We need to replace ours, will pay someone to do the work. Any recommendations for good places?

Not looking for something fancy but don’t wnat cheap and nasty either

Wickes? B&Q? Victoria plumb?

Local plumbers’ merchant – I found they are no more expensive than online and by speaking to an actual person face to face I got helpful advice along the way.

I ordered everything online from retailers who were selling it the cheapest, everything should have been Ideal Standard (except for Mira shower where online prices varied massively) but it didn’t quite work out that way. You need to do your research!

I recently had mine done and ended up getting most of it from the local plumber’s merchant (mostly on advice of the plumber that was doing the work but to be fair they had a good range of stuff and offered a lot of advice). In the end I actually ended up getting toilet, bath and sink from different manufacturers (although they look similarly styled), mostly as they had an ex-showroom steel bath and sink/vanity unit on offer which was too good a deal to pass up + I wanted a specific toilet (a Grohe euro ceramic with triple vortex flush…) as a toilet that doesn’t flush well is high up on my list on things that annoy me in bathrooms.
The only thing I ended up getting myself (via Amazon) was a mirrored wall cabinet (with internal shaver socket + demister) as they all seemed to be around the £300-500 mark (both in the plumber’s merchant and well known online retailers). Ended up paying £200 on Amazon and it seems decent quality.
My only regret is going for a wall hung toilet – although that’s mostly as there was no stud wall to securely it properly and the resulting bodge means it moves (enough to crack a tile below the bolts) so I’ve now wedged something under it – which kinda defeats the point. Actually getting less convinced by having a concealed cistern to – there’s a drip for a couple of hours after you flush that’s amplified by it effectively being in a tiled box and I can’t figure out the cause (the water level doesn’t ripple, never goes above the level mark and I can’t see anything with an inspection camera – it’s def dripping into the cistern though not the pan).
Edit: forgot to add – the plumber’s merchant price matched online stuff for the bits they didn’t normally supply (grohe shower and toilet). And if you’re buying online make sure everything arrives before you schedule the plumber in!

Is it bad form to laugh at “triple vortex flush” ??!!

A man is currently crashing about upstairs in a shell of a room in order to turn it into an ensuite. We went with Wickes in the end; it was a bit more expensive than an independent but saved lots of time and risk in getting all the stuff ourselves. They didn’t have a problem with the few bits we did source ourselves, the design process was good and included fancy 3D renderings and whatnot and the hopefully slim chance of Wickes suddenly disappearing into the night is reassuring.

They appointed local contractors to actually do the work, and they should know more about choosing a decent bathroom contractor than I do…

We had ours done by a local small firm.

Very happy with it, and if yer in Cheshire, can highly recommend Signature Bathrooms.

Thanks, helpful

Did anyone do any design/planning? Was thinking of using a bathroom specialist for ideas, then maybe looking up victoria plumb and the local merchant that my builder recommends

Currently doing my ensuite. Bought most of it from Victoria plumb and a few buts and bobs from eBay with their recent discount codes.

Interesting about the wall hung toilet up there. Today I fitted the cistern frame and boxed it in. Been going a bit over the top with the frame as I don’t want any risk of it moving. It seems pretty solid. Might add a few more batons to be sure!

Local plumbers’ merchant – I found they are no more expensive than online and by speaking to an actual person face to face I got helpful advice along the way.

This. Graham’s in Stirling is really good, much better than the majority of trade places due to friendly, helpful staff.
Plus local recommend trades.

We’ve had 2 done in the past 18 months. The first I sourced all the materials, most came from eBay. The second, the plumber gave us a catalogue to choose from.
Very little difference in price but a couple of the eBay bits needed follow up bits or were a ball ache to fit apparently.
If going the eBay route, stick with branded stuff.

I bought bathroom sink / toilet from bathandshower.com and the bath from bathstore (online). Hansgrohe shower was from a German website and shower controller was ebay (used new Ideal Standard surplus to requirements). Then went to a tile outlet (northern tiles and stone) and chose my tiles. Then employed a tiler who also fitted bathroom suites and showers.

