Buying a new bathroom, anyone recommend good (cheap) places to buy from?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

We are extending our house just now and I need to now look for sanitaryware for our new ensuite & downstairs loo. We have a strict budget so hoping to achieve all this for under £2k .

Anyone done their bathroom up lately and could recommend anywhere for decent stuff?

TIA

I am in the process of doing this now.For bathroom 1 i am buying shower and cloakroom suite [plus enclosure] from Victoria Plumb and marble tiles from Wickes.Bathroom 2 is from Wickes with stone-look tiles also from Wickes.If you need someone to do the plumbing and tiling they tend to charge arrround 20 pounds hourly.I have to say that 2k is not very much unless the plumbing is absolutely straightforward and you can do the tiling yourself.Bathrooms are surprisingly expensive!.

not bathstore - heard of too many loo waste pipes not fitting english sizes

Oh no! I just ordered something from Bathstore there, hadn't read this thread yet! I just got a shower enclosure though, basically a glass door but it was reduced from £449 to £89 :) an offer I thought was too good to pass up. We are having a shower in a recess so he screen looks just right.

Victoria Plumb look quite good and they are doing a loo and basin for £169www.victoriaplumb.com/Bathroom-Suites/Bathroom-Suite-Pack-Offers/Monaco-Bathroom-Suite-Pack_628.html that looks quite good. What do you think?

teta the cost of installation / plumbing work is included in our extension quote so the £2k is for sanitaryware & tiling only, do you think that is doable?

I don't know if its available in your area but Howdens is really good and cheap.

Yes ,of course.There a lots of good offers on tiles at Wickes at the moment.I'm afraid Wickes is my favourite online destination at the moment.I also found it helpful to buy sample tiles and look at them in situ as online its very difficult to visualise under differnt lighting conditions.Yeah i like that suite in Victoria Plumb.I have found the prices in V.P. to be as good or better than the prices on ebay.

city plumbing

Right now, listen carefully, this is what to do:

1. Go to a local bathroom show room. Choose exactly what you like.
2. Ask them for a print out of what you have chosen.
3. Take the print out to a local plumber's merchant (if you don't know ring a plumber and ask them where they go). They will be able to buy the aforemnentioned products at a FAR reduced price. I literally saved THOUSANDS of pounds (two bathrooms and one downstairs wc) doing this.

Ooo thanks Phillipe for the tip, do you think I could ask our plumber who will be fitting the sanitaryware to do that?

I just looked on Victoria Plumb & priced everything we will need for our ensuite and all in I think it's doable for £1k, before tiling & flooring. Think I'll visit some bathroom shops first too to get an idea of things.

I'll check out all those other places mentioned too. How much do folk reckon it is to semi tile a bathroom (ie just round shower, basin and bath areas) inc tiles plus labour?

Also, what type of flooring do you think is best for a bathroom? We have laminate in our family bathroom (and don't think that's recommended for humid areas!)

Phillipe is right.....spent £9000 on a bathroom that should have been around £4000 if I had priced separately. Dolphin were fantastic though and took all the hassle away from us but I wouldn't spend that much again.

I'm not sure how much the labour is as it is included in my overall building quote.i know how many square metres i have been told to order-10 and 13 sq. metres of tiles for bathrooms 1 and 2.I am also just getting the essential bits tiled, plus the floor .[although builder is umming and ahhing about tiling on a wooden planked floor.He will have to put hardboard down first apparently].I just like the overall effect of having the same tiles an the floor and the wall hopefully giving a more seamless look.

Reading this thread with great interest, as we are just about to do our ensuite. I ordered a toilet from Bathstore last week, and having seen the comments (and read some reviews online) I'll be cancelling the order tomorrow morning.

teta - Tiling on a wood floor is simple, just needs to put hardboard down, screwed every six inches so it's really solid. Worth doing.

Sorry, my message didn't read right. YOU can buy the stuff from your local plumber's merchants, you don't need your plumber to do it for you. Ours don't require you to be trade or set up an account.

wickes are dead cheap

whereabouts in country are you?

Victoria Plumb, Wickes.
Not under any circumstances B & Q, they seam to play football with everything they sell.

EBay! My dad is a plumber and always changing his bathrooms, he usually gets his suites from eBay. Good quality (check reviews though!) And arrives quickly.

If you want to go view places then wickes is probably your best bet

I've done this recently. City Plumbing was a lot more expensive than the last time we did a bathroom (the way that Phillippe suggested!)

We needed a slightly odd bath length which meant that we couldn't avail ourselves of the offers on Victoria Plum - some of which were very competitively priced indeed.

We ended up buying some bits from Victoria Plum, some from Victorian Plumbing, bath screen from heatandplumb.com and taps from QS Supplies. All went fine: where we had a few hiccups all were easy and reasonable to deal with (e.g. giving partial refund for stuff that was damaged in transit). The only fiddly part was making sure that there was someone in for each delivery, but even if we'd done a 'one-stop shop' it's possible there would have been a couple of different batches anyway. £2k for the main stuff sounds do-able to me, although we had to spend a bit extra on things like wastes, pipes etc, so if you're on a tight budget do factor these things in.