Barratt forcing cross-selling

niooi

Hi,

I am buying a property from Barratt. One of the option in the property is a screen bath for £150. To my surprise, they are telling me that I need to have, for safety reason, an additional thermostatic shower that costs £700. To me this is simple cross selling to make more revenue, why do I need to have a thermostatic shower for a screen bath? I already live in a Barratt property which the same layout and there is no need to have 2 taps in the same bath. Is there any legislation and/or safety reason why I would need a second Thermostatic tap ? :mad:

Thanks,

Yvan[FONT=&quot]




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dgtazzman

I had a similar situation when looking at a Persimmon home. They insisted adding a shower above the bath would have to be a wildly overpriced electrical shower as the boiler wasn't calculated on an extra shower.

Probably just a smoke screen, don't see how you'd be showering and having a bath at the same time...

dimbo61

Have you checked the capacity of the boiler they are putting into the property?
Will it run One shower and the central heating at the same time?
Would it have the capacity to run 2 showers and the central heating.
Many modern Combi boilers have NO TANKS so no stored hot water!!
If you want an extra shower you may need a Cold feed and heavy duty cable into the main bathroom to run an Electric shower

niooi

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. Yes there is a hot boiler. I already live in a similar property from Barratt therefore I the equipment must be the same.

Regards,

Yvan

Vampgirl

I don't know about any regulations, but I've lived in plenty of houses which have a mixer tap/shower over the bath. I'm guessing the standard taps on the bath are the combination shower/mixer taps - so why do they provide those if its not "safe"? I can't imagine that there would be any safety reason that having a bath screen means you need a thermostatic shower - does the same "rule" apply for a shower curtain? ;-)

I'd guess its just the way Barratts want to sell their extras - I know when a relative was recently looking at one of their houses the kitchen upgrades only came in packages: you couldn't just upgrade the bits you wanted, you needed to have the whole lot. So for example to upgrade to gloss cupboard doors you needed to also buy the integrated appliances from them! Maybe this is the same kind of thing?

If they won't back down just install your own bath screen once you've moved in - they're pretty cheap to buy and its a quick and easy job.

AdrianC

At a guess, they're saying that if you have a simple hot-cold (rather than thermostatic) shower, with a screen, you run the risk of scalding yourself because you can't easily just stick a hand in to check the temperature before you actually get in, as you would be able to if you had a curtain rather than a screen.

Of course, it's complete rubbish, and I seem to manage quite happily every morning doing exactly that with a screen and a non-'stat shower.

But £150 for a screen is a ripoff anyway. Not as bad as £700 for a thermostatic shower, but...

http://www.screwfix.com/p/aqualux-curved-bath-screen-semi-framed-silver-clear-750-x-1375mm/30218
http://www.screwfix.com/p/swirl-vino-exposed-thermostatic-mixer-shower-flexible-chrome-effect/39565