumber will reach you faster if a pipe bursts. In a converted flat, tell the neighbours below as well. We come back for the repair, or for a new bathroom if the leak has finished the old one off.