Bathroom companies - is there anything between B and Q and CP Hart apart from Bathstore?

[DarkBlueEyes]

I'll be doing a cloakroom and an ensuite, and I have massively champagne tastes on a beer budget... I think spending a grand on a loo is bonkers but haven't been able to find anything apart from Bathstore (which I'm definitely looking at) that is mid range, good quality but not a silly price. There are local independents which I will check out, but I have just moved to a WAG heavy area and a lot of little independent chi chi shops are £££££. Anyone care to share a good bathroom supplier with expensive looking sanitary ware?

I bought good makes from a mixture of online and a cheap independent supplier and got them fitted by a local plumber and tiling done by local tilers.
We did a shower-room, family bathroom and downstairs wc.
We have Roca & Armatage Shanks WCs & one Roca basin , a Kaldewei bath (fabulous bath we had NW for 10 years in old house that still looked brand new and they make decent sized ones too), lakes shower enclosures and trays, an oak base cabinet & basin from clickbasin.co.uk, an ikea sink unit & base (downstairs wc) a Mira shower and a gorgeous abode shower, tiles were from CTD and topps. Choosing carefully and buying separately from the fitting saved me an awful lot of money. We got 3 rooms done for £7k, Bathstore quoted us £9k for one room and their products although they looked nice were nowhere as good quality.

The cheap idependents seem to be those places tucked away on an industrial estate not in the lovely little shop.

Spend the money on the tiles and flooring. Look at industrial estate places rather than fancy design shops. Grahams etc

I need to find an industrial estate near me! I'm in Surrey if anyone knows of anything worth checking out nearby... totally agree about sourcing the items separately, I will be doing this as we are doing a massive refurb and the builders can fit whatever I buy. I'll probably still go to somewhere £££ to take advantage of their free planning service but will buy elsewhere I think. Will check out all those suggestions named above thank you.

Burge & Gunson in Colliers Wood www.burgeandgunson.co.uk/

Surrey is big!! Colliers Wood borders(ish) Surrey - it's close to South Wimbledon.

B&G is excellent, has an extensive showroom and the staff know their stuff.

We got ours from city plumbing and got a local plumber to fit it.

Thank you Fru. I'm in Esher so that link you've posted is handy to me so I will definitely check them out.

Check with your plumber to see what he likes working with. Bathstore fittings can be European sizes and may need adapters, my plumber likes British fittings. I really rate Matki taps, shower enclosures and shower trays but I try and buy x display. Cheaper suppliers like Victoria plumb can be OK but check deliveries as soon as they arrive as they have a high percentage of faulty items and it can be costly if you are paying a plumber by the day while you wait for replacement items.

Off to have a squiz at Matki.

Pick a brand that would suit the bill and google local suppliers of it. That will hopefully take you to a unit on an industrial estate with other brands of similar quality. I started with Ideal Standard /Sottini, you may have something else in mind.

Just to throw another option out there - I've just ordered directly from Germany having picked what I wanted here. The price saving is huge on Grohe/Hansgrohe/Duravit etc. - at least EUR for GBP even including delivery and as you'd expect the service was extremely efficient and items well packaged!

HollyMaingate - if you don't mind sharing, what website did you use to order from Germany?
thanks

Search for plumber's merchants on-line, then visit their shops (they won't be lovely bathroom showrooms) and get bathroom manufacturers brochures. You can then flick through the brochures at home, then order what you need from the plumber's merchants and get your builders/plumber to fit it for you.

City Plumbing Supplies have branches all over Surrey - I think they have one on the industrial near the tip that's closest to Esher.

SignedUpAgain I used Reuter.de - ordered Saturday 27th Feb - was delivered less than a week later on the Friday just gone.

thanks HollyMaingate - i did think it might be cheaper to buy in from Germany, but was getting lost in my google searches!

No problem - here's the English language version: en.reuter.de/

I called a couple of times for advice and both times the person on the end of the line spoke English.

Ooo if you can get it for a decent price Duravit stuff is nice - we had it in our old house and it was beautiful and lasted really well.

Don't know if you can get to Better Bathrooms. They have places dotted around. Always found them to be really competitively priced and have a nice selection.

HollyMaingate - just wanted to say, that website you recommended was great, i have ordered 3 hansgrohe showers, and a gorgeous Grohe tap for my cloakroom.
I am nearing the end of a new-build and running out of money, so was really great to find some money saving for the showers that i really really wanted, but couldnt find here in UK for a price i could afford to spend.

The rest of the bathrooms are fairly low budget, in terms of the fittings I am ordering, my only big spend being these showers.

HollyMaingate wowser, that website is awesome! I need to figure out what I should get and then check with the plumber before I order! Signedupagain, had you already decided what you wanted before you saw this site? I'm not even sure where to start, though I love some of the rounded loos I saw here, and the showers look fabulous.

Massively tempted by having two of these in our ensuite www.bathstore.com/products/pure-one-piece-basin-and-pedestal-2067.html if you can get a soap dispenser on them!

DarkBlueEyes - I have been looking in local showrooms, both high end, and other independent type. Didn't bother looking at B&Q or stores like that, as kind of assumed would get better value elsewhere.

Totally fell in love with the german showers and taps, but they are so expensive to buy in UK, but buying in euro and the prices were also discounted, has saved us loads. Have spent all weekend looking at UK websites, but prices were high and delivery charges also high.

I am getting units and basins from local supplier, and maybe Ikea who have a nice unit.

No problem at all. Plumber did the first fix yesterday and fitted the Hansgrohe iBoxes for the ShowerSelect controls and all went well! Huge saving on the bathroom cabinet too

I didn't even look at the cabinets yet - was being harassed to make a decision on the showers.

I might have a look then, specially as the carriage costs seem reasonable.

It's a minefield isn't it! I love that site and only worry about what happens if something goes wrong... but I've seen loads and loads I love. I assume that Bathstore quality is not as good as Hansgrohe, Matki, Duravit, Villeroy etc?

I've spoken to more than 1 plumber who flat out refuse to fit Bathstore stuff due to the quality being so bad they're forever being called back to rectify problems!

The brands you've listed are streets ahead. Crosswater is good too apparently