Thinking about getting our bathroom redesigned etc , need a shower (somehow!) but has anyone got advice on who to entrust with the design? Do I use a local plumber or as it needs really looking at and perhaps thinking about rearranging etc ought I to go to on of those all in bathroom design places such as Dolphin? I haven't got any imaginations sadly so need ideas and wondered if a plumber would be able to suggest suites/tiles/placing bath etc? It's a 1930's house so not a large bathroom. Janet
The best designer will ultimately be you! Since you are the only one who knows what you expect from it, and also has to live with the result.
Perhaps... building modern mathrooms is a multi diciplin activity often involving the skills of building, plumbing, tiling, wiring, and finishing and fitting. So you either need someone that can do all those, or at least someone who can manage that aspect of the porject and get the required people.
Have a look to see if there are any local independat bathroom fitting shops as well. See if you can find one on recommendation.
(Having just finished building one for an aunt, I can also confirm they always take longer than you expect!)
Only if you want to pay *way* over the odds for your bathroom.
Measure up carefully and then sit down with some graph paper. Cut out extra bits to represent the main components and slide them about until you get a "fit" that works. Get yourself some catalogues from a builders merchant / plumbers merchants - people like ideal standard etc do books full of all their sanitaryware with piccies of it in situ in full bathrooms. These can be a good source of "idear material".
Dolphin are *incredibly* expensive and from what I've read on this newsgroup and elsewhere, and particularly good either.
A plumber is (usually) a guy who connects pipes together and installs sanitary equipment; he might have a flair for 'design' but equally likely he won't. He's likely to show you examples of suites, tiles, colours etc for you to choose from, but I don't think that's what you're after?
Even if you don't have a flair for design yourself, presumably you "know what you like"? In which case, you need to go check out as many bathroom showrooms, and read as many glossy magazines and brochures that you can get your hands on, to come up with ideas.
I imagine most of the bathroom showrooms (and even Wickes, B&Q?) will offer to design your bathroom for your from scratch on a computer, presumably on a no-obligation basis; so there's no reason why you can't go and see what they (all) have to offer and then take your ideas elsewhere, if you want.
I'm just redesigning mine (also 30s house). In the end I realised that there's not enough room for a shower, so am going for one of those "shower baths" (like a bath, but with a big round bit at one end) cos you can put a decent screen up around it.
The next decision is "tiles first, then bath, or vice versa..."
A lady I know recently got royally ripped off by them - I think she paid something in the region of =A37k for a smallish bathroom, with poor work taking longer than it should have done and a totally inadequate shower. The piece de resistance for me, though, is that she didn't even get to choose her own tiles. The salesguy apparently told her that he would bring out some samples for her to see (which doesn't sound ideal to me anyway) but didn't bother in the end and the fitter just brought some tiles along on the day and started fitting them. When she phoned the salesguy to question this, apparently he said something like: "but I thought you would like those ones...." in a hurt tone of voice!!! And they were nothing special either - she could have bought much nicer ones from any of the sheds for a fraction of the price.
OK, you could argue that it's her own fault for letting them walk all over her but it certainly doesn't give the impression of a professional outfit. Their modus operandi seems to be to charge ridiculous amounts while palming off the cheapest fixtures and fitting on unsuspecting and inexperienced customers.
I find that bath and shower are best done first then the tiling, finally the loo, and sink are best done after.
That way you can chop the bath into the wall, and arrange for the tiles to come down onto the flat bit of the top rather than the roll edge. That saves creating a little water trap all round the edge and also allows a little failsafe should the seal at the edge fail.
Same here! Room is just not big enough to fit shower plus bath. I see people who have 'ideas' about bathrooms but sadly I guess it will be just what will fit. I would love a proper shower but at the moment it's just a shower head on the wall so a good shower/bath with a screen NOT a curtain would be lovely. Thanks for al the advice. Janet
As I type this the bathroom fitters are busy fitting my new shower/wet room. It's taken me twenty years to get round to refitting the original builders unsatisfactory design. The detailed planning has taken 12 months. Perhaps I should wait till its all finished (sometime next week?) before giving advice, but anyway.
Look in a lot of showrooms, read a lot of catalogues, dream about bathrooms, everytime you are in the existing bathroom study it, think about it: what works, what dosn't.
An independent bathroom shop is probably best. Not a big chain with pushy sales people on commission, nor a design shop who will contract out the fitting or merely have a list of recommended fitters. Project managing a lot of trades is not something you want to do, nor do you really want an odd-job man who may be good on only parts of the job.
Get lots of quotes listen to suggestions, but make no commitment until you are sure.
Drawing plans is good, I found making models better.
I hate to admit it, but I got lots of useful design ideas from looking through various "house" magazines, and then wandering around the DIY sheds to see the various bits and bobs "in the flesh".
That bathroom planning website is ace fun as well :-)
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