Bathroom - losing the will to live

[AspasiaFitzgibbon]

I need a new bathroom. Like, I really need a new bathroom. Shower and bath are both leaking and we have decided, rather than patch them up for the umpteenth time, to rip everything out and start again.
I contacted two people, one I've used before and one recommended by a tradesman I trust.
First one was so completely crap at providing an estimate without a bomb up his arse that he is now out of the picture. Second one claimed to understand the urgency and promised that he could be ready to start on 10 April. Which soon after, inevitably, moved to 18 April. We are now some weeks into the planning process and have still not finalised a design, because he is so slow to respond to texts, emails and phone calls unless chased by the guy who recommended him who, bless him, feels a certain responsibility.
My question, to all you experienced property people, is this:
Is there any way of getting this work done without dragging a tradesman kicking and screaming through every inch of the process? Would going to a bathroom showroom and getting them to take ownership of the design and fitting be any better? And how much of a premium would they charge for this? I have been quoted £6k for labour with all fittings extra, which I think is probably reasonable, and am looking to buy mid-range kit (good-quality acrylic bath, Bristan or equivalent taps and shower, etc) - not Fired Earth or C P Hart but not B and Q either.
Or is there another way? Or are my expectations simply unrealistic?

That also sounds like a plan.
Assuming you mean Wickes the builders' merchants and not Wicked the West End Musical.
Though desperate times do call for desperate remedies.

Where roughly in London are you? My fitters have done my bathroom and that of a load of my colleagues on my recommendation. If you're SW London and willing to change contractors I can PM you the details.

My bathroom was from Bathstore and was a total gut and refurbish - £4.5k for fitting and suite but my bathroom was the size of a stamp and that was 6 years ago. The same fitters just did our kitchen though and we're equally reasonable once again.

I'm intrigued by what you mean by a trade shop please?

Go to a local bathroom store (ideally not a chain). We ripped out and reinstalled last year and it came to 7K with everything (and we don't have a huge bathroom) but love it. We went in, picked everything and sorted date in one visit

OP we'd make a killing!

I am in SW London so if OP is not, world love the details of that recommendation moany

I am In London
Was quoted 9k (inc vat) for a total Refurb to include new lighting, and tiling ( I will buy the tiles)
Pipework needs to be moved, Bathroom is big.
Company visited. With plumber & tiler. Design agreed. I have nearly chosen sanitary ware, am visiting a wholesaler with the plumber to look at taps. We had quote in Feb, they start in 2 weeks.
Probably a bit expensive,but they have made it a completely stress free process.

Ooh chicky, don't say that until you're lying in your new bath with a book and some cosy towels warming on the radiator.

How many bathrooms do you have? I'm in the process of having a bathroom fitted and went the self organisation route but it's taken weeks and still not finished. If we didn't have other bathrooms would not have been doable to have this one out of action for ages.

The things that have taken longest are:
Plumbers merchants taking orders for stuff and then taking ages longer than the lead time to deliver, e.g.
'In stock' shower not turning up for three weeks with periodic this has not been despatched emails
Duravit suite which I checked and rechecked the lead time for and as soon as they had taken my payment again turned out to be three week lead time though to be fair they at least gave me a delivery date and stuck to it.

So if you're in a hurry I would try to select in stock and physically on the premises stuff if possible.

I have a bathroom fitter who does the plumbing and tiling. He has charged me £3k which included ripping everything out, 11m2 of tiling, plastering the rest, putting in false wall, refitting in the same spaces. £6k sounds a lot to me but I'm not in SE. My £3k also covered him subcontracting the electric work, but the wiring for fan, mirror etc was already there.

It took me a week delay to get my own decorator in. Bathroom largely tiled so cost was £100, but I was lucky he could fit it in between other jobs. Think about who will do this as I wasn't keen to do myself round new tiles etc.

I'm currently waiting for the floor fitter which I've organised separately. This is for amtico and therefore a specialist fitter. I'd suggest you think about flooring now. If it's not tiles your fitter can do get something chosen and a specialist fitter provisionally booked. Floor ideally needs to be done before the loo and basin are fitted.

