Bathrooms - where to buy from?

[Chasingsquirrels]

Just looking into getting my bathroom & ensuite refitted.

Couple of builders recommended I go to Huws Gray and have a look at their stuff and get them to draw me up some plans.
I went, had a chat, went through what I wanted and came away with a big brochure. They emailed the plans a couple of days later.
The sales assistant said "don't take much notice of the prices, we can always negotiate a discount, I'd hate someone not to get what they want because of the quoted price" which always puts me off a bit.

Any other recommendations?

I'm probably looking at some fitted furniture for the WC & basin plus extra cupboards.
And bath, shower tray & screens, WC and basin, taps, etc.

Anywhere like DIY Kitchens, but for bathrooms?

I want to know this too! Currently trying to source stuff for three bathrooms and it's just endless trawling endless bathroom sites and not really getting anywhere. I just don't know how I can tell from the websites what's crap or not!

I've seen various brands recommended on here (you can search for past threads). I'm currently looking at Tissano shower trays (no idea if they're any good though, but they have the look and size I need), Lusso for taps, possibly?

We bought from a local bathroom place which did heavy discounting. It's not very British but we got 15% off named brands like Saneux. Don't pay full price. Our bathroom went from unaffordable to affordable with the discounts.

Also look at all the brochures. Do your research. Think carefully about style and height of toilet. If you want back to wall (easy to keep clean) or if you need a smaller projection.

I go round the local builders merchants and haggle to see which one gives the best price. They have loads of catalogues and decent show rooms so there’s a good choice. I usually go basic for loo and basin. Mid range but not fancy for taps and buy a 10 mm premier finish bath so it’s good and sturdy. Avoid those thin wobbly ones. Always buy the tiles separately and shop around even more. Last few bathroom b&q has been best for tiles.

Thanks for the replies.

I've been playing with plans, sketching things out, considering sizes etc using the Huws Gray brochure & items.

Need to go an look at a few more, there is a localish kitchen / bathroom / builders merchant place with showrooms which I think I'll go over to this morning.

Sounds like the discounts & haggling prices is how its done on bathrooms, I didn't find anything like DIY Kitchens for bathrooms.

Agree on shopping around for tiles, one of the builders who came round recommended somewhere that he said had a good selection and prices, and I know there are others. It's not so much the sanitary wear, taps, tiles as the fitted furniture (which I didn't think I wanted until I started looking and considering the layouts & boxing in services which are currently wall mounted).

We find tile mountain good for tiles. Topps is a total rip off

I'm using Easy Bathrooms. The quality seems good and there's plenty of choice. I designed the layout myself, but they will also design something for you if required. Their tiles are lovely.

As regards the pricing, the building firm I'm using gets a discount from them, which they are passing on to me. But if you buy when there's a sale on, it works out about the same.

Was talking to our plumber about bathrooms- we plan to do ours next year. His advice was to buy ceramics/baths that are at the cheaper end, as once you get above the really cheap and nasty stuff the quality doesn't really increase with the price, but to be sure to get good quality, well-designed taps and fittings even if they do cost more, because they are easier to fit, less likely to leak or be a problem, and give a bathroom a much better 'look'.
It's also worth considering where to get things- when getting a mixer tap for the kitchen, I had to hunt around a lot to get one with the types of lever/design I wanted, and I found that from a medical supplier's website I could get a really good quality one with a long guarantee for much less cost than the posh domestic ones. It is far higher quality than many more expensive ones, really heavy, robust, easy and quick to fit, and a 5-year guarantee as standard as well. And it looks just fine.

@BlueMongoose do you happen to remember what the medical supplier website was?

QS supplies is the cheapest I've found most of the time. They have all the brands and a pretty big selection.

Stick to good brands for taps. They are a lot more but it's just not worth the pain of fitting cheap taps as they're a nightmare and they often break quickly which is problematic when they're fitted behind tiles.

Tiles - check out eBay, there are a few ebay shops with real places you can visit selling seconds. Usually the difference is not noticeable and you'll pay £15/m2 instead of £40.

Shower screens are expensive but if you're doing a walk in shower you can buy the components separately and save a couple of hundred pounds.

@Pepper12345 have you had a good experience with QS? I was about to put in an order with them and then read some absolutely shocking reviews on Google and Trustpilot, which is making me think again...

We were very happy with easybathrooms. I'm sure they did some sort of trade discount as it was done through our builder.

I've found them to be pretty good. Things are delivered quickly and they're usually the same products at a lower price than other online retailers. We saved a couple of hundred on a Crosswater shower by the time you added all the bits up.

They won't take returns after more than 7 days so you have to check products on delivery for faults. But I did change my mind about the size of shower tray once and just didn't unload it from the van and they sorted it with no fuss.

They respond to emails and answer the phone quickly so any issues I've had they've always sorted.