Best bathroom suites??

rubyrara

Morning folks,

Can anyone help me with the best bathrom suites to look at? I read on some posts about ideal standard and twyford, are there any more I should be looking at?

I'm lucky enough to have a fairly large bathroom, so looking for walk in shower, 1800 bath, basin and loo. Not traditional and not too modern just nice and simple.

Had a quote from dolphin yetserday (eeek I know after reading some of the posts on here) which came in at £14k which I thought was ridiculous so goig down the way of sourcing the goods and getting a local plumber to fit.

Many thanks in advance!

benjus

I did my bathroom a few years ago for about £3k, IIRC. I got a friend to recommend a plumber, who recommended a place to go to source the suite and accessories (a small local bathroom store). The price was comparable to what I could get online, and much more convenient - the plumber knew the owner of the bathroom store, and I had been told the plumber was trustworthy, so I gave him a set of keys and he organised all the deliveries etc. I paid him about £350 labour to remove the old suite and fit the new one (including moving the position of the toilet), then got some nice tiles (big, heavy ones, enough to cover the entire wall space) from the clearance section of a local tile shop, and paid a tiler about £400 to replaster one wall and tile the entire room. I fitted the accessories and the flooring myself.

Regarding suites, I'd have a look at Roca.

pinkteapot

Second vote for Roca - we redid our bathrooms with Roca suites last autumn and have been very happy. Wonderful heavy quality but not expensive. We had the Roca Laura loos and basins, a Roca steel bath and Roca Targa taps. The difference in quality between their suites and similarly priced ones from Bathstore, B&Q etc was astonishing.

I went round and round in circles online. Then we went to our local City Plumbing showroom with our plumber and picked out everything (3 A4 pages of receipt!). They gave us trade discount as the plumber was with us and all the items were delivered quickly.

We spent £7.5k doing a main bathroom, an en-suite and a downstairs cloakroom. That was for bath, toilet and basin in the bathroom; shower, basin and loo in the en-suite; and loo and vanity unit basin in the cloakroom. Also included tiling the walls and floor in the bathroom and en-suite.

Only look at online prices once you've seen a suite you like in the flesh. It's so much easier! I was trying to browse online and it's a nightmare.

Speak to plumbers first and see where they recommend you shop. They may well get discounts in some shops. We got at least 20% off everything we bought. And a local physical shop is so much easier if there are problems with any of the items.

Other bit of advice is to spend your money on your taps. Good taps are what really add quality to a bathroom. Buy a good suite and put cheap tacky taps on it and it's a complete waste.

Hintza

We have just been building a new house and sourced 1 showeroom, 1 bathroom and a downstairs WC for £3.5k (ex VAT).

Best deal was on the bath:-

Villeroy and Boch Libra Quaryl showerbath, 1700x750mm, £322.

We have bought HansGrohe taps and showers, Laufen sanitrary wear and some Roper Rhodes kit.

Not yet fitted but I am very happy with the feel of quality.

Picked it up at Scope in Hillington (Glasgow). PM me if yo ned any further info.

Plumberman

pinkteapot wrote: »

we went to our local Plumbing showroom with our plumber. They gave us trade discount as the plumber was with us and all the items were delivered quickly.

Only look at online prices once you've seen a suite you like in the flesh.

Speak to plumbers first and see where they recommend you shop. They may well get discounts in some shops. And a local physical shop is so much easier if there are problems with any of the items.

Sound advice..

XBell

Hi, I found PTS (plumbing trade supplies) to be rather good with prices. Always ring up, because they will still give discount on their prices on the brochures.

dave82_2

Another tip we have found during our recent search. You might need to buy some bits from different merchents to get the best price.

e.g. we found Saneux stuff cheep with one merchent and crosswater taps cheep with another. They must have different deals with the manufacturers.

Hintza

dave82 wrote: »

Another tip we have found during our recent search. You might need to buy some bits from different merchents to get the best price.

I have moved away from this approach (with the house) I have found you need someone you like (and can hopefully trust) to deal with and decent service becomes a bit more important than just pure price.

dave82_2

Hintza wrote: »

I have moved away from this approach (with the house) I have found you need someone you like (and can hopefully trust) to deal with and decent service becomes a bit more important than just pure price.

I agree that price isn't everything but it is possible with some hard work to find good people selling both brands cheeper than each other.

Yes it makes things harder but sometimes it can be £100s of pounds of savings.

I get what you are saying though we are paying a bit more for our shower enclosure through a merchant than the online price because we don't want the hastle of dealing with a shop we can't visit if something goes wrong!