Bathroom renovation: places to buy from, places to avoid?

[sojo44]

Happy coffee Sunday ☕️

We're renovating our bathroom and I need to start ordering all the items (bath, taps, basin, vanity etc.)

Please tell me the best places to buy from (in-store or online) and where I need to avoid like the plague.

Any positive or negative experience greatly welcome!

💐

I would definitely avoid using Wickes installation service. There is a Facebook page Wickes kitchen nightmares full of horror stories. Even though you are using their recommended installer, Wickes take no responsibility for the quality of the installation as Specialist Services (ie the installation) are a separate contract between you and the installer. As there is no quality control, you could end up with a completely incompetent installer and very little chance of redress. Wickes customer service is nonexistent and rather aggressive IME.

Can I join you on the bench OP? .

I’m wondering this too, any good online retailer recommendations would be really helpful.

We've just re done our main bathroom. I went to a local independent store so I guess if you're not in NI I'll be of no help. The place we used was one of the more fancy type places and we originally had a quote of 12k for everything including fitting. My head nearly fell off at this so we went back to see the designer and got it down to 6k including fitting, replastering and all tiles. It's worth going in to a store and talking to someone but have a budget in mind. It meant I only had one point of contact to deal with and didn't have to be constantly chasing the plumber/tiler/plasterer/supplier.

Just done my bathroom, bought everything online from Drench. Really good prices, excellent customer service (I needed to swap a shower for another and it was so easy). Recommend them

If you are staying in the house for a good few years then spend good money on the fittings, cheap looks very cheap and breaks very quickly.
If you have a good tradesman who can fit everything for you, and are confident in sourcing all the stuff yourself, then get the tradesmen to give you sizing advice, ie if the loo is staying in the same place note where the water pipe comes in, which side or you will be left with a hole in the flooring(if you are keeping the old one) like i did, now the loo brush holder just sits over it to hide it...
Build in as much storage as you can
Do you have a John Nichols near you, they were very helpful,

Neron thanks for the recommendation.

Sorry for the delayed reply! I came out of an operation earlier this week. Finally feeling human 😊

Thank you so much for all the recommendations! I was looking at Drench so super happy you've had a positive experience @Neron .

We've got a tradesman who is doing the fitting! I think we'll be triple "just in case" measuring today before we order anything (or making sure they're the same size as what's there currently ha)!

Look at Park Street Bathrooms. They have an excellent selection online, very knowledgeable and best prices for the bathroom brands. I would definitely use them again.

I need to find fittings to got a bathroom renovation in October. Tradesman has recommenced a local place to us, I was also planning to scour eBay for unwanted/ex display items.
I've heard mixed things about easy bathrooms.

Just done ours! Used Drench for towel radiator and smaller accessories like led mirror., toilet roll holder. Got a Matki eauzone shower enclosure from rsl bathrooms online. Bespoke vanity cabinet from Harvey George (beautiful!), cast iron bath company petite milbrook bath, shower was from Hansgrohe, floor tiles from tops tiles and wall tiles from tiles warehouse. Very happy. Got underfloor heating too and its amazing. Toilet is from bayswater London, looks good but not a great flush so maybe having to change it.

Bathrooms.com
Good quality, well known brands and if you want to go and look at stuff their showrooms are all over the country.
They're part of a plumbers merchant and offer a full planning service and free delivery.

Avoid Victoria Plum. The sink and toilet were ok but the rest of the things were awful - bath panel that warped when it got wet and a cupboard with a huge scratch in it. When we opened the drawer there was the returns note from someone else who’d sent it back because it had a huge scratch in it! They refused to take the damaged ones back and we ended up with 3 cupboards until we got an undamaged one. There are lots of other good companies and I would rather make my own than go back to these idiots.

That is lovely @BananaBooBoo!! I'm so excited for our renovation!! Tiles have been ordered from Topps as well! :)

Ok, stay clear from Victoria Plum!! Thanks for the heads up!! At the moment I'm going with Drench and VictorianPlumbing (both have had rave reviews on this thread as well as from friends).

A few more bits to sort and then I think we're ordering everything tomorrow!! GAH!

If it’s not too late...

Shower - if you can, fit the on/off outside of the cubicle/screen area. You won’t get blasted by cold water when you turn on.

Extractor - have an override on/off. So not disturbed when having a (rare) soak.

Good point @ChateauMyself. Take a look at Aqualisa digital showers. They are brilliant.

Following '

My plumber got everything for me from Travis Perkins and I'm delighted with the quality and fit. Apart from the light which I ordered from Wickes and the bathroom cabinet with inbuilt shaver socket which I got from PlumbWorld (don't touch them with a barge pole if you want your delivery on the day its promised). Oh and if you go for a cabinet with an inbuilt shaver socket, check the socket is positioned in such a way that you can shut the door when your toothbrush or shaver is plugged in!

Thank you got all your help!!

I realised I never replied and wanted to share our final renovation picture.

Couldn't have done it without your help (and our amazing builder/tradesman for installing).

What a gorgeous bathroom! Thank you for all the tips, we're also having ours done in a few weeks.

Hi
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but now we are looking for a bathroom! @december2020 I love yours!!! Did you get your taps and shower from drench please?

Victoria plumbing are the only place seeming to offer what we are looking for but their reviews aren't great.

I've had some very good buys from Plumbworld

If you put "clearance" into the search box it may show you some hidden bargains.

I particularly recommend Bristan taps, Aqualisa round-knob showers, Carronite baths, and MacAlpine traps and wastes.

Don't get pop-up plugs, they leak.

Thankyou @PigletJohn

Avoid Victorian Plumbing. Horrible, cheaply made products.

Hi!
Aww thank you so much!!
I got the taps from Drench and the shower from Lusso Stone (the maker of the shower). Been very happy with both of them