Reply With QuoteWe got some stuff from Victoria Plum a couple of years ago for a bathroom. It was all good quality and is so far happily standing up to the rigours of a family bathroom. I would quite happily buy from them again.
I am in the process of renovating a new house to me for my own use, so not rental and I am going to be fitting three bathrooms and a cloakroom. I have been looking around online and seen the likes of Bathstore and Victoria Plumb, but I have also seen reviews saying they are junk. Does anyone have a steer on this and can make any recommendations? I don’t want to be paying the earth and tiles are already sorted, so I am taking showers, screens, suites and furniture like cabinets etc.
Thanks
We got some stuff from Victoria Plum a couple of years ago for a bathroom. It was all good quality and is so far happily standing up to the rigours of a family bathroom. I would quite happily buy from them again.
This ^^^^^^^^^ we bought an egg shaped bath , sink , toilet etc and 8 /10 years on everything is wearing well. Low price but good qualityOriginally Posted by village
We bought this year from VP. A bathroom and a wc both with fitted furniture cabinets.
I found the quality to be just about acceptable but the doors on the wc furniture are of different sizes. One door, for example, is 5mm narrower than another. Not bad enough for me to have the energy to complain, after we’d sorted the earlier issues and damaged bath panel on delivery.
They sent us a two tap hole sink instead of 1. They sent one cabinet incorrectly and I’m certain the tap was a return, though it’s fine.
I am now looking at all this again as I want to do our en-suite. I won’t be using VP again for the big stuff.
I’d say they’re fine for the hardware and things like