We need a new bathroom in Chateau Lunge, we are time poor and crap at DIY. Somewhat naively, thought I could walk into a bathroom shop, design the bathroom and they would sort it in exchange for payment. It turns out this is not the case. Most want the old stuff out before they arrive, none will do the tiling and none will do the flooring.

I can’t be the only person who wants 1 firm to sort all this out, basically I want to design the bathroom, pick the units and everything else, and get someone to fit it all so I can come back 2 days later (or whatever time it takes) to a finished bathroom. Is that at all likely? I really don’t like manging multiple trades and would rather someone else did it for me.

And an even longer shot, does anyone know companies (ideally Midlands based) who will do a full bathroom fitting?

We kept the number of the guy our builders used when we had the extension done.

He’s about to finish off refitting a bathroom for us and has managed the only other trade required (tiler) for an all-in price.

He doesn’t advertise, nor work in the Midlands, but I’m sure a similar type of person exists up there, just a case of getting the number somehow…

Two days is optimistic…

I am doing this now, and in the same position as you – time poor, don’t want to manage different trades et c. There are bathroom shops out there that will do it, but they seem to be the independents rather than the chains like bathstore and city plumbing. Don’t know where you are but we’re using Surrey Bathroom Studios for a one-stop shop like you describe.

Where about’s in the midlands? It’s what I do for a living and I’m in Leicester.

Local bathroom/kitchen fitter will sort the lot.

And I know a place in Stafford who does that

Go to a local indie tile/plumb shop – ask them who they recommend and expect to wait three to four months for the good ones to be available. 🙂
Our’s have always been a 4-5 day affair, from strip to fit. General builder did ours.

When I got mine redone last year I went with a local plumber (who also did bathroom refits), used him first to replace my boiler and as he did a good job there it gave me the confidence to have him sort the bathroom out to.

I only really had a vague idea of what I wanted to do so I might have been better off going to a specialist bathroom design place but in the end the plumber suggested going with him to a big local independent bathroom supplies place where they had a decent range of stuff on show. I actually ended up going with an ex-display bath + screen & vanity sink unit (saved few hundred), chose the taps there to but I’d already had it in my mind I wanted a specific Grohe shower and toilet so they agreed to supply those at the cost I’d found them on the Internet.

The good thing about the plumber is he was upfront that although he could do the tiling, paint, electrics, carpentry and the sealant it wasn’t his area of expertise so he would sub-contract that to people he worked with regularly (he also had a team of 4 plumbers working for him so a lot could get done quickly).

All went well, the only issue really was we had a bit of a falling out over tanking around the bath (with overhead shower) and framing the bath. Reading stuff on the Internet (inc. here) suggested tanking around a bath with an overhead shower was a good idea, the plumber thought it was overkill and he only tanked wet room – he agreed after me insisting a couple of times though (bit odd as I’d agree to pay the extra). When I then questioned why the bath was being framed in he got a bit pissy with me and would have been a lot of work to sort before I’d realised they hadn’t so agreed to leave it as it was (just fixed to batons on the floor), to be fair it’s been fine since.

So my advise would be to think about all the really small stuff and make sure they’re in the proposed works from the start, don’t just assume something is standard and whoever you get in will do them. I guess some people would say only a cowboy wouldn’t do certain things and to steer well clear but apart from those couple of things they did a really good job and I have no complaints.

Lunge – are you near Kingswinford? Your Choice bathrooms do just that. We have used them for a bathroom, a downstairs toilet and a wet room over the years.

Someone comes out and measures up, shows you samples, you choose the bits you want. They book you in, and it’s normally 5 days for a full bathroom (inclding ripping out existing, fitting, tiling, plastering, lights etc)

Would recommend https://www.yourchoice-bathrooms.co.uk/

We’ve just had some builders in to do our bathroom and en suite. did a cracking job. They did the whole thing…rip out old stuff, do all the needed prep (which ultimately included the ripping out of and rebuilding of an internal wall due to dry rot!!). These things never go to plan so always assume longer than you think…once they’ve ripped out the old stuff and had a good look at what’s lurking underneath I can guarantee there will be additional work required that wasn’t anticipated.

Where in the midlands are you? If you’re anywhere near Derby/Burton then i’ll happily provide the details of the builder I used.

I have done a couple of bathrooms over the last few years. Be very careful and check what the builders you are using intend to do. Baths should be properly supported on studwork all the way round, proper sealing of the bath edges not just a smear of silicone, tanking of showers behind tiles. All things that are often missed out but make for a longer lasting bathroom

@sc-xc, had a quote from them last night. Not unreasonable and seems to offer what we need.
Only challenge is I’ve seen a couple of negatives about their aftercare. Have you had to use it? Was it OK?