Wickes or Homebase bathroom?

tortoiseshellcat

Hi we want to get our bathroom completely refitted and are thinking of going with either Wickes or Homebase and getting either of them to design and fit a new bathroom. It's not very big so we want to make the most of the space.

Does anyone please have experience of the bathroom design and fit service either of these offer or have an opinion of which is better. Or other alternative?

Also how much roughly does it cost to get fitted including tiling etc?

Never done this before so just unsure, any advice would be appreciated....
Thank you.

vansboy

Before choosing either, get them to do some planning for you. Take your measurements and ideas and what you would like to achieve, into the store and see what they come up with.

You can mix n match, sinks and baths, by taking the best ideas from both as well as buying from different suppliers. If you get your own installer - which will be cheaper - by asking friends for recommends.

Look at some bathroom designs on Google for inspiration. You can make a budget bathroom look good, without too much hard work!

VB

tortoiseshellcat

Thank you, that's really helpful. Would you go to both? I don't want to waste someone's time if I don't choose them.

SuzieSue

You need to be very careful when you use one of the sheds to fit bathrooms or kitchens as you don't know how good their fitters will be. They might be great but you won't know in advance so it is pot luck.

It is always best to find a fitter by recommendation.

Take a look at this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5165730

vansboy

tortoiseshellcat wrote: »

Thank you, that's really helpful. Would you go to both? I don't want to waste someone's time if I don't choose them.

Dont worry about taking up their time - thats their job!

And you will see different products from any supplier.

On my last bathroom, I used a combination of Betterbathrooms.com, for the shower and sink/toilet/storage units and Homebase for the actual bath and shower screen.

In previous project, all B&Q, one before that, was Bathstore, Homebase and B&Q!!

And each was installed by independent people.

VB

no1catman

In addition to the above - look in Topps Tiles - for tiles!

adandem

The quality of bathrooms from sheds is not the best to be honest.
You could try a plumbing merchants? We went to a local supplier who has a showroom, we had vitra ceramics and a carron bath and they matched the best online prices we found.

Davesnave

tortoiseshellcat wrote: »

Thank you, that's really helpful. Would you go to both? I don't want to waste someone's time if I don't choose them.

You can have the time of mine that Homebase wasted on two occasions, once in designing a kitchen and the second time a bedroom, neither resulting in any hard copy as their software played up, and/or was so new they 'got stuck.'

That's about 4 hours altogether.

Seriously, it's what they do. Howdens did us the best kitchen plan, but we bought from an independent manufacturer whose sales person/designer was pants, because their product was better and they did fitting.

(We bought our utility room cupboards and all our doors from Howdens, though. We're not completely heartless! :A)

I would go to a local, long established builders' merchant that has a showroom. You might be pleasantly surprised, and if you are, they'll know local fitters and won't recommend someone who'd reflect badly on them.

tortoiseshellcat

Thanks for all your replies we went to Homebase and Wickes today but couldn't see anything that really inspired us and despite looking around in detail the staff were too busy to assist.

We also went to Bathstore and were quoted £4000 for the shower, sink, loo, tiles etc plus £5500 for fitting :eek: our bathroom is really quite small so that seems a bit steep.

Anyway now I'm thinking of looking for a local business to see how they compare and I agree their workmanship could be better as they have their own reputation to think of.