The most time consuming thing for me has been a vanity unit. I'm having it made by a local bespoke furniture place as the space is awkward. They couldn't measure precisely until the bath was in and then their lead time is 5-6 weeks. I also had to order the granite for the top separately and suspect that eventually uniting the granite and the cabinet will drag things out even further. I guess my advice would be don't do this unless you also have a very awkward space.

If you haven't chosen tiles yet order as many samples as possible now. After searching on here for recommendations I ordered from Tons of Tiles (rumoured to be same tiles as Fired Earth, look at their crackle glaze), Walls and Floors and Mandarin Stone. I didn't end up with what I thought I liked best on ordering. Force yourself to get a load of samples - negligible cost - and get tiles picked out and ordered. Hopefully your fitter has told you how many you need and you have somewhere to store them.

I spent ages looking at mirrors; partially because of awkward dimensions. The light fitting also took a while to select. Lights are from castlegate lights. They have a vast amount of choice. In my experience light fittings are a really hard thing to choose so again invest some time so you have it ready.

Also think about any small things you want. You definitely need a loo roll holder but do you want anything like soap dish, toothbrush holder etc fitted. If so again get them ordered.

Will you be having a radiator as well as underfloor heating? Again I spent ages looking at these as I wanted something that looked nice rather than functional but adequate temperature was also vital and I'd read a lot about people choosing things that weren't warm enough. I actually bought my radiator off eBay in end from a guy who had apparently just closed down his bathroom shop and was getting rid of a last few bits. I'd picked what I wanted elsewhere and then just had a quick search and it came up. Cost £150 instead of the retail of £400 ish and as he physically had it came quickly. You may not have time for this but a quick Google can save a bit of cash.

On suite and fittings my theory was the labour costs the same whatever the quality and as the experience is quite painful to go through it is definitely worth paying for decent quality makes. It would definitely be possible to source things for less than I did, but I'm hoping things will last longer and also that I've put stuff in that fits with the overall value of the house if we did come to sell.

Not SW London, so Squirrel you're welcome to them!!
Chickydoo, which company did you use?

I refitted a small bathroom but did it very nicely with the best quality mid price mid fittings I could find and struggled to keep it to 6.5k with an initial budget of 5. That was using a independent plumber to fit and plumb, I supplied the tiles from B&Q and employed a separate tiler and a separate electrician. All the other stuff from Plum Centre.

If you get everything from one bathroom showroom who will put their subcontractors on the job you will pay a mark up of around 40% on every single thing they supply for you and they will be reluctant to fit stuff they haven't supplied. It will be expensive but on the plus side you will get a great design and seamless job and the buck will stop with them on everything which can save some massive logistical headaches.

I think if the bathroom is quite small and there is not much scope for changing the layout or the design hugely and you are only budgeting for low to mid range fittings then it isn't worth paying a fancy bathroom showroom to plan and fit for you. Their labour charges will be high irrespective of what you are spending on fittings etc.

Sometimes Mumsnet is a cackling roost of vultures but sometimes i.e. on this thread it is an absolute fountain of wisdom and support. So huge thanks to everyone who's taken the trouble to post.
Bathroom is 4x1.5 m.
We are very fortunate in having three bathrooms but this one (currently unusable) is the only one with separate shower. One has no shower and is used by the boys. The third runs off an immersion tank so is expensive to keep running and also has no socket for shaver/toothbrush.
After reading mysteryfairy's incredibly helpful post I'm minded to get someone in quickly to install a socket in the top bathroom and decamp there while the other bathroom runs its course - currently I'm using the basin in my usual bathroom and bathing/showering on the top floor, which is not conducive to long-term mental health.
That 40% markup that frenchlavender mentioned is really putting me off going to a supply and fit showroom. I'm not on a tight tight budget but I don't want to pay over the odds.

We got our bathrooms done by someone who was recommended. He is a carpenter but can do all the trades needed, we just don't have a certificate for the electrics but I am laid back about that. It would be a real hassle to employ all the trades separately for a small job, surely.
He does work in North London so pm me if interested

Thank you very much for the recommendation but I think I'd be nervous about not having a certificate for the electrics!