Dimensions and understanding the space needed around your bathroom items

When you're planning your bathroom layout, you need to understand the size of the items you're choosing – your shower tray dimensions, bath / bathtub size – and make sure you have enough space around or in front of them to be able to use your bathroom comfortably. This article is a guide – nothing can replace measuring your room and comparing what you are looking to buy against the space you have. Reno's bathroom layout tool can help you create a floor plan to scale, with the exact dimensions of the toilet, basin, bath and showers you're looking to buy.

“Span” is the distance left to right, without obstructions. So this would be how wide your space needs to be in front of your basin, for example. Think of those elbows when you are brushing your teeth! For toilets, you'll want a minimum of 200mm space between the side of the toilet and any wall / other fitting.

* Make sure you measure the door size to ensure you'll have enough space in front of the shower.

A cloakroom bathroom, often located on the ground floor of modern homes, is typically a secondary bathroom featuring only a toilet and a basin. These spaces are considerably smaller than average bathrooms, with a typical size around 1100mm x 1400mm or 800mm x 1700mm.

These are general guidelines, and actual sizes can vary between different manufacturers and models so remember to check what you are buying and measure your space to ensure it fits, with enough clearance space to move around.

• For small and compact bathroom designs, a small bath size would be 1400mm (bath length) x 700mm (bath width)
• Standard bath size would be 1700mm x 800mm
• Double-ended baths which have taps and waste fittings in the centre often measure around 1700mm to 1800mm in length and 750mm to 850mm in width
• Corner baths usually have dimensions ranging from 1200mm to 1500mm on each side

• Close-coupled toilets dimensions are typically around 400mm (width) x 700mm (depth) x 800mm (height)
• Wall-hung toilets width and depth can be similar to close-coupled toilets, but the height may vary
• Back-to-wall toilets are usually around 360mm to 400mm (width) x 520mm to 700mm (depth) x 800mm (height)

Basins start around 300mm to 600mm+ widths with a depth of 300mm to 500mm. There are some differences if you're looking at cloakroom basins and sinks, pedestal (on a ceramic pillar), wall–mounted, countertop (on a vanity unit) vs. semi–recessed (sunk into a vanity for example).

Shower tray dimensions start from around 700mm x 700mm for the most compact bathroom design, though 900mm x 900mm will be a lot more comfortable and we've seen some as large as 1700mm x 2000mm. Quadrant Shower Trays are curved “quadrant–shaped” trays designed to fit into corners, starting typically around 800mm x 800mm and Offset Quadrant Shower Trays have a more elongated shape i.e. widths of around 800mm to 1200mm and lengths of 900mm to 1600mm.