How do you for a new bathroom?

[Marshmallowbrain]

Such a dumb question to many I'm sure, but we're buying our first home and I'd like a new bathroom suite.

What do you do? Buy the bathroom suite and organise a separate plumber?

If you are on a budget that would be the cheapest way, bathroom companies who design etc tend to be quite expensive. You could contact a plumber and ask where they would recommend you buy the items from or they might provide you with some brochures for you to pick the items and order them for you. Dont order anything until you have had a plumber round to have a look though as the things you might like may not work ie there are different types of toilets depending on your waste pipe.

Find a bathroom fitter who seems decent, get quote, (have a stiff drink) find out their availability, ask if they have accounts anywhere & who they prefer dealing with, choose the rest. Buy what you love & can afford... you won't want to do it again in a hurry!!

Thanks for the tips!
Oh God, is it that expensive?

Maybe it will have to wait to next year then...

The fittings can be as expensive or inexpensive as you wish, but buy something you are going to love into the future, because you won't want to do it again any time soon! Look in bathroom showrooms, and ask them to do costings, and do the same in the DIY showrooms.

I'd advise you get someone who will fit your bathroom and co-ordinate the electrician, tiler etc. It's a nightmare to do separately. Sit down when you get the quote! That's probably where most of your expense will be. It's worth it though to get someone reliable and capable - ask around, look for reviews, get recommendations in independent suppliers (that's how I got ours last year, and he was amazing!)

While you want your bathroom to look good try to avoid choosing items/colours that are 'in fashion' as, in a few years time they will be out of fashion. Not much wrong with timeless white as you can always accessorise with coloured mats, plants, flowers etc which are cheaper to replace. Think carefully too about what you want to store there and make provision at the planning stage to avoid lots of fussy storage trolleys and so on later. Before deciding on a built in look think about access for maintenance.

In our area it’s a 6 month wait for a bathroom fitter. Approx £5k to replace small 4 piece bathroom not moving anything around. Then cost of bathroom suite is massively variable.

Pro tip:
big tiles will cost you will cost a lot less in labour to install vs smaller tiles

its worth asking if they have any end of line products in the tile warehouse / bathroom showroom

also checking places like Costco for taps etc

Personally I found that it was around same price to go with a local small company as it was to buy yourself and get a plumber to fit. The fitting is so expensive unless you know a plumber that will do it cheaper. We were quoted £1,500 labour just to do downstairs toilet (toilet, sink and small splashback of tiling). That was about 4yrs ago and we are in central Scotland.

You can sometimes find a plumber or small company that will do bathroom fully fitted for x amount.

Wet wall is cheaper than tiling. There's a company nearby me that does fully fitted (small bathroom) with wet wall for around £3k which is a grey price. You can then upgrade if you want fancier sink, taps etc. They don't do tiling though and I'm not so sure of wet wall although u can get nicer ones now. I still prefer tiles.

If you want fully tiled though I'd say it's more likely to be around £5k+ for fully fitted small bathroom.

Have a look on Facebook u can sometimes find local plumbers that can organise it all and might be a bit cheaper with their trade discount etc.

I'm so naive, I saw some nice white suites on sale for around £700 and figured another grand maybe for labour.

I'm happy with a classic white set and brighten with tiles, plants etc. Dont necessarily want anything fancy but on second viewing it was a bit like my uni bathroom.

We just had ours done a few weeks ago and it was £8500.

That was for a new bathroom suite, with an L-shaped bath, flooring, wall panels around the bath/shower and skimming the other walls. We did need a new stud wall putting in too.

We use a local firm that do the end to end, so they came out to measure up, we picked out options and designed what we wanted, they then had plumbers, electricians etc on staff and rotated the right people in and out as needed. Took 8 days total to rip out the old one, put in the new one and take away all the waste.

I picked a bathroom suite & then the plumber got me the same suite direct from the manufacturer.

The suite itself can be very cheap. Labour will be far, far more than that.

Thanks all for the tips and brining be back down to earth 😂 maybe just a little tart up and a new shower for now.

Ours was 11k but I did pick very nice tiles. Basic by standard would be at least 8k here.

You can still buy bathroom sets, I saw some in Wickes the other day. Obviously you want get much say over style. Have a look at sites like Homebase/Wickes, that'll give you an idea of cost for extras which can vary.

Ours is costing £5600 plus laminate and tiles. We're having a toilet, sink, bath with shower over. Ours is more as we're limited on ceiling space so have a more expensive screen and that didn't give us much choice but to have a more expensive bath. We're spending a bit more on sink (and matching toilet) as DH wan't a sink with more of a dip.