Please would you recommend me a bathroom supplier?

[jobergamot]

I don't know where to start! There is so much choice and I have no idea what is decent quality or not.

I'm after a Victoriana suite and a freestanding shower.

My budget is £3500 to include the suite, installation and tiling.

Many thanks!

Avoid high street shops eg Bath Store. Find a good independent plumbers merchant. They will hold your hand. Having said that Travis Perkins can get all the Fired Earth stuff for you at quarter of the cost, ps taps cost a fortune😲

So all in 3.5k for the bathroom? I’d imagine you’ll just need go get the cheapest stuff you can find online.

How do you get Fired Earth from Travis Perkins please?

Cheapsuites.co.uk are really good, next day delivery, great customer service, and you can get topcashback on your purchase too!

We got ours from City Plumbing as a few plumbers we had quotes from recommend them. We ended up buying the suite ourself and a friend help to install it.

@JoJoSM2 so is 3.5k a paltry budget for this sort of thing??

You ask them for their Heritage range I think. Or maybe it’s the Imperial range. Won’t be on display but they should have the catalogues. My local TP has a switched-on guy called Ollie: he is in Bath (ironically). They had many of the same baths and basin units etc as FE. If it’s not Heritage/Imperial give him a phone call and he will talk you through it. I am not on commission! Bought lots of stuff via FE then got hacked off waiting for them to deliver. Found out about TP and got rest of stuff through them. And dropped FE: they were lovely but a bit slow with everything. TO was quicker!

I like soak.com
Nice stuff, good prices and fast delivery

I’ve just paid almost eight grand for a bathroom including full tiling. Sorry

Have a look at Burlington's range - lots of suppliers.

We’ve done ours for a bit less than that and haven’t had to go for the very cheapest.

We went to a recommended local bathroom place and got a quote. We then swapped in an Ikea vanity unit and basin and something else I can’t remember.

We got tiles from topps tiles and tile mountain, nice ones too. We decided to only tile around the bath and shower and the to half way around the loo and basin wall and we prefer a more traditional look. And it’s cheaper. Yey.

I think we paid £20/sqm for the tiling, to give you an idea.

We also liked Victorian plumbing. Maybe have a look there for ideas.

Is the shower in addition to the bath or instead of? You might be getting tight I suppose, but still doable if you’re careful.

We used Wickes. Lovely design and final look and reasonably priced but shocking delivery and customer service not great either.

+5 years in from having a B&Q Cook & Lewis bathroom suite installed, I'd say avoid avoid avoid. They look all nice and shiny in the showroom and for the first couple of years, but I've got the following problems with mine (some which manifested during fitting and some which are now at the five year mark):

• the lever you pull up to switch from
• the swivel bath filler tap despite regular descaling totally doesn't swivel any more (I believe ALL the metal bath and sink fittings have corroded inside due to being made of crappy metals - they have literally fused together inside)
• the circular nozzles / fittings where the water comes out of the jets for the whirlpool-stylee bath - the silver's coming off and one of them has broken
• during fitting the plumber broke the bath panel and so I went out to buy another one (£120) - during this second attempt at fitting, he broke this one too - they are very thin (but I was royally pissed off)
• when the toilet was first fitted it started leaking. On almost microscopic inspection we concluded there was some kind of hairline crack in the pan. Cook & Lewis finally agreed to replace it 'as a gesture of goodwill' - not because it was manufactured incorrectly and wasn't fit for purpose!!! The flush is absolutely the worst I've ever used - it blows so much air under the loo paper that it takes three times every time to flush the toilet.

I would possibly try and find out which plumbing suppliers plumbers local to you use - they use them because their kit is reliable and robust.

Absolutely best of luck with your bathroom OP .

I installed a Burlington suite (no seperatr shower) including fires earth wall tiles and Laura Ashley floor tiles and it came to around 3.5k including installation

If you are in Yorkshire there is an excellent independent in Bradford

Burlington are the same as the Bathstore Savoy range (I presume they make them for Bathstore) but you can order them from most plumbers merchants. We were really pleased with them. Tbh it's not as much the sanitary ware as the taps /shower/tiling that can add up. I think your budget is fine if you don't get carried away!

We used Soak and Victorian Plumbing. Soak were good about replacing a faulty item with no arguments, sent out next day. Victorian Plumbing demanded photos of the fault, then of the whole toilet and required many phone calls to chase them up before they finally sent a replacement. The hassle and extra cost of plumbing in the replacement wiped out the saving of buying from them. If I were to do it again I'd probably use a local plumbers merchant or get the plumber to supply and fit.

Find a good local installer by personal recommendation (not on a website) and start there. Some plumber's aren't good tilers but should admit it and know someone who is.

Buy really good taps and wastes (Bristan are my favourite) and shower (Aqualisa round knob are my favourite).

Baths and sanitaryware are the easiest, and need not be expensive. You can get them anywhere, not necessarily from a bathroom shop unless you have money to burn. For a WC, a good British maker like Twyfords is most dependable.

btw the thin plastic bath panels supplied with baths are fit only for the skip.

You can buy an MDF one that will not crack the first time your knees press against it leaning over the bath. Or if you are buying a thickened bath such as Carronite (they make weird sizes) they also sell a reinforced matching panel.

Agree with poster below about buying from Victorian Plumbing. You can’t get through ion phone, emails are unanswered for days. We had a fault and I ended up going straight to manufacturer and by passing Victorian Plumbing. Got a replacement but really it should have been a VP issue but assistant on phone quite frankly did not have a clue!

thanks everyone, appreciate your help. I've had a recommendation of a local plumber who did my friend's bathroom. Also had a look at the Burlington range and will order from my local plumber's merchant. The bathstore wanted to charge £6k for installation!!!!

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