I’m about to buy & fit a bathroom, looking for plain, simple “modern” style stuff at a reasonable cost.

Bathstore winning so far, though the taps seem pricey. B&Q, Wickes & screwfix all look pretty poor, tho some OK taps.

Anywhere else to try, and where is cheapest to buy all the plumbing?

Wickes would surely be one of the better options for the plumbing, then get the units somewhere else I’d have thought.

I found wickes stuff to be pretty low quality and their pricing was still higher than my local specialist even in their 50% sale!

I got some excellent quality stuff from a local supplier
http://www.worcesterbathroomsandkitchens.co.uk/

helpful discussions and a good supply of quality brands.
Not suggesting you use a worcester supplier, but Id investigate local independents in jockshire first.

Screwfix for the plumbing bits and bobs.

We recently went through this and looked at the same places as you, but it turned out that local plumbers merchants had much better quality stuff and would give discounts that brought it down to the same or lower prices than even the internet plumbing places. They also delivered free and would provide proper advice. So look up your local plumbers merchants on the internet and go round and visit.

There are also some excellent plumbing suppliers on the internet but you really need to know what you want with them – returning a bath or a basin because it doesn’t fit is non-trivial!

B&Q were pap with us.

Only ordered a bath (only style we liked) rejected it as it was damaged. They sent us the same bath back twice telling us it was different one each time. 🙄

im a bathroom fitter, and i find all the major brands much of a muchness.. its all in the quality of the fitting

Ta all.

TBH I CBA spending hours & days comparing prices to save £50, once I’ve found a decent looking suite (seem few and far between, I am a fussy bastid tho!) I’ll shop around a bit for the plumbing.

2 Macerators needed also 🙁

Bathstore sales come around pretty often. We baulked at the price of the taps but after looking around went back.

Just fitted a new bathroom myself;

bath, shower screen, toliet basin and taps all came from b and q and seem reasonable quality.

Took them 5 attempts to deliver 10 items undamaged though – they’re attrition rate durign transport is unbelievable – they smashed the first shower screen and cracked one bath.

I’m quite pleased with the results though, for a ‘first attempt’ – basically the room was gutted and stripped back to brickwork in places as the old plaster had blown. I did everythign bar the electrics and plastering. I’ve fitted a small screen across the window now (got a piece of toughened glass from local glass shop and some alu channel off the web) to stop shower splashes getting on the blinds.

We found Victoria plumb quite good. The basin unit we got was hundreds cheaper than the equivalent in B&Q. We were actually looking at them in B&Q and a chap told us to look on VP on the web. Glad we did!

I use Bristan taps/shower fittings etc, which seem to be on offer in various places fairly regularly. Reliable, modern looking, and easy to fit.

Opening an account with plumb center or suchlike may be possible to get a bit of extra discount, if you’re ordering the whole lot through them.

wwaswas,
good effort there, i need both my bathrooms done but i could only dream of doing it myself. I’d reduce my house to a pile of rubble if i tried anything remotely difficult diy wise. No handy skills at all. 🙁

When I was fitting bathrooms, I always recommended City Plumbing showrooms to my customers.

They have loads of choice, decent prices, and don’t sell the cheapo crap* like the Superstores do, so basically anything they actually have for sale, is decent quality. So you don’t need to worry about figuring out whats what yourself.

Just pick something you like of that’s the right price, and your sorted.

(I once fitted a bath, supplied by the customer, from one of the DIY superstores, I had left my headtorch under the bath, and I could see the light from the torch shining through the bath from above !! Not the best quality )

5 years ago I built an ensuite (WC, shower & sink) onto our master bedroom.

I fitted a sanislim macerator to pump the waste out.

These basically vent into the room they are in and do smell despite the claims of charcoal filters. Its like having an open sewer in your bedroom.

It was a Bad idea. The smell isn’t pleasant and the noise is unpleasant in a bedroom at 3am when you go for a pee.

The first sanislim lasted a few years and then wouldn’t stop pumping after the waste was gone and needed a kick to stop it. I didn’t fancy fannying around so bought another to swap immediately.

Horrible job catching all the waste in the pipe before it spilled into the room. Turns out the level float in the first was gunked up with poo so it was still serviceable.

In the end we just used that loo for peeing in to stop the pong. I wouldn’t ever install one again unless its for an occasional shower or washing machine.

