Of course I could pop along to B&Q but the quality etc- well it doesn’t do it for me.

Anywhere online thats keenly priced but also has brands? I went into another local company and the toilets looked wee (!) and almost like a pile of ceramic parts.

Depends on what you call quality. I would suggest looking at decent local showrooms for something you like then check the online prices, then either buy on line or ask shop to match price.
We bought some Vitra & V&B stuff from our local showroom, but managed to get them to almost match the online retailers prices.

Victoria Plumb usually gets good recommendations

Sorry momo …. Have to disagree there.

Go with a named brand, from one of 100s of on-line retailers.

Don’t think the bathroom I’ve just done, had two items from the same place.

All I dealt with were fast with vgood customer service.

Top tip…

Throw the product you want into only google shop and ebay… you can go around in circles looking at all the bathroom sites. Using just the above two will probably get you the cheapest (if not vclose) and will keep your option of where to buy limited… this is a good thing !

Sanctuary Bathrooms

I tend to use stuff from Alan T Carr. I have a local supplier who gives me a hefty discount from the catalogue prices (which are fairly keen to start with). The Technique range is good quality and value. See if they have a local stockist, or if they’ll deal direct. Another reason I use them is that most items are next day delivery.

Colour supplies in Wrexham, Not the most fancy of showrooms but they have ranges right across the board and a wide price range, not sure you would want to travel that far but they are genuinely good.

Do what Ro5ey says. Don’t go online unless it’s a big brand name (Ideal Standard, Twyfords, Roca) as they are worse than B&Q for getting crap in from every known corner of the universe, selling it cheap and then ignoring you should you have a problem a year or so down the line.

Have you tried any of the plumbers merchants round your way, they may give you an expensive price to begin with but you just have to negotiate. Have a good idea of what you want before you go in as well as most merchants aren’t really geared to retail sales.

In short…..
China – Ideal, Twyford, Roca – most merchants own brand stuff is made by one of these three so is usually a good bet as well.
Brassware – Any of the above or Bristan (think Hope but for taps).

I’m just in the process of gathering various bits and pieces to replace our main bathroom.

No idea if my idea of quality matches yours, but for what its worth, I’ve gone for the following:-

– Bath, and taps (bath and basin taps) from clearwater baths (www.clearwaterbaths.com) , but you cant buy on the website, you have to go to a dealer, so went to harry bates in stockport.
– Basin, toilet, and electric shower from bathstore.com
– Shower tray & surround from victoria plumb.

You’ll find when you start looking that a lot of products (but not all) are all from the same factory (in china probably), and are just branded up differently and given different prices depending on how ‘posh’ the shop selling it want to appear. For instance, we went into sheppards bathroom designs (a moderately ‘up market’ bathroom shop) in Cheadle, and picked up some brochures for showers, they had a shower enclosure called a victory 8 for ~£850, looked on victoria plumb and found exactly the same thing, but called a V8 enclosure, for £250.

I wouldnt automatically discount everything that B&Q sells as low quality, although undoubtably a lot of it will be, you just have to go and feel it/see it to decide. We bought a toilet and basin + taps from B&Q for our other bathroom about 7 years ago, they’re decent quality, and still looking good,working fine. There was some cheap tat in there as well though.

Not B&Q would be my advice – took them 6 attempts to deliver, undamaged, the 8 items I ordered from them as a new bathroom suite.

Although 3 years down the line it’s all lasted well so the actual quality was fine.

Didn’t we do this 6mths ago?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/decent-bathrooms-suites-what-brand-names-should-i-look-out-for

We did a full renovation on our place last year.

In the family bathroom we used Pura products which we saw at a local merchant and then brought online.
Quality is good and keenly priced imo

we got all the family bathroom from http://www.ukbathroomstore.co.uk/ who I phoned up and sent a email of what I wanted & got an additional discount off the web prices.

For our shower room the wife wanted a known brand like villeroy and boch, duravit, etc.
So ended up shopping at multiple places.
Sanitaryware Duravit from BoundaryBathrooms.co.uk,
Shower and tray Tapoutlet.co.uk (Part of Wolseley now closed down)
I cant remember who we used for the shower screen

If replacing the shower I can well recommend one of these. http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/mira-digital-mixer-showers/
The valve and supply goes in the loft and the shower heads come in through the celling meaning we could position wherever we wanted and not need to drop pipe work into shower room and then conceal etc. the shower is controlled wirelessly via a puck you screw to the wall.

ps forgot to mention just like captmorgan says – don’t simply order of the website, phone and ask for their best price when you place the order and you can normally get an extra 7-8% of the website listed prices as a minimum

Didn’t we do this 6mths ago?

So we did. And I’m amazed that I gave the same answer then. And the not-so-original poster ignored me that time as well.

Having just fitted two bathrooms in quick succession, I have this advice.

Get friendly with your local plumbers’ merchants – I got better prices from them than *anywhere* online plus I got timed delivery (ie, we’ll deliver first drop at 9am – and did), expert advice and I could nip down to the showroom with any issues.

We also looked on Ebay and did get one huge bargain – a vanity unit from Vileroy & Boch that was brand new (just missing the worktop) for £60. Went to a local marble suppliers and got a beautiful matching top and a semi-recessed basin and the whole lot cost £360 – a fraction of the cost of buying something like that from a showroom.

You could also try hunting out local showrooms and seeing if they have anything ex-display that is suitable – we tried this and couldn’t find anything for the first bathroom, tried again for the second bathroom 6 months later and (typically) found one that would have been perfect for the first (now completed) bathroom. But definitely worth a try.

Didn’t we do this 6mths ago?

So we did! When my beautiful Victorian sink developed a hairline crack when the Plumber tried removing the old taps. Now my equally beautiful 1927 toilet also has a hairline crack. So its time to move forward.

Sad really as I popped into a place called betterbathrooms and the stuff in there is bland/not the same quality IMO 🙁

Will pop into the local plumbers merchants tonight.

Just got mine in from http://www.betterbathrooms.com/ – there’s a trade counter in Leigh where you can go and look at the quality, open late and you can order online and go and pick it up.

It’s a bit like a bathroom argos in set up.

Can recommend a local plumber too if ya need one 🙂

I have got on well with Bathstore for sanitary, brass is expensive tho.

Betterbathrooms- their toilets are almost dinky/noddy and the basins- especially the square ones- if you stand at an angle you can see how the surface undulates/isn’t perfect.

Bathstore is better quality but pricier.

Funnily enough theres a basin at Ikea thats NINETEEN quid and stunning quality. Its also guaranteed longer than a year. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20223716/

The rest are better quality too.

In the end I went for a Armitage Shanks toilet and Ikea basin with a quality mixer. Need a decent walk in shower now- I’ve still got a decent Triton mixer that I’ll carry over.

I always recommended customers to look at Roca and Bristan from City Plumbing/Travis Perkins

Never had any issues with fitting, all decent quality and never had any complaints.

We spent ages looking and the victoria plumb b&q type offering were all wobbly and misshaped. The ikea stuff was amazing quality in comparison but not to in the style we wanted. Ended up scouring reclamation yards and ebay for old stuff. Ended up with a whole suite with cast iron roll top bath for about £200.