Can we talk Bathrooms?? I need a new one

[MascaraOHara]

I'm out to buy me a new bathroom. Anybody have any recommendations, who to buy from, who not to buy from? good bargains, tricks of the trade etc??

Me too! I'd like to know how much I can expect it to cost in total too?

We're having a new bathroom at the moment, almost finished, yay!

Bath, sink etc all from Bathstore in the sale, very good, excellent delivery etc. Fitting and tiling being done by local plumber/tiler. Bathstore have a list of local fitters who they 'recommend' and we had quotes from 3.

Bathstore? right will have a look

i think I'll be going for white as the room is quite small.

Just had a look at Bathstore but not sure, seems pricey compared to some other online suppliers.

RR does your dh know if there is any site I can go to where I can see a list of reputable plumbers? Is there some sort of guild or anything?

Ideally I'd like to buy a suite and just get somebody in to fit it. will that be dodgy though as I know nothing about bathrooms or plumbing?

I'm also worrie about getting ripped off by installers, being a lowly women on her own an' all

I'm watching this with interest as I have money in my account ready to spend on a new bathroom but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

we had a new bathroom last year and the quotes we got varied hugely - thousands f pounds diff for very similar things. we opted in the end for b&Qsuite - was a good price in the sale, quality fine though not amazing. and a local plumber to fit, higher end taps and shower bought on ebay. get plenty of quotes.

suite and bits and shower cubicle cost about 700, fitting was about 400 plus tiling and underfloor heating.

Get a cheapish suite and save your money for the taps, shower and the tiles. They will make the difference. A bath is a bath and as long as you don't get one so cheap it cracks after 6 months who cares.

Get loads of quotes - they can vary a huge amount. Got one quote from a bathroom centre for supply and fit where labour was £4.5k and another quote from a plumber guy where the labour was £1.5k. Same job, different overheads. The advantage of the bathroom centre is that they do everything for your, supply, coordinate deliveries, fit the tiles - you pay for the convenience.

Bought a new bathroom from MFI earlier this year. All in, it has cost us 4 grand (without tiling and flooring) BUT 6 months down the line our shower screen still leaks and it feels like it's never going to be solved. MFI after sales service is absolutely APALLING! (Shower-bath, with curved screen - be very careful if you are buying one of these from MFI!) The bathroom does look fab though!

Another vote for Bathstore. Had 2 bathrooms kitted out (fitting done by someone else) about 2 years ago. In total, for the 2 bathrooms, including all the tiling, plumbing, fitting and underfloor heating, it came to about £10k, if I remember rightly. Although we did have them done as part of a load of other work.

The Bathstore fittings were good value, though, particularly as they always seem to have a sale on!

no worries there Kando, I had my kitchen 'done' by MFI aftre that 'experience' I vowed I'd never step foot in there or have anything to do with them ever again.

Another vote for bathstore. I've just had 2 bathrooms done, with most of the stuff coming from there. They had a list of recommended fitters, and we used the one that they said was best (and he was fab).

I used a company called City Plumbing to supply the bath, toilet, and sink. They are all around the South East i think. VERY good service and follow up (a couple of bits missing when we unpacked) delivered missing parts within hours.

My sink and toilet are Ideal Standard as were the taps and the bath is a steel one by Kaldewei.

We laid the floor before the plumber fitted the suite so we didn't have to cut around the basin pedestal and toilet base. Gives a nice finihs.

BTW they priced matched discountedheating.co.uk which was the cheapest I found online. Not used them but ehy seemd nice when I phoned them to ask some questions!

oo thanks, just off to carry on searching now..

Bathstore sale ended yesterday I think. If you can get stuff in the sale there (they'll have one after Xmas undoubtedly), DEFINITELY worth it. If not, go elsehwhere. It's mid-range stuff passing itself off as high end - so its good quality and nice, but not as 'nice' as the prices suggest!

We got all the stuff we needed from plumbers merchants (grahams, travis perkin etc) and negotiated on the prices. Bought a cheapish sink and toilet, a decent bath (the very cheap ones are very thin) and expensive taps and shower. Cost approx £900 inc shower screen and towel rail exc labour.

Another tip if you are going to get a heated towel rail get the biggest one you can afford/fit in and get the pipework sunk into the wall and coming out at a decent height from the floor. Our little towel rail is completely pointless!