Do bathroom showroom retailers have insane markup?

NibblyPig

Sebi_895 said:

Yes they possibly do but ask yourself one thing, do you have the time and patience to get all the bits and bobs individually yourself, and deal with returns if they are wrong or size non-fit? When you go into a showroom its a kind of one stop shop for everything and you get a person or two that you can harass if things are incorrect. I'm not saying its the right choice as some prefer to deal with the whole project management themselves and do well. My main recommendation would be not to settle on the first price quoted, there is always room for haggling.

For a few thousand quid, yes, but for a few hundred quid, no.

I went and got the suppliers of the items.

Bath (£600) and Bath Screen (£540) are from Trojan Baths

The vanity units (one including a sink, one for the toilet) are from Vanity Hall, they look really nice though so I don't mind the mental price tag.

Electric towel rail is from JIS

Taps, shower etc are from Marflow

Cistern from Rhoper Rhodes and WC from RAK.

I can understand that different products are of different quality. It just seems high.

The cost for a replacement bath, shower, a vanity/sink, vanity/toilet heated towel rail, extractor fan and mirror is £8000.

That does not include tiling, replacing the floor, or any fitting costs at all.

Just seems high to me?

NSG666

'You get what you pay for' is no longer always right as if you shop around you can sometimes find the same product being offered at wildly different prices. In order to combat people using their services to design a project and give advice only to go off and buy elsewhere the showrooms often will often give their own product names to some items or deal with brands that are less widely available. Trojan baths, RAK and Roper Rhodes will be widely available but I've not heard of the other stuff.

ashe

Different qualities do exist, but you can also overpay for crap and find cheaper stuff online. We decided the bathroom parts we wanted based on reviews, photos etc and shopped around. The difference between some online stores and others, for the exact same product, can be astounding. We saved £150 on our free standing tap for example. I just kept a spreadsheet of what we wanted and then found the best price. 

On the other hand if you buy everything, its on you to sort out if something isnt right, but we were ok with that

danrv

I’m getting all my bathroom units from B&Q or Homebase.
The bath was £150, Swirl taps £16. Fitted myself.
The vanity unit will probably be under £100 and the loo under £200.
Good enough I think for a standard bathroom.

IvyFlood

Interesting post as I'm the same predicament myself! We're being quoted 12.5-15k for our tiny less than 5m2 bathroom!

What did you do in the end?

Postik

I remember my B&Q kitchen tap literally had a giant corrossion hole through it after about 10 years.  My bathroom tap didn't fare any better.  My parents have just had their tap replaced... after about 35 years.  So quality does vary.  But I imagine those snazzy bathroom showrooms do pile a load of markup on.

GDB2222

danrv said:

I’m getting all my bathroom units from B&Q or Homebase.
The bath was £150, Swirl taps £16. Fitted myself.
The vanity unit will probably be under £100 and the loo under £200.
Good enough I think for a standard bathroom.

i can understand that billionaires might want to spend a fortune on bathroom fittings, but why would ordinary folk do that?  

DullGreyGuy

NibblyPig said:

I'm wondering if they're absolutely having a laugh? Or am I being silly and the quality of things I find online is going to be garbage in comparison?

I went to the Ferrari dealership the other day and a Portofino M was £180,000 but I looked on line and a car from Dacia is £12,500


You need to be comparing like for like and simply because two things are a folding showerscreen or a car doesnt mean they are equivalent. If you value the difference between the two is a separate question as not everyone wants the best of everything and best design doesnt always been most durable

Gavin83

GDB2222 said:

danrv said:

I’m getting all my bathroom units from B&Q or Homebase.
The bath was £150, Swirl taps £16. Fitted myself.
The vanity unit will probably be under £100 and the loo under £200.
Good enough I think for a standard bathroom.

i can understand that billionaires might want to spend a fortune on bathroom fittings, but why would ordinary folk do that?  

Define ‘a fortune’.

Our bathroom fittings weren’t what I’d call cheap. We spent just over £1k on the bath/sink/toilet (which was all Villeroy & Boch) and about £1.5k on the brassware. Our bath taps were £500 alone so as you’d expect for that is also a premium brand. They were expensive but you can feel the quality when you use them.

We spent about £3.5k for everything in that bathroom, which included new subfloors and a complete replacement of all plumbing. However I did all the work myself so we had no labour costs. Try getting even a budget bathroom installed professionally for £3.5k. 

The way I see it is our savings on hiring a professional allowed us to spend more on the bits inside. I think I’ve done a good job and I’m glad we took this route.

However I saw some extreme options. I’ve seen baths that are £20k alone. Taps for thousands. I expect you could spend more than this too. Were I a multimillionaire maybe I’d have considered these but for most people these seems out of reach.

victor2

We are currently having our bathroom totally refurbished. Got three quotes from local companies, and ended up going with someone who has a good reputation, doesn't have business premises, but does have a team of people he uses, and happens to be a neighbour. It would be cheaper if I sourced and purchased the products myself, but I much prefer to have one port of call for everything. Interestingly, he said if I find things I want, he will charge me the same price as I could buy them for - he will consider any trade discount he can get to be his profit. I haven't looked at the cheap B&Q type prices and brands, and have taken his recommendation on other things once the style has been chosen. It isn't exactly a "budget" bathroom, but should look good and last years.