Bathroom/wetroom planning

[Maxf]

Ive got the builder booked for the first week of April to fit our new bathroom (we used him for the kitchen and he was top notch). Generally we have to have everything planned out and explained clearly and he'll get on with it and do it well - when we leave questions or things unclear he melts down and doesnt like it at all. It works for me generally as I'm a bit of a control freak anyway.

However, I know very little about bathrooms.

My room is 2.7m x 2.1m and doesnt need a WC (this is in a seperate alcover off the main room), so 'just' needs to fit a bath, shower and sink (plus a towel rail).

To fit everything in with enough circulation space I think we will really need to have a largely open shower, which is getting into the realms of a wetroom and this is where I have some questions:

The floor is timber (its ground floor though), so I will ensure he puts extra joists in to strengthen it. Some will be rotten anyway as the bath looks to have leaked for years (we moved here in the summer). So these will be replaced.

For the shower, I think we'd still like a tray, but somewhat flush with the surrounding tiles. The tray will take most of the water, but not all so the surrounding area will need to be 'waterproof' too.

Are we best off just buying the Impey wetroom sheets and joints (strips and corner) to do the whole floor? I assume we tile directly onto these with a super low profile shower tray plonked where we need it (and tiled upto)? How can we get it flush with the tiles - build up around it with ply boards maybe (then wetroom sheets over the top)?

Underfloor heating - given its a small space (especially with the shower and bath footprints taken out), we are going for electric UFH in addition to a large towel rail. We want the UFH to primarily dry the floor, but also be warm underfoot. I think the towel rail will probably provide most of the heat. Any suggestions which brand is best and has a timer control?

Finally - I want a powerful extractor. There is one in the wall at the moment, but is there any benefit to having one directly above the (open) shower? Any recommended brands? Is a heat exchange one worth thinking about?

Im PH style, I'll stick some progress pics up shortly.

Thanks in advance

[Maxf]

Gingerbread Man said:

Impy is a good system. But a little odd to use it with a shower tray over their tile over designed tray.

You can mostly hide a tray by flushing boarding between the joists where it will go and plonking the tray down. Then boarding the room with 25mm ply onto the joists. Check the tray height, but after a tile, adhesive, UFH mat and membrane you'll be close. Not done before with the membrane/ UFH mat though, so it could be close.

Then make sure your falls fall towards the drain as needed. I've seen a puddle of water the opposite side of the room and it's not pretty!

The Imply system is simple to lay if you stick to the instructions. There are even YouTube guides.

Thanks for this - Ive seen the Impey sloped drain tray thing (technical!) which we can tile over. I think this seems like the simplest solution, especially if we use it with the impey sheeting for the rest of the floor/walls