Can't make my mind up on Bathroom - DIY or professionals?

avfcforever

Phirefly wrote: »

Sounds quite steep, whereabouts in the UK are you?

It was just under £30 for 1/2 sq metre, B&Q.. I live in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham

The best value I've found is at EMC, but their website is under construction and so you'd have to actually visit their showrooms. There might be a similar specialist near you though, which would probably be more fruitful than the diy barns.

Onlinetileshop.co.uk seems to be a good site. I ordered free samples from them and they came the next day by courier, full size tiles (300x600) I was quite impressed. They also sent me a 10% e-voucher, but they still couldn't beat EMC on price for the same product (Micron matte porcelain)

£60m2 would suggest premium natural stone. If so, have you heard of Floors of Stone. Again their showroom is near me, but even searching nationally I struggled to find better value natural stone, and their quality is excellent.

I'll check out them now, thanks for the help.

helping_hubby

Awww, I love your dog Phirefly

A small update...if you didn't see my "is this quote fair?" thread, the first quote for doing the bathroom came in at £2130. Which basically included everything from taking the old suite out to getting rid of the rubbish and tiling.

We've got a second bloke around tonight for a quote and this time we're going to ask to seperate the tiling out and to ask about getting rid of rubbish ourselves and prepping the bathroom ourselves (removing bath and sink).

I've been spending ages getting prices for suites and taps. The best so far is Jewson, providing they don't charge delivery....and if they do I shall try and get them to throw it in for free, otherwise I might as well order it online.

For £970 (inc VAT) I get bath (kadewei), sink and loo (Twyford Fresh), Bristan Prism taps, clicker wastes, shower head and shower valve.

The only thing I need now is a radiator. Can anyone recommend a towel rail chrome radiator?

In my city plumbing book, a Richmond curved one (1186 x 750mm) is £85.99 + VAT through the plumber.

Or an Iflo curved ( 1252 x 750 mm) is £257 + VAT

I'm going to call Jewson today to see if they can add a radiator onto the order and see what they can do for price.

Phirefly

Thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to seeing everyones before and after shots on here!

helping_hubby

Don't hold your breath here either. The plumber didn't even show or phone yesterday

I hate having to find trades people. I seem to be really unlucky with them. Nearly all have been late, cancelled, don't bother tunring up, or don't bother actually giving us a quote

Phirefly

What a nuisance. And thats just the quote - what happens when you can't get hold of him midway through the job?

Mine's not till the end of October, so plenty of time for you to get sorted before me...

Any joy with the chrome towel warmer? There seems to be such a disparity in price, yet they all look the same...

Doozergirl

helping_hubby wrote: »

Don't hold your breath here either. The plumber didn't even show or phone yesterday

I hate having to find trades people. I seem to be really unlucky with them. Nearly all have been late, cancelled, don't bother tunring up, or don't bother actually giving us a quote

Sigh yes. I know it's my kitchen and not a bathroom but we just waited two weeks after the cabinets were fitted for the granite fitter for our worktops to come and then when H called him the night before he decided he didn't really know how to deal with the stuff we'd bought. :wall: Why not say that instead of letting us call the night before.

So we waited another few days for a nice man that could do the job to come and do it for cheaper but now our plumber isn't answering his phone so we're still without a sink and a cooker a month down the line!!

To add insult to injury, a plumber hired by the fireplace fitter had to come this morning to move the gas pipe away for our new fireplace - we're having solid fuel. H nearly begged him to stay to sort the kitchen but he had another job. So near but so far!

It will be nice to have a bathroom that isn't being used as a kitchen one day. Then we have to do that too. We already have some bare brick walls where we had the soil stack moved to make the kitchen work better. I really wish I lived somewhere else right now, it's horrid. Not one room downstairs is nice yet and upstairs hasn't even been started really.

Raksha

Just a word of warning to those wanting to DIY - my OH did our bathroom last summer, caught a very serious infection from the sewage and ended up in hospital having several different sorts of antibiotics pumped into him while they tried to beat the bacteria (Psudonomas) - please be careful out there, you don't want to have to budget for SSP as well......

helping_hubby

Thanks for your comments.

Doozergirl, you sound like you're having a mare with the kitchen. It is somewhat comforting to know I am not alone though.

Any joy with the chrome towel warmer? There seems to be such a disparity in price, yet they all look the same...

Well I sensibly measured my wall to work out a sensible sized towel rail and I reckon a 1100 - 1200mm x 600m is about right. 500m widths are a bit short for my liking, but the 750 would be silly where I want it.
Screwfix have one for £120 something. Am still yet to get hold of Jewsons. We keep missing each other. My mobile only seems to ring when I'm in a meeting.

But this whole bathroom might have to go on hold afterall, electrics are probably going to cost more than I thought. If I could get the job done for £3k, (fixtures and fittings, and tile myself) it'll be doable on top of the electrics and plastering.

Need to find more plumbers to get a quote I suppose.

I think one of my problems is not looking further a field... how far are plumbers willing to travel do you think?

Canucklehead

helping_hubby wrote: »

I think one of my problems is not looking further a field... how far are plumbers willing to travel do you think?

Good afternoon: It depends on the job eg. the OH travels from East Kent to work in SW/ Central London and Surrey for bathroom and central heating installations (cut rate bed and board with my MIL in Surbiton) but for obvious reasons won't make the journey to change a set of basin taps;) The costs to a plumber from outside the southeast for travel and accomodation in the most expensive part of the UK limits the field somewhat.

Good luck with your renovations.

Canucklehead

Doozergirl

helping_hubby wrote: »

Thanks for your comments.

Doozergirl, you sound like you're having a mare with the kitchen. It is somewhat comforting to know I am not alone though.

No phonecall from our plumber today!