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DIY Wet Room Kits — Fitting Your Own Wet Room
Everything a competent DIYer needs to know before ordering a WetBase™ kit: what you can realistically install yourself, what to hand to a professional, step-by-step overview, common mistakes, and honest cost comparison.
Can You DIY a Wet Room?
An honest skills assessment before you order.
WetBase™ kits were specifically designed to be DIY-friendly — the tray arrives pre-formed with the fall to drain already built in, so you're not cutting or screeding a fall yourself. That removes the single hardest part of a traditional wet room build. But "DIY-friendly" isn't the same as "no skill required." Be honest with yourself about the following before you commit to fitting it yourself.
- Tile confidently to a wall and floor, including cutting around obstacles
- Use a spirit level and understand why level matters for drainage
- Follow a waterproofing/tanking sequence step by step without skipping stages
- Cut the tray accurately if trimming to a bespoke size
- Connect a shower waste to existing plumbing, or work alongside someone who can
- You're not confident tiling — especially taking into account tile heights, adhesive depth and special cuts
- The drain needs relocating or connecting to new pipework, not just an existing waste
- The room involves structural changes (moving a stud wall)
- Any electrical work is needed near the wet zone (underfloor heating thermostat wiring, extractor fans) — this must be certified, not DIY'd
A realistic middle ground many customers choose: fit the tray and tiling yourself, but pay a plumber for an hour to certify the waste connection, and an electrician if underfloor heating or an extractor fan is involved. This keeps costs down without cutting corners on the parts that are hardest to fix once tiled over.
Step-by-Step: What Fitting a WetBase™ Kit Involves
A high-level overview — full written instructions are linked at the end of this section.
Prepare the sub-floor
The floor must be flat, structurally sound, and dry before the tray goes down. Timber floors need to be rigid enough not to flex under the tray — underboarding with marine ply is required beneath the tray to achieve this. For the rest of the floor, a tile backer board is recommended to create a steady, level tiling surface, with the added benefit of a waterproof, insulating layer.
Position and bond the tray
Dry-fit the tray first to confirm the drain lines up with your waste pipe, then bond it to the sub-floor per the WetBase™ fitting instructions.
Connect the drain
Connect the Dallmer fast-flow drain to your waste pipe. This is the step most worth having a plumber check, even if you fit everything else yourself.
Apply the tanking
The floor and walls must be tanked for waterproofing — this step itself is not optional, though which tanking kit you use is. If you're using our Mapei tanking kit, this is applied to the tray and surrounding wall/floor junctions per the manufacturer's coverage and drying-time instructions — see the Tanking Kit section below for what's included on each range.
Tile the surface
Once tanking has fully cured, tile as normal using a flexible tile adhesive suitable for wet areas.
Seal and test
Seal all junctions with a solvent-free sanitary sealant, then run water to the drain before considering the room finished — catch any issues while the floor is still accessible.
Full detail for each stage: WetBase™ Tray Installation Instructions.
Choosing Your Kit as a DIY Installer
We offer three WetBase™ ranges. Here's how they compare for a first-time DIY fit.
| Range | Drain position | DIY suitability | Sizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| WetBase™ Standard | Fixed, factory-set | Most straightforward — nothing to measure or cut for the drain | 15 sizes, 800×800mm–1800×900mm |
| WetBase™ Linear | Installer-positioned — a 51mm hole is drilled during fitting | Good for DIY, but drain positioning must be measured and drilled accurately before bonding — this cannot be moved afterwards | Universal, trimmable to size |
| WetBase™ ONE / ONE Infinity | 360° rotatable | Achievable, but a premium wedi-engineered product — many DIYers choose Standard or Linear on cost grounds instead | 1200×1000mm, 1200×1800mm only |
If this is your first wet room and you'd rather not drill a drain hole yourself, WetBase™ Standard is the simplest starting point. If you need flexibility over where the drain sits — for example around existing pipework — WetBase™ Linear gives you that control, provided you measure twice before drilling.
