New bathroom NOT using a company?

jennifernil

We have had 2 bathrooms redone in the past 18 months,  both removing the bath with over-bath shower and replacing with large shower enclosures.  Nothing was moved from the original positions by more than a few cm.

Both were originally fully tiled, so as the walls were plasterboard the whole lot had to be removed.   The ceilings were over-boarded and skimmed as lights were moved.

We bought all the materials other than plasterboard, timber, plumbing bits and small electrical bits.  The work was done by a small 2 man building firm that both our son and daughter had used, they brought in a plasterer but did all the rest themselves.  A skip was provided.

We bought pretty much everything on line after checking prices for what we  wanted, and chose what we wanted by having an idea of our requirements and researching what would suit.  We also visited a couple of large bathroom showrooms. We stuck mainly to well known brands and went for a good but not luxurious standard.

In the bigger room (2.2x3.6m) we retained the original bespoke furniture units (4 base units and 4 wall units) and the large mirror, as they were still in excellent condition, the above mirror light fitting, the basin tap, fittings such as towel rails and toilet roll holder, the wall mounted fan heater (fairly new) and the extractor fan( also newish).

We purchased new counter tops in solid Iroko, matching plinth, new white end panels for furniture units,  inset basin, back to wall toilet, cistern and unit to house this,  thermostatic mixer shower, shower tray 1200x900, hinged door shower enclosure, large electric towel warmer, new radiator, 6 downlights, matt white tiles, adhesive and grout ( walls fully tiled), and LVT flooring.

My OH refitted the furniture himself, and made the counter tops to fit, he also laid the flooring and painted the ceiling.

In the smaller room (2.4x2.4m) only the extractor fan, some fittings, the mirror and light above it, were retained.

We purchased the same shower mixer,  tray, enclosure, back to wall toilet etc, towel warmer and 5 downlights.  In the 12 months that had passed, prices of all those had risen a fair bit.

 Other purchases were a new electric wall mounted fan heater, new radiator, 2 base units plus sit-on basin and tap, 2 wall units, 25 sq m of matt white tiles etc as previously, and LVT flooring.  My OH again painted the ceiling and laid the flooring.  Iroko left over from the first bathroom was used to make a countertop beside the basin and one for the toilet unit.

Both rooms came in at a total of £8k-£9k each due to prices for most materials having risen, of that the labour and supplied materials came to  just over £11k.

IvyFlood

Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

I've got a chap (sole trader) coming on Monday to quote. I found him through asking in our local Facebook group and many people recommended him. Also seen plenty of his work on Instagram (I think Instagram is great for such trades rather than a website!) and all looks good and I feel he won't have a problem doing what I'd like. I will ask him what he recommends in regards to sourcing the suite. From what I've seen he also has other trades he works with i.e. building stud walls, electrician etc. I have high hopes so we shall see, hoping he's a bit cheaper too!

Also, we were in B&Q last night and I bought a tile sample. Nothing fancy, just a long thin metro type tile with a slight uneven texture to it which is one of the two types of tiles we want. Husbands Mum works at B&Q so we'd get a good discount. she could get us discount on a whole bathroom but I wouldn't want one from there somehow! Tiles I think we can get away with!

jennifernil

Our DD has Metro tiles, reasonably large  ones, but still a lot of grout to keep clean in the shower.  Having seen this, we decided to go with fairly large tiles, we have 400x250 matt white used horizontally.

These ones from  Crown Tiles.......

https://www.crowntiles.co.uk/flat-matt-white-ceramic-wall-tiles.html

They have a good range, fast delivery too

sugar-walsh

We got very large tiles as I hate cleaning and I hate dirty grout. They were also super fast to install. 
I think there are 6 tiles plus off cuts in the whole shower. 

plumb1_2

IvyFlood said:

Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

I've got a chap (sole trader) coming on Monday to quote. I found him through asking in our local Facebook group and many people recommended him. Also seen plenty of his work on Instagram (I think Instagram is great for such trades rather than a website!) and all looks good and I feel he won't have a problem doing what I'd like. I will ask him what he recommends in regards to sourcing the suite. From what I've seen he also has other trades he works with i.e. building stud walls, electrician etc. I have high hopes so we shall see, hoping he's a bit cheaper too!

Also, we were in B&Q last night and I bought a tile sample. Nothing fancy, just a long thin metro type tile with a slight uneven texture to it which is one of the two types of tiles we want. Husbands Mum works at B&Q so we'd get a good discount. she could get us discount on a whole bathroom but I wouldn't want one from there somehow! Tiles I think we can get away with!

Have large format tiles in shower areas, less joints = less chance of a leak and mould growth.
buying a tile from b n q , robbers. Go to any good tile shop and they will gladly give you a free sample tile.
Make sure you get the same batch number when buying box’s of tiles.

secla

We just had outs done by an independent local fitter similar size to yours . He recommended a local company for the furniture which ended up being good as there were a couple of bits we needed to swap and had we purchased online there could have been some long delays.
We had bath removed and shower cubicle put in, toilet and radiator moved, new sink and vanity unit + floor to ceiling tiles, new extractor and vent to roof, ceiling skimmed etc. cost us around 8k in total