Bathroom recommendations pls

[Snowglobes]

Hi, Our bathrooms need a total revamp so have got brochures for Bathstore, Victoria Plum, Victorian Plumbing and Soak & although pricing ok I’m concerned re quality. Also looked at CP Hart but too pricey! We intend to be here a long while so worth getting decent quality but also on a tight budget. Any general recommendations please? Are there certain items needing spending more on eg cheap concealed cistern but quality loo? Or vice versa etc?

You can source bathroom fixtures and fittings on sale at CP Hart for far less by shopping around. You do need patience, organisation and to have your own fitter lined up, but give yourself time to get the stuff and don’t believe it when you read next day delivery.

When I researched brands I ended up buying across two bathrooms:

Duravit sanitaryware
Hansgrohe shower (from amazon; price fluctuated madly between £550 and £900)
AquaLisa shower
Hansgrohe basin mixer - tried loads of combos on amazon and ended up paying a tiny amount - amazon prices for these are great to start with but one specific combo of 70mm plus push down waste was ludicrously cheap
Bristan taps for one basin and matching bath tap with shower attachment, these from amazon warehouse

Courtesy of Mumsnet I looked at ‘walls and floors’ and ‘tons of tiles’. Tons of tiles allegedly has fired earth tiles and certainly had better and cheaper offerings than local shops. They also had Laura Ashley dupes and probably others if you know much about tiles.

eBay was good for a couple of things e.g. I identified a radiator I wanted which was £400 everywhere and bought it from a liquidating shop on eBay for £150.

Bathroom light fittings are hard due to safely rules. I got mine from castlegate lights. However one fitting I paid around £150 for then some time later googling for assembly instructions found it on amazon for £100!

Thank you mystery! Is it easy to return things to Amazon if incorrect/damaged etc?

Avoid Victoria plumb at all costs. It's poor quality. We used them when we had our bathroom redone 2 years ago. Couple of weeks ago the shower screen hinge snapped caused the screen to fall into the bath putting a hole in the bath. Had a child, or adult for that matter, been in the bath when it fell it would have caused significant injury or worse.

When we inspected the hinge we found it was made of plastic and had fatigued causing it to fail. They have since changed the design of the hinge so they were obviously aware there was a design fault.

My recommendation would be to find a good, trustworthy plumber first, then see if he can source the sanitary ware for you. Ours wouldn't touch a job where the client had bought 'bargain' fittings online as he'd had his fingers burned before, but was able to get trade discounted fittings from several suppliers which worked out pretty cheap and were easy for him to fit. The last thing I wanted was a delay if something ordered online didn't arrive, was damaged or wasn't good quality. For tiles we used one of the same suppliers as Mysteryfairy (with plenty extras in case of breakages - Walls and Floors take back any unopened undamaged boxes you don't need) and also got an Aqualisa shower which we're very happy with.