Bathroom refurb: decent quality affordable sanitary ware?

[AmazedinSpaces]

Help me please! We are planning a bathroom refurb. I'd like to get my sanitary ware to include bath with shower over a screen, toilet, sink, taps, heated towel rail, some kind of storage unit, ideally for budget of £1500. Is this doable and still have decent quality? I don't know where to start and don't want a flimsy plastic bath! I would be so grateful for advice and links.

I’m just undertaking the same project and am horrified by some prices I’m finding for items that look and feel cheap but are certainly not. If you don’t want “plasticy” then you need to rethink the budget or shop on fb marketplace

Quality or affordable…both don’t usually come together. So you’ll have to pick.

I suppose I think 'decent quality' doesn't mean high end and not flimsy plastic is different from not plastic. I appreciate it will not be a metal bath, but some acrylic baths bend when you step on them and others don't!

I was horrified recently when I got quotes in to change a bath to a shower tray/glass panel (shower already there) and redo the tiles on one wall and flooring. They came between £5,500 and £8,000 just for basics 😱

The bathroom will not be done.

We got our dual fuel towel radiator from plumbworld. Really good product and not expensive.

Toilet and taps were pricey grohe wall hung though.

I would personally recommend a very decent extractor fan which are around £200 and epoxy grout which isn't cheap.

It's hard to do a bathroom cheap and good quality 😔

We’re using local suppliers (Kent, UK) and are having the Zaneti Soho range in walnut. Same suppliers have price matched or sourced cheaper anything we saw in local high street type places although we went to those for insp. our mirror is from bathroom mountain. Tiles were an absolute mine field.

You will regret not buying good quality taps and plugs etc. The reason I know is because I tried to save money on this area and it’s tarnished/rusted.

The best purchase we made a was a German brand tap. I honestly can’t remember the brand off the top of my head, but I can look tomorrow . My advice is buy German but keep a look out for stuff on eBay/Vinted. Sometimes people are selling bits and bobs and f you’re not fussy you can find bits for an excellent price. .

Sorry your project ended in price out. That makes me feel better about the £7500 quote we have had for back to brick, move the pipework, fit everything, redo the tiling, plastering, lighting etc. We're trying to keep the full project to £10k, hence the budget on the sanitary ware.

Yes extractor fan will be heavy duty. That's top of my husband's priorities.

I felt totally overwhelmed by all the options, and not having a dh or live in partner to make joint decisions with. I ended up using chat gpt/google ai for advice on good brands and what to look out for and for then finding best prices. So far so good! It’s being installed this week, have ended up with brands like Geberit, grohe, bristan, Carran (bath) etc. I am using multi panel panels and the variety in price for the same product really surprised me so definitely worth shopping around for things (or asking ai for best prices).

On the bath - ai gave me good advice on that on whether to go with carronite or standard acrylic, what thickness to look for etc.

For 1.5k honestly just go for ikea.

I have spent a lot of money on fancy taps and the Ikea stainless steel tap which we got for the utility is in better shape 5 years on.

A friend of mine recently installed an ikea bathroom (with taps from elsewhere - higher end) and is very pleased with it. It looks very nice. Don’t know about price but I’m sure it would fall under the lower price for good quality umbrella and might not be one of the first places people think to look for a bathroom.

I did a bathroom 3 months ago - I used the planner on Victoria plumb to work out what I can fit In then shopped across a few different suppliers to find what I was looking for whilst on budget! Ended up doing the bathroom (with a non plastic paper thin bath). With dual shower,.sink unit, 2 x wall units, toilet, laminate.and shower pump for about £1800 then got a highly recommended bathroom fitter to switch it and lay the flooring for £2k.

I’m a few weeks into a redo on my bathroom so I feel your pain. I found it paid to shop around and once I had the cheapest prices I could find, i ended up talking to a bathroom discount shop online which was able to match prices for pretty much everything i had found when I told them the prices, which meant I could order all of it at once and with one delivery cost. It was bathroom discount centre (if im
allowed to say?) and I told them
stuff I wanted which wasn’t on their website and they were able to provide it. I really didn’t want a plastic bath and found a steel one for £150 plus legs, waste and taps. I agree on not getting cheap taps - I made that mistake in my previous kitchen. I’ve gone for cross water taps and shower fittings and a geberit toilet. I went for brushed nickel which seems to be expensive. I’ve spent about £2700-2800 on bath, shower, wall hung toilet, shower screen, sink and taps for bath and basin and a heated towel rail. The tiles and flooring and vanity unit were on top. It took quite a lot of work to find what I did at those prices, but if I had gone for chrome I reckon I could have cut a few hundred off. Also, I went for a rainwater shower and one on a rail too and a single one would have been cheaper. Good luck! There’s a lot to think about with a bathroom… there was a good thread recently something like what do I need to know about doing my bathroom where people shared the things that had gone right and wrong with their bathrooms, which I found really helpful when planning.

Complete refurb last August. Used Plumbworld. Highly recommend. Reasonable prices. Good quality and prompt delivery.

I’m 80% installed and have almost exclusively used City Plumbing. They not only recommended an incredible installer but have given me decent discounts all the way. My bill
is £3k from them but I have a Carronite bath and a 1400 x900
shower and new wc/ basin. I’d recommend getting your choices priced there.