Heswall and the west side
Heswall grew when Liverpool merchants settled there and the railway arrived, and the Victorian and Edwardian houses along and off Telegraph Road are the result: big rooms, high ceilings, timber floors and bathrooms that were fitted later in a former bedroom or dressing room. Lower Village, the original settlement by the Dee, has been a conservation area since 1979, with narrow lanes and older cottages where a bathroom needs the preparation any period house needs. Pensby, Barnston and Thingwall, once separate villages, are now joined by continuous family housing, and a lot of it is bungalows, which bring their own job: the level-access shower or wet room for someone who intends to stay in the house as they get older.
Birkenhead, Oxton and Woodchurch
Birkenhead's centre was laid out from 1826 to James Gillespie Graham's Edinburgh New Town plan, and Hamilton Square holds more Grade I listed buildings in one place than anywhere in England outside Trafalgar Square. Oxton's Victorian villas on their conservation-area lanes (designated 1979) are among the best houses on the peninsula to fit a bathroom in, with space for a proper family bathroom and an ensuite. Woodchurch is the other end of the century: a Birkenhead Corporation estate begun in 1946, first house opened in May 1949, planned with its own shops and schools; square bathrooms, solid construction and plumbing on the outside wall, which makes a full renovation straightforward. Wirral Waters on the old docks has been adding apartments since 2011 and the Birkenhead 2040 framework plans more, and apartment bathrooms bring the shared-stack and working-hours questions we are used to.
Wirral water: moderately soft, at the top of the band
United Utilities' own figures for the peninsula sit close together: 97 milligrams per litre of calcium carbonate in the Heswall zone and 100 in Birkenhead's Crosshill zone, both moderately soft but at the top of that band, with some samples slightly hard. So limescale is a slow build rather than a problem, but it is worth a wipe-clean shower head and coated glass, and an electric shower will last longer for an occasional descale. We would not suggest a softener for most Wirral homes. Pressure on the top floor of the tall Heswall and Oxton houses is what we test at the survey.
Wirral Council building control and 26 conservation areas
Wirral Council runs building control from its office in Wallasey; new drainage, structural work and bathroom electrics are the notifiable parts of a bathroom job, and the electrics that need certifying are done by a registered electrician we work with, with the certificate handed to you. The borough has 26 conservation areas, including Heswall Lower Village, Oxton Village, Birkenhead Park and Hamilton Square, so if your house is in one we route extractor ducting and any new soil pipe to the rear and check consent for anything on a street elevation before it goes in.
Showrooms on the Wirral
There is no shortage. In Heswall, Gabriel Bathroom Design and Inspired Bathrooms and Kitchens are both on Telegraph Road. In Birkenhead, Easy Bathrooms and Tiles is at Queensway Retail Park on New Chester Road, James Hargreaves has a showroom on Lord Street, Clifton Trade Bathrooms is at Commerce Park on Campbeltown Road, Waterloo Bathrooms is an independent in Rock Ferry and The Wirral Bath Co on Woodchurch Road sees customers by appointment. Choose in any of them and we fit it, or we shortlist and quote each item at its price.
What we do across the Wirral
- Full renovations in the Edwardian houses of Heswall and the Oxton villas
- Level-access showers and wet rooms in the bungalows of Pensby, Irby, Gayton and Thingwall
- Full renovations and refits on the Woodchurch estate and across Birkenhead
- Apartment bathrooms at Wirral Waters and above the shops
- Ensuites, downstairs toilets, tiling, wall panels, plumbing and electrics (electrician certified)
- Repairs: leaks, running toilets, resealing and regrouting
- Rental and HMO bathrooms for Wirral landlords and agents
Example scenario: a Pensby bungalow
A 1960s bungalow with a 2 by 2.2 metre bathroom, a bath nobody has used in years and a concrete floor. We take the bath out, form a level-access shower area with a linear drain cut into the slab, tank the floor and walls, fit slip-resistant porcelain, a half-height screen, a fold-down seat and rails on reinforced fixings, a comfort-height toilet and a basin with knee clearance. Eight working days, including curing time for the tanking.
Wirral emergencies: a local plumber first
The peninsula is too far from Wrexham for us to promise a fast response at night, so for a burst pipe in Heswall, Birkenhead or West Kirby, call a local plumber first. Once the water is off, WhatsApp us: we repair the bathroom and, if the leak has damaged it, refit it as a booked job.