Did anyone do any design/planning? Was thinking of using a bathroom specialist for ideas, then maybe looking up victoria plumb and the local merchant that my builder recommends

Nope, although I was keeping the layout pretty much the same. In hindsight I think it would have been nice to have gone with an all-in-one service where they go over options and design ideas with you. Going with the plumber option (although he does a lot of whole bathroom renovations) meant although he suggested a couple of things it was really down to me, the big stuff was easy as I had a certain look in mind (square stuff but with rounded corners) but tiles took me a while to decide on as I want two types but couldn’t picture in my head whether they’d work together (thankfully they did). Also def get sample tiles, my original choice of main tiles (a light matte grey ended up looking a fair bit darker and more like concrete once out of showroom lighting and in my bathroom so I went with something else instead).

Interesting about the wall hung toilet up there.

Def go overboard securing it, once you factor in the lever effect when your weight is perched on the bowl there’s a heck of a force going into the trying to rotate the frame forwards. The problem I had was instead of a stud wall to anchor it to (as well as the floor obviously) the wall was actually made of 3 plaster board sheets bonded to each other. I was prepared to have the wall knocked down and a stud wall built to replace it (would have been a pain as the otherside was the kitchen) but after work the next day was greeted by the carpenter finishing the boxing in of the cistern saying he’d figured out a way to secure it without doing the wall. Seemed OK at first but gradually got worse, I have no idea how it was actually ‘secured’ in the end.

I’ve screwed a big bit of wood to the wall and then put the anchor bolts for the frane through that and the floor. then I’ve built a free standing box around it screwed into two walls which will have the time backer and tiles on. I’ll reinforce a bit more. I can’t get it to deflect pulling hard on it

for yours I would have batoned out rather than 3 sheets of plaster board…its not structural, and bolt the frame to the back wall and floor I’d be having words with the fitter

Local plumbers merchant or (slightly strangely) Travis Perkins! That’s where we got our toilet and sink from for our new downstairs loo.

Your builder can probably buy it from Travis Perkins cheaper than you. Whether they pass the saving on to you will depend on the builder. Ours did, but he’s also our next door neighbour! 🙂

Yeah pretty sure that’s what they actually did (batoning from the exterior wall to the side of the toilet), it’s not attached to the plasterboard wall (at least that’s what I was told, there’s no flex on that wall visible from either side either). The problem with mine is the toilet bowl now moves about 1cm and that causes the panel (tiled over plasterboard) that faces you (where the flush plate is etc.) to rotate forwards and down. Initially it just caused the sealant at the floor/wall line to fail (as the wall was essentially pulling it backwards) but a couple of weeks ago the tile below the bowl support bolts cracked (due to all the flexing), which made me jump :p Unfortunately to do anything about it is going to be a big ballache so for now have just wedged underneath the bowl.
I went with the wall hung option mostly as I preferred the look but also as it’s slightly easier mopping. In hindsight though a back to the wall (concealed cistern) option would have been the better choice.

One gamble I did take that I’m really happy with is going for a heated wall rather than a radiator or towel radiator (the only position one of those could have fitted was right by the toilet which I didn’t want for hygiene reasons). In the end I got a 1.5m x 2m panel behind the bathroom door done with electric ‘underfloor’ heating (I was already getting the floor done). I was a bit worried that as I’d only have it heated to around 30c that it wouldn’t be sufficient to dry towels quickly enough (I just have them on stick on hooks on the heated wall) but actually it creates a heat spot under the towel and the surface temp is more like 45c and they dry just fine. Not a particularly cheap way of doing it (you need a dedicated thermostat as they can only take one loop each) but works well and gives a clean look.

Welcome to Just Add Water

We’ve had a couple from the above place. they used to have a showroom Near Kings X , but I see they’ve moved. We bought all the “hardware” from them and our builder fitted it all and tiled etc…. Nice stuff. Not cheap and nasty.