Where shall I buy my new bathroom?

[Levo-Lon]

iirc

i got my bath P shape + glass screen ,sink and toilet..from B&Q in the jan sale for around 400
so yes you can get it cheap But its cheap stuff..
taps for bath and sink were very cheap so i got new quality ones..another 100+
then all the plumbing fittings as the old stuff was replaced { recommended} another 80 quid
then the tiles and flooring .i used a very nice lino with tile pattern..
it all came to 1350-1400 in total..

but it took me over a week to do in total with repairs to walls and re doing the shoddy plumbing that the PRO did ..nobber put a back fall on the bath drain ..
so i had to lower that a 100mm in a concrete floor...

im thinking a budget of 2k 2.5k will get you a decent job done and fitted if your man is not out to fleece you..
but there may be a few issues like Plastering if the walls are damp behind old tiles or the plaster board is shagged..
all good fun ..

pic of mine when finished Just the stickers to remove lol ..its ok and 2 yrs on is still ok..

 

[Mugshot]

1K for sanitary ware - I am not having a shower cubicle, just a shower fitting in the bath

Make sure it's a decent bath then, do you know the differences?

 

[vickster]

It's worth buying decent stuff. I'd say the basin is the least important but the more expensive ones do lookk better, have a nicer design etc

Lino, eww

 

[Thomk]

Make sure it's a decent bath then, do you know the differences?

I know there are different materials, different thicknesses and "reinforcement".......but no not really!

 

[Thomk]

I did figure to spend most of the budget on the bath and bath bits and not overly fuss about the toilet/basin.

 

[Mugshot]

I know there are different materials, different thicknesses and "reinforcement".......but no not really!

You're most of the way there. With an acrylic bath (which is what you'll be getting) when they mould it the sides and in particular the bottom corners get thinner, so a 5mm bath will have corners which will be around 3mm thick. When you use the bath, particularly as a shower bath, you will cause the bath to flex and this can allow water into areas where you don't want it, I.E. down the back of it. You need to go for something stronger, a 5mm encapsulated bath would be similar to starting with an 8mm acrylic it's much stronger and I would consider it to be a minimum. When they encapsulate a bath they completely cover the base and come up the sides and corners with additional layers of fibreglass. They can start with less than 5mm, in fact you can get baths which are so thin on the corners you can see through them, they are like a net curtain. Really thin baths can still be encapsulated but of course you're not actually getting anything better than a plain 5mm bath. So you have to know the thickness before it was encapsulated.
You can go further than this and go for a super reinforced, Carronite, Trojan Cast, Amazonite different companies different names basically all the same. These baths are encapsulated then have the whole of the underneath of the bath coated with additional layers of resin. They are super strong, roughly equivalent in strength to cast iron or pressed steel.
Ignore anybody that says to get any bath and batten the walls etc etc, get a decent bath in the first place. 5mm encapsulated as a minimum (most companies wont have that information to hand or on their websites and will need to check) or a super reinforced.

 

[Thomk]

You're most of the way there. With an acrylic bath (which is what you'll be getting) when they mould it the sides and in particular the bottom corners get thinner, so a 5mm bath will have corners which will be around 3mm thick. When you use the bath, particularly as a shower bath, you will cause the bath to flex and this can allow water into areas where you don't want it, I.E. down the back of it. You need to go for something stronger, a 5mm encapsulated bath would be similar to starting with an 8mm acrylic it's much stronger and I would consider it to be a minimum. When they encapsulate a bath they completely cover the base and come up the sides and corners with additional layers of fibreglass. They can start with less than 5mm, in fact you can get baths which are so thin on the corners you can see through them, they are like a net curtain. Really thin baths can still be encapsulated but of course you're not actually getting anything better than a plain 5mm bath. So you have to know the thickness before it was encapsulated.
You can go further than this and go for a super reinforced, Carronite, Trojan Cast, Amazonite different companies different names basically all the same. These baths are encapsulated then have the whole of the underneath of the bath coated with additional layers of resin. They are super strong, roughly equivalent in strength to cast iron or pressed steel.
Ignore anybody that says to get any bath and batten the walls etc etc, get a decent bath in the first place. 5mm encapsulated as a minimum (most companies wont have that information to hand or on their websites and will need to check) or a super reinforced.

That's genius, thanks!!

 

[Mugshot]

 

[Thomk]

Mrs Thomk has her eye on this. It seems to be reinforced etc (from looking at the info) but It's difficult to get to the bottom of how good:

http://www.parkstreetbathrooms.com/store/product-details/Viride-Offset-Bath-1700-x-750mm-R39#zoom

 

[Mugshot]

Mrs Thomk has her eye on this. It seems to be reinforced etc (from looking at the info) but It's difficult to get to the bottom of how good:

http://www.parkstreetbathrooms.com/store/product-details/Viride-Offset-Bath-1700-x-750mm-R39#zoom

Yep, that looks good, if you look at the pictures underneath the main one you'll see one shows the encapsulated base board with additional material over the top. You have noticed that the price doesn't include the side panel and the side panel is £183 haven't you?

 

[Thomk]

Yep, that looks good, if you look at the pictures underneath the main one you'll see one shows the encapsulated base board with additional material over the top. You have noticed that the price doesn't include the side panel and the side panel is £183 haven't you?

Yes! They do a price match and I have found it elsewhere for about £460 all in. I like this company because it has very good reviews/customer service.

 

[Thomk]

@Mugshot

Sorry to stalk you but...do you know much about overflow bath fillers? It seems like a fine idea to me as I can't imaging a use for taps and they are likely to get in the way of people showering.

 

[Mugshot]

@Mugshot

Sorry to stalk you but...do you know much about overflow bath fillers? It seems like a fine idea to me as I can't imaging a use for taps and they are likely to get in the way of people showering.

They're fine, bear in mind though that you do generally need to have a valve with tap heads mounted somewhere on the bath to control the flow and temperature of the water, generally people would place these at the back in the middle not on the end to save having to reach around the bath screen to turn the water on, you'd usually do it with taps too. So generally they'd take up a similar amount of space to taps, they're kinda cool though.
WRT the panel, they are very easy to crack as they are moulded in one piece, check it carefully before you sign for it.

 

[Mugshot]

Would you like to learn about toilets now?

 

[Thomk]

They're fine, bare in mind though that you do generally need to have a valve with tap heads mounted somewhere on the bath to control the flow and temperature of the water, generally people would place these at the back in the middle not on the end to save having to reach around the bath screen to turn the water on, you'd usually do it with taps too. So generally they'd take up a similar amount of space to taps, they're kinda cool though.
WRT the panel, they are very easy to crack as they are moulded in one piece, check it carefully before you sign for it.

Yes my design idea is as you say - thermostatic controls in the middle so you can reach over to turn water on before getting into the bath for a shower (and so that you can turn the bath on easily - filler underneath the control) - just to the right of that a flexible hose shower head (for use in the shower and to clean the bath) - a fixed shower head on the right hand side behind the screen, either from the ceiling or wall.

Last thing (possibly). Concealed or exposed shower gumph? It seems to me that if it is concealed, although neater, it might be a pain if things go wrong!?