Is it usual for the bathroom fitter to buy all the materials?

[Seainasive]

Bath, shower panels, taps, basin etc? He uses his favourite suppliers who seem to be really expensive. I checked and could buy the same make & model sink and bath taps and the shower online and save a thousand pounds easily!

Fitter gave us a list of his preferred suppliers and we didn’t like any of them so chose our own. He bought all the techy stuff like pipes and things.

He was happy for us to choose what we liked and had we chosen from
his list we could have used his trade discount.

He was very honest and an excellent fitter.

It's up to you to agree or disagree
Some do, some give you a chocie and some dont give you a choice

You smiply decide what you want and go with the one that meets your needs

When we have kitchens/bathrooms done - we buy the major bits ie the ones you can see - the plumber is left to buy the ods and ends EG, pipes, fittisings screws etc - but we insist on good quality glue, grouting and sealants etc

We also agree a fixed price and duration of works as some can turna one week job into six. We also agree if to pay at the end or in two stages IE pay the first half if x/y/ and z completed.

My DH is a bathroom installer and will only fit items from a particular shop he uses, but lets clients pay direct to get any discount, which isn’t as much as people think. In the past he’s let clients buy sanitary ware themselves elsewhere, and if there’s a problem when opening the boxes, which I’m afraid is often the case, you both have problems returning items and waiting for replacements to be sent. The shop he uses will bend over backwards to get any item either damaged or wrong item sent replaced asap and yes you may pay more for this service.

I am currently mid bathroom makeover. My tradesman is somebody I've used before so know and trust. He recommended some suppliers but was happy if I wanted to go elsewhere. In the end I went with one of his suppliers and ordered online for him to collect as they were competitively priced and had a large range so it was easy enough to find what I was looking for. He sourced any additional plumbing bits/ trims/ adhesives etc as needed.

We bought the tiles and fittings like mirrors, towel rail, toilet roll holder etc.... directly

For everything else we had a discussion with our bathroom fitter about what we wanted and he recommended things that would most fit/suit our bathroom and he got them from a trade supplier. We were able to go with him to the warehouse to check it was what we wanted and them he liaised with them to get things delivered at the best time for him - this was invaluable as we have a two bed flat with little storage room for things.

Our builder company gave us a quote using materials they obtained from a more expensive source. Well we then sourced our own and they agreed to use ours, but I sometimes wish we had at least used their toilet as the toilet seat on the one we bought keeps sliding about, and we've replaced seat 3 times and still the problem persists - at least we could have had the builders back to sort it out if we had used their toilet and this had happened, or it likely wouldn't have happened at all. Sometimes it's worth paying more for quality.

Great thead! I'm also in the market for buying a new bathroom suite (started a thread but no responses) but trying to see where to buy from. What do people think about victoria plumbing stuff?

@Ginmonkeyagain
Pls where dod you get your tiles from? I've been to topps tiles and apart from them not having much variety they are pretty pricey. I spotted an online store tilesmountain that seems to have nice tiles. Does anyone know them?

My bathroom fitter got me a good discount. He will use other suppliers but prefers Clifton's bathrooms because he has a credit account there.

@LadeOde Walls and floors. They are online only and were really helpful.

Thanks @Ginmonkeyagain . I'll try them for the tiles.

My fitter gave me a link to Clifton's as he has an account there. It came in at 3k despite me going for the cheaper options.
I've ordered everything in line form various places and I did it for £1,400.

Whatever you do be really clear (and get it in writing!) that because you are supplying xxxx then the cost for the job will be xxxx.

Most of the fitters round our way supply and fit, they don’t pass on the trade discount so they make a small profit on the supply element.

We got a fitter who was happy for us to supply and saved a huge amount. We did a full family bathroom for just under 5k all in, which included demolishing and rebuilding an internal non-supporting wall (it was unsafe). Even he was shocked at how little we paid for materials but you can shop around when it’s your time rather than theirs.

We had this with fitters. They charge you the catalogue price, but the supplier gives them a 30% or so discount. They are ripping you off.

That’s how Howden’s also operate for kitchens….and that’s why I didn’t buy my kitchen from them

@Jeezitneverends our fitter gave us the full Howden's discount - I even paid them directly. It was all on his account but I did a bank transfer direct to them.

To be honest I don't think it's fair. Where I live the tradesmen charge higher than average prices, I can't see why they need to secretly rip you off in the materials instead. I don't mind if they have a preference for a particular brand of some things, because they may have the experience to know what works best.

This is sort of what I'm struggling with, but the fitter seems fixated on me having the cheapest furniture available (even though he has books for the more premium stuff), and I keep getting all this talk that it's high quality (when I thought it seemed flimsy) and it is cheaper than the cheapest in Victoria Plumb, basically it's the cheapest on the market, yet it's very good quality.

If he's ordering them and receiving them that means he's taking the responsibility for checking it's the right thing, not damaged, right quantity, getting it collected and/or being there to receive the delivery.

Ours (part of a big house reno) suggested some bathroom showroom places and we could either pay them direct and take care of all of that ourselves or he would do it, but charge 15% on top of the price for that. We started out ordering ourselves to save the 15% but after a few instances of having to juggle work with deliveries, problems with what was ordered and last minute trips to the tile shop to sort out more problems I'd definitely pay the extra another time!

We are time-poor and clueless about any form of DIY so went through a bathroom store in our city - chose everything from them and then their fitter fitted it. We couldn’t fault him - he took care of everything, including getting the stuff delivered to us at the point he needed it and was in the house to receive it, took away all the old fixtures and fittings to dispose of, organised all the additional trades - plasterer, electrician, etc - and did a thoroughly competent job of fitting. No idea if we paid over the odds but what was most important to us was a completely stress-free refit where we didn’t have to do anything 😂 which was exactly what we got.