What Height Should a Towel Rail Be?

A single towel rail usually goes 1000 to 1200 mm above the floor, the range Australian bathroom maker ABI Interiors gives. A heated towel rail needs its lowest bar at least 600 mm off the floor, to keep it away from small children, according to the makers' install guides.

There is no Australian law or building rule for towel rail height. These are common practice and maker advice, so you can move them to suit your family. Below are the heights for each kind of rail, the electrician rule for heated rails, what works in an accessible bathroom, and what has to go inside the wall before it is lined. Everything was checked on 10 November 2026. There are no prices here.

What is the standard towel rail height in Australia?

About 1000 to 1200 mm from the floor to the rail, for a single bath towel rail. ABI Interiors gives that range, and says that if you fit more than one rail, they should be at least a towel's drop apart.

The quickest check is to try it before anything is drilled. Hold the rail against the wall at the height you want, fold a bath towel over it, and see where the towel ends. It should hang clear of the floor, the bath edge and the vanity, with room to grab it from where you stand.

Tall families often go to the top of the range, near 1200 mm. If kids need to reach it, a second, lower rail or a hook does more than dropping the main rail.

How high should a heated towel rail be?

The lowest heated bar should be at least 600 mm above the floor. The Avenir install guide for the Milli Edge heated ladder says this is to avoid hazards for young children, and Mizu's Drift guide says the same.

A heated rail is also an electrical appliance, so the wiring decides where it can go. The Mizu Drift guide says its rail must be installed by a qualified electrician to the AS/NZS 3000 wiring rules. It says not to plug it into a power point, and that it is not suitable above a bath or inside a shower. The Milli Edge runs on low voltage through a transformer, and Avenir says it can go in more parts of the bathroom. Rails differ, so read the guide for the one you buy.

In Queensland, a hard-wired towel rail has to be connected by a licensed electrician. The Electrical Safety Office says it is not illegal to buy an appliance that needs hard-wiring, but a licensed electrician must connect it. DIY electrical work is illegal, with fines of up to $40,000 for a person.

Plan the height with your electrician before the wall is lined. On the Milli Edge, the cable comes out of the wall behind one of the rail's mounting legs, so once that hole is made, the rail's position is set.

How high should a towel rail be next to a shower or bath?

The same 1000 to 1200 mm, placed where you can reach it from the shower or bath without stepping out onto a wet floor. Often that is the wall just outside the shower screen.

A few things change the spot:

• Heated rails. Some makers say no heated rail above a bath or inside a shower. Your electrician confirms what is allowed for your model.
• The shower door. Keep the rail out of the door's swing, so the door does not hit it or the towel.
• A freestanding bath. There is no wall beside it, so the rail goes on the nearest wall, or you use a standing towel ladder.

Do not use a towel rail as a grab rail. The Mizu guide says not to sit, stand, lean or hang on its rail. A towel rail is fixed for the weight of towels, not a person. If someone in the house needs something to hold, fit a proper grab rail, as covered below.

What height suits hand towels, robe hooks and kids?

We found no Australian maker or rule that sets a height for hand towel rails, robe hooks or kids' rails. So set each one by who uses it and what it holds.

• Hand towel rail or ring. Beside the basin, high enough that the hand towel hangs clear of the vanity top. Most vanities are 850 to 900 mm high, as our guide to bathroom vanity height shows, so a hand towel rail ends up a fair bit above that.
• Robe hooks. High enough that a robe hangs clear of the floor for the tallest person using it. Hold the robe up against the wall to find the height.
• Kids. A plain hook or rail at their shoulder height is easier than a high rail. Keep it unheated: the 600 mm rule for heated bars is there for small children.

Mark every height on the wall frame before the plasterboard goes up. That is when the timber backing for each one goes in, as covered further down.

What height works in an accessible bathroom?

There is no set towel rail height for an accessible bathroom either. What matters is that a person sitting down can reach the rail, and that the walls can take grab rails if they are needed.

The Livable Housing Design Standard asks new homes to have reinforced walls beside the toilet, the shower and most baths, so grab rails can be fixed there later. It does not make you fit the grab rails straight away, and it sets where the reinforcing goes, not where each rail is fixed. For renovations, the Queensland Government says reinforcing is not needed where it is not reasonable or practical, such as when the wall framing is not exposed. If your walls are open anyway, that is the time to add it.

The reinforcing can be timber noggings at least 25 mm thick, structural plywood at least 12 mm thick, or steel framing or plate to the housing framing standard. Walls of concrete or masonry that can hold a rail on their own do not need it.

For someone who uses a wheelchair, put the towel rail where they can reach it seated, and plan it with them. Our guide to an accessible bathroom renovation covers the rest of the room.

How do you fix a towel rail so it stays put?

Screw it into timber behind the wall, not just into plasterboard. Avenir says its rails are made for stud walls with tiles, or masonry walls. On a stud wall with no tiles, it needs a timber backing behind each point where the rail is fixed. Mizu says to fix to a stud or nogging, and to use hollow wall fixings only where there is none.

The studs will rarely be where your rail needs to go. Wall studs in Australian homes are usually 450 to 600 mm apart, as our guide to stud spacing explains. So the fix is a nogging, a short piece of timber fitted between two studs at the exact height of each fixing.

That is far easier while the wall frame is open, during a renovation. Once the wall is tiled, adding backing means cutting into the tiles and the waterproofing.

In an older house, check for asbestos first. The Queensland Government's asbestos website says a house built before 1990 has a good chance of containing it, and to get the facts before a job as small as putting up a new towel rail.

In our bathroom renovations, Brett frames the walls and puts the noggings in at the heights you choose, before the wall is lined. He books a licensed electrician for any heated rail. Add your rail and hook heights to your bathroom renovation checklist, or see our bathroom renovations page.

Where do these heights come from?

Checked on 10 November 2026: ABI Interiors, towel rails (undated); Avenir, Milli Edge heated towel ladder technical guide (version 6.00, via Reece); Mizu Drift heated towel rail installation instructions (undated, via Reece); the Electrical Safety Office, don't do your own electrical work (undated); the ABCB Livable Housing Design Standard 2022, version 1.3 (November 2023); the Queensland Government's page on its measures for the Modern Homes standards (undated); and its asbestos website, homeowners look, check and prepare (undated). The tests for hand towels, robes and kids are our own advice, not a rule. We will check these heights again every three months.

See our bathroom renovations work, or check what your job will cost.