Tanking Kit Explained
What's included, what's optional, and one deliberate exception.
Waterproofing (tanking) is what stops water getting past your tiles into the sub-floor and surrounding structure. Across our WetBase™ ranges, tanking is supplied by Mapei and is available as an optional extra — you can supply your own tanking system if you already have one you trust, or add ours at checkout.
WetBase™ ONE is the one range where a Mapei tanking kit is included as standard on every kit, rather than offered as an optional add-on. The tray itself is fully waterproof, so the included kit is specifically for tanking the surrounding wall and floor junctions where the tray meets the room. If you're comparing kit prices across our three ranges, this is worth factoring in — WetBase™ ONE's price already reflects a tanking kit that Standard and Linear price separately.
Related product: the tanking kit we supply is not an own-brand product — it's Mapei, a leading name in tanking and waterproofing systems. Jackoboard tanking boards remain available separately as an alternative waterproofing method, but are a different product to the Mapei liquid tanking system supplied with WetBase™ kits.
Full detail on the tanking process itself: Waterproofing / Tanking a Wet Room.
Common DIY Mistakes — and How to Avoid Them
Drawn from years of trade and DIY installations — the issues we hear about most.
Tiling before tanking has fully cured
Liquid tanking needs its full manufacturer-stated drying time between coats and before tiling. Rushing this is the single most common cause of leaks that only show up months later.
Not tanking the splash zone
It's not just the shower area walls that need tanking — the walls and floor within the wider "splash zone" outside the shower itself also need waterproofing. Water reaches further than most people expect.
Drilling the Linear drain hole off-centre
On WetBase™ Linear, the drain position is set by the installer and cannot be moved once drilled. Measure from the finished wall line, not the sub-floor, and double-check before drilling.
Using standard sealant instead of solvent-free
Sealant around a wet room tray must be solvent free — this is a durability requirement in a permanently wet environment, not a preference.
Skipping the water test
Running water to the drain before you consider the job finished — while the floor is still accessible — catches problems while they're still cheap to fix.
DIY vs Professional Installation — Honest Cost Comparison
Neither option is automatically "better" — it depends on your confidence and time.
Fitting it yourself
You pay for the kit and materials only — no labour cost. Typical time investment for a competent DIYer is a full weekend, sometimes longer if it's your first tiling job.
Best suited to: confident tilers, those with time to spare, and anyone happy to pay a plumber/electrician for the specific steps outside their comfort zone.
Professional installation
Labour typically adds a significant amount on top of kit cost, varying by region and room complexity — get quotes locally rather than relying on a national average.
Best suited to: anyone without tiling experience, complex rooms (structural changes, drain relocation), or where time is more valuable than the labour saving.
A hybrid approach — DIY tiling and tray fitting, professional plumbing sign-off — is a genuinely common middle ground and often the best balance of cost and peace of mind.
Building Regulations — What to Check
General guidance only — always confirm requirements with your local authority before starting work.
Fitting a wet room tray itself doesn't typically require building control approval in most UK homes, but related work often does. If you're adding underfloor heating with electrical wiring, or any new electrical work within the wet zone (Zone 1 or Zone 2), this falls under Part P of the Building Regulations and must be carried out or certified by a qualified electrician — this isn't optional, and isn't something to DIY. If you're altering existing drainage or plumbing significantly, or the property is a flat/leasehold, check whether building control notification or leaseholder consent is required before you start. When in doubt, a five-minute call to your local building control department is worth it before you're mid-project.
DIY Wet Room FAQs
Do I need a plumber to fit a WetBase™ kit?
Is tanking included in the kit price?
What tools do I need to fit a wet room tray myself?
Can I use a WetBase™ kit with vinyl flooring instead of tiles?
How long does a DIY wet room installation take?
What happens if I get the drain position wrong on WetBase™ Linear?
Do I need building control approval to fit a wet room myself?
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