Help! New bathroom - idiot’s guide

[Forwardthinkingcrayfish]

I’m a home renovation virgin. I know this sounds utterly pathetic but I have no idea where to start when it comes to getting a new bathroom. Do I hire someone to take on the whole project, or is it more common to buy the various parts and then get various people to install them? It’s a very small bathroom and I’m terrified of buying the wrong things/things not fitting properly despite measuring.

Just an idea of what needs doing:

Wallpaper needs stripping and new tiling and flooring, shelving removed, radiator replaced with heated towel rail, window replaced, new toilet, bath and sink. Budget £8-10k.

Any recommendations/tips/general pointers for a complete beginner would be great!

You need a bathroom fitter, be careful pre-ordering as some will refuse to install some brand if they think are bad quality or have had bad experience with the company before.

We just had a bathroom done, basically just told the fitter what we wanted. Even when things changed he just rolled with it, it was all up to us. If there was anything specific we wanted he could source it or we could just use his suppliers where he gets trade discounts.

He has apparently turned down people who have tried to hire him after self buying cheap low quality stuff before though as he offers a lifetime guarantee so if it keeps breaking then he would have to keep coming out to fix it so only uses 'quality' stuff to begin with so its less likely to break in future.

Dont go with the modern trend of black taps/shower fittings - everything will be covered in lime scale immediately!

go to b and Q and get them to design it for you. They can arrange the install too

Cheapest option: buy the bits, and get someone to fit it - you might need more than one trade, unless you have a multiskilled person, or they bring in their mates for the bits they cant do.

More expensive: go to somewhere that offers a "all included" price. This is what we did - and had a bathroom stripped to bare walls, and all reinstalled and tiled for under 10k. They bought the bits after we'd chosen them, and arranged for e.g. the skip delivery, the electrician/ plumber/ plasterer/ tiler to all turn up at the right point. Basically, we paid a bit more to have it project managed.

I'm sure there is an even more expensive option!

Yeah our bathroom fitter said the same. We have chrome instead of black.

We’re having ours completely ripped out and refitted. Cost of £8,500.

I approached a couple of local firms with good online reviews. They came out and chatted with me about what I wanted, and made suggestions. They know the right questions to ask!

My top tip would be to install laminate bath panels instead of tiles. They come in loads of different designs, cost less labour to install and avoid all that mouldy grout!

Yep go white sink bath etc

vinyl sheet flooring is usually great

panels for shower

dont tile too much - behind sink is enough you don’t need to go up walls

chrome taps and shower

nice and classic and you can add variety with paint and blind

A good plumber (if you can find one - suggest you ask around friends etc to recommend) will be able to guide you.

You need to have an idea of how you want your new bathroom to look. Take a look at where the plumbing is currently. It's expensive to move the soil pipe for the toilet so best left where it is, everything else can be moved. But copper piping is expensive so best to try to keep everything as it is at the moment as far as possible. I've recently replaced my ensuite like for like but replaced tiles with the kind of sheeting that they have in hotel rooms as no grouting to worry about & easy to keep clean. Cost me more for the sheeting than tiles, but less to fit it so worked out at the same price.

See we’re having ours done (we’ve also completely renovated 3 bathrooms before) and we’ve always bought our own stuff. I get that lots of fitters don’t want to use IKEA as they don’t leave a gap at the back but most other suppliers are great! Heat and Plumbing, Plumbworld etc, all stock very reasonable and good quality goods at a fraction of the brochures some places hand out. Plus loads more choice if you’re particular like me.

OP - find a local builder and explain that you’ll source the goods if they can quote on labour, tiling and plumbing. Your estimate sounds reasonable (probably more like £10k than £8k these days).

Scroll through Pinterest and find what you’re looking for, then research reliable websites (use trust pilot) to find links to what you like. Then run it past the builder before you commit to the date to ensure you have everything you need (people often forget waste traps, for example).

Equally if you can the bothered or don’t have the space to store and source the items yourself you can go bathroom shop and choose it all there and they’ll bring with them when they fit. It’s less hassle but you will need to accept that you’ll probably not get everything you want unless you’re not fussy. I’m very particular about what I like so that approach doesn’t work for me! 🫣

I always buy what I want from a trade supplier and then get a plumber to fit everything as I want

Our local trade supplier delivers for free and knows all the plumbers locally so it all goes very smoothly

I do a lot of house renovations.

We did our bathroom 6 months ago. Our installer gave us a list of what we needed, (which was pretty much everything!). We then went around to local bathroom supply shops and bought what we needed from various places. We also picked up some really good bargains from Ebay. I found it quite stressful at first, but we're delighted with the results.

I had a plumber who could do everything to do the bathroom in my favourite house and I bought the fittings separately.

I'm doing this home up on a budget so my builder will most of the work but I'll need a plasterer and plumber. I too vote for panels instead of tiles for the shower.