Sold the house and bought another house – the new house has another macerator!!! Argh,. This time understairs downstairs loo for the old lady that owned the house – this one will be ripped out.

This one also pongs as there’s no ventilation fan etc in the understairs.

As an aside to this: My bathroom needs re-doing and I really don’t have the time, or know-how, to do it myself. Are there any firms who will do the whole lot (plumbing, unit fitting, tiling, flooring etc)? Is it cost effective to do it this way?

I’m located about 30 miles south of London if that helps.

MrTall, whats your location ?

Ta folks…keep it coming!

We went on-line and bought from betterbathrooms.com am it’s being installed as I speak. Plumbers seem pretty happy with it all.

i source most of the stuff off the interweb.. dont forget that with all internet purchased items you have a seven day period to refuse the product ( without reason) for a full refund and refund of delivery costs.

I’ve had a Saniflo Saniplus for 20 years. We use it as our main bathroom (shower bog basin) and it doesn’t have any of the issues everybody else seems to grumble about.

Get a good one, don’t try to save a few quid.

totalshell – Member
i source most of the stuff off the interweb.. dont forget that with all internet purchased items you have a seven day period to refuse the product ( without reason) for a full refund and refund of delivery costs.

You don’t get your return postage paid unless there’s been a mis-description Shirley?

Just fitted a new bathroom myself;

Your in Brighton aren’t you?. Those small black tiles should show up the lime-scale a treat. 🙂

We also went for the internet purchases. We had a good look around the DIY stores then bought the furniture (inc. cistern, toilet and sink) from plumbworld and separate shower, enclosure and bath from different (cheapest) companies once we knew what we wanted. Can vouch for Merlyn shower enclosures, their customer service was excellent when we managed to destroy one of the shower seals, they just sent us another free of charge. Also the Victoria Plumb bath we had delivered was much better quality than the one we eventually went with, but we had 3 damaged baths delivered so I gave up with them in the end. But again good customer service from them. For ‘bits’ we used Toolstation and Screwfix as they were cheaper than PlumbBase and Plumb Centre, but depends on what you have available in your area.

All I can say is, if it isn’t just replacing like-for-like, plan everything, particularly where pipes will go, waste, connections, tolerances etc. and make sure it all fits sensibly before you start!

Those small black tiles should show up the lime-scale a treat

🙂

Actually, they’re big tiles with lots of little tiles moulded into them.

from previous experience a wipe over once a week with some Cillit Bang bathroom stuff seems to keep the limescale at bay (mostly).

It’s my wife’s red hair die that does the damage – the grout goes pink…

I’ve had a Saniflo Saniplus for 20 years. We use it as our main bathroom (shower bog basin) and it doesn’t have any of the issues everybody else seems to grumble about.

Get a good one, don’t try to save a few quid.

Is it not noisy? Does it not whiff? Mine was a saniflo sanislim in the room. I’ve seen them installed remotely (in a cellar or garage) which strikes me as a better idea.

Not too noisy. Zero pong, but that’s because it doesn’t have to send it uphill, possibly.

Mikey – if you are in Kent maybe able to offer you a few pointers.

Cynic – go talk to the major plumbers merchants you will be surprised how cheap they are if you negotiate, also the stuff is usually better quality than some of the internet / diy store rubbish

I made my ex-girlfriend a concrete vanity unit. Sounds dull but rather than using standard aggregate and cement I used crushed glass of various colours, crushed slate (which matched the slate flooring) and white cement rather than the grey stuff. I made a mould, with a cut out for the WHB waste (basin was sit on counter type). Few days later took it out of the mould and polished it up using a variable speed hand grinder and diamond polishing disks. It came up a treat, all the glass colours and slate coming through and it was as smooth as a a babys bum. You can vary the smoothness depending on which grade of disk you use. Needs something to seal it too, cant remember what I used now. Not cheap in terms of tools but was a good little project and now she has something unique.

creamegg -you got a picture of that? sounds great 🙂

sorry forgot about this thread. Im not sure if I have a picture or not, ill have a look through my old mobile phone. I left to work abroad before the whole bathroom was finished and we split up and I havent been back since to see the finished bathroom. When i left the vanity unit was installed but needed some finishing touches with a sealer. It did look pretty good though.