YAWN.....come and design my bathroom, tell me about baths, sinks, loos, taps, tiles, radiators and most importantly floors

[SlightlyMadSweet]

So we are planning to gut my bathroom...the full works.

DP will be watching doing it with my plumbing trained brother. SO no tradesmen costs/selection to go through.

So

1. Do people in RL really have those trendy bathroom suits...cos they don't look very family practical?
2. Button flush or handle flush?
3. Mixer taps or 2 taps?
4. Radiator or towel rail heatre radiator thingy?
5. Floor? Carpet? Laminate? Tiles? Lino? Won't anything other than carpet be slippy?
6. Where to buy? I want teh suit + mixer shower for under £1000. Is B&Q the only place I will be able to do this? Are they cheap and tacky from B&Q?
7. Anything else I need to know?

Just had ours done:

1. Trendyish but not enough to date too quickly
2. Button flush - plain button with built in cistern from Bathstore, shop around for a decent price if you have built-in, same things seem to range from £60-£300
3. Mixer taps - less chance dcs burning themselves, imo
4. Towel rail heater/radiator - chrome, straight ladder style - if you get a tall one, it works well for heating and for drying washing
5. Flooring - tiles, definitely. Plain, cheap white floor tiles - no problems with slipping (yet). Used to have a bathroom with rubber floor and that was lovely and warm - just be careful with high heels as it marks.
6. Bathstore always worth trying as they have permanent sales and some quite nice designs - their shower doors look like much more expensive ones - only check out in person as some of the sinks that look very cheap in the brochure are actually the tiny version, not suitable for a family bathroom. Only tried B&Q for taps and thought their range was hideous
7. Try and sort out lots of storage - we have similar setup to littlemissnorty - boxed in loo and concealed cistern, slate top (bought cheap from stone merchant) and cupboards above with mirrored doors - whole wall of storage as wide as sink and loo and all out of reach of dcs which is brilliant.

Extractor fans - some quite decent unobstrusive versions available and competitive prices if you buy online.

www.livingetc.co.uk/gallery is good for ideas and inspiration.

Good luck!

High heels what are they????

We are planning to change the flooring from carpet, as I think that now we have 3DDs carpet is not going to be pracitcal for the future...having said that our carpet has been down 14yrs (DTDs are 7) and is fine smell wise...it is the toothpaste stains which grind on me.

Also the bottom of our walls are not tiled and I wasn't planning on tiling...we just used bathroom paint??? Should I really be reconsidering and tiling?

Obv will tile over bath and sink though!!!

1. - plain and white bathroom suite is safest, dateless option. and prob most economical too.

1. - my dad had a pushbutton flush which works a treat. is v swish. it has 'Grohedal' written on it.

i have push botton flushes, 2 of them. they are rubbish tbh. they have 'Grohe' written on them. if you do find the good ones anywhere, let me know will you? ta.

1. - meh. whatever. choose ones you like the look of. mind you, with young family you can have thermostatically controlled mixer taps which mean you wont get scalded kids.

1. - you can attache a towel rail to a rad if you like. the room itself will have a certain heat calc requirement decided by its size. between underfloor heating, radiators and heated towel rails, you need to reach that requirement. the plumber brother will be able to make the calc for you. go from there. (underflootr and towel rail a nice combo imo)

1. - go for vinyl. its softish, warm underfoot, not slippy, easy to mop, no grout lines, waterproof, economical, comes in millions of designs...

1. - b&q, check out local plumbing suppliers. city plumbing in the south, check out builders merchants too. they often have a dept for bathroom suites etc. if you go to BathStore (a good place to find relatively bargainous 'designer' stuff) be v aware of how things are designed. there may be a reason why this stuff, which was released and sold at stupidly high 'designer' prices has been sold on to this outlet chain... toilets which wont allow you to change the seat once its fitted... that sort of madness. just beware. (i bought well flash looking showers... and then found them in bathstore at hugely reduced prices. now that i am living with said showers, i can see why im the only mug who bought them )

1. - sheesh, that isnt enough?

SlightlyMadSweet - not familiar with high heels either but after a party when several stiletto heeled mates paraded in and out of the bathroom, the lovely rubber floor looked like a pin cushion! It did recover a little bit over time.

1. People do, we don't.
2. Button flush unless you have high victorian cystern with long chain.
3. 2 taps on sink, mixer on bath.
4. Towel rail heatre radiator thingy
5. With have lino but it is bubbling up.

1. I'm sure some do, but I'd personally go for a classic white design that wouldn't date
2. We chose handle flush when we replaced the cistern
3. We chose 2 taps when we replaced the wash hand basin
4. We have a radiator but I wish we could have afforded a towel rail heater radiator thingy
5. We have carpet. The window is a large metal framed single-glazed affair and it can get quite drafty. Previously it was ceramic tiles and they were freezing underfoot and yes it did get slippy. If we had the money I'd love underfloor heating and posh vinyl.
6. We bought from a local sanitaryware merchant out of a catalogue to get exactly what we wanted. It is the more expensive route but I can generally spot a really cheap site a mile off and I think they look nasty.
7. Definitely consider storage

SMS - if you can get to plumb centre use them!

we are having our bathrooms done and we got 2 suites including everything for a very good price and would certainly be in your budget

tile everything - floor and the floors

mixer taps on baths and sinks

storage cupboard under sink

we are getting towel rail heaters

we aren't getting anything trendy but rather all white suites and will accesorise to glam it up

TY Ruby we have a plumb centre here and another plumbers merchants (plumbase?).

I wasn't sure if a family of 5 trapsing in would be the done thing at a trade centre.

I should clarify I don't really want trendy....I was worried that was all I would be able to get these days.

SMS - it may not be the done thing, but ive found that you may be looked at as tho you just landed from planet zog and have a dunce cap on your unable-to-comprehend-anything-at-all head, merely for walking into a trade place or builders merchant if you are female, with or without the dc. so you might as well take em

SMS - we went with our plumber and had lots of free coffees too!

and what Shit said

Did ours six months ago Time flies.

Showerbath if you're short on space, but remember it takes more water to fill it for a bath.
Lovely curvy glass shower screen.
Electric shower is a good idea, esp if you are likely to run out of hot water if everyone wants baths/showers at the same time (see above).
Tiled floor - large tiles, and underfloor heating.
Hidden cistern and under sink storage cupboard.
Push button flush.

Haven't read thread but will describe my new bathroom in case it inspires you:

Pale blue tiles with a crackle glaze, very subtle tho. Tiled to 1.20 metres high except around bath where it's nearly to ceiling, plain white ceramic trim all round top. Walls are painted white.

Bath is totally plain with flat rim for putting the odd bottle on.

Sink is wall mounted i.e. no pedestal, it's a sort of chunky square design with chrome plumbing bit underneath.

Single mixer tap, also chunky square design (have tried to get an art deco/modern look as house dates from 1928)

Floor is terracotta tiles with terracotta 'skirting' don't know what you call that little bit round the bottom where wall meets floor. Floor tiles will need oiling once the builders have gone for good.

Underfloor heating from Warmup which I laid myself, with no previous experience

We made a little wall cupboard about 40cms above the floor and a metre high and about 25 cms deep with a pretty old salvaged wooden door on it, by stealing some space from the built-in wardrobe through the wall, to keep all the bathroom junk in.

Would like to get one of those chrome wall mounted towel-warmer/ radiator things when we can afford it and have made the electrical socket ready for it.

The window and door are solid wood with a dark brown tint and satin varnish.

...and push button flush with two buttons, one for if you want to use less water.

We're doing this too: I have no interest, and have told dh just to get on with it.

So far cost for suite plus separate (large) shower and all the bits is about £2k
And that isn't including tiles or flooring!
We're not practical, so will need to get fitting/tiling done: there are tiles to strip off/re-plastering, and old airing cupboard to remove, pipes to sort out, etc. etc. First quote came in at around £2k

I don't know whether we should spend this much and get a really nice bathroom, or whether to go for an el cheapo, that at least doesn't leak!

roisin - keep some sort of cupboard - it'll be handy for storing all the junk you dont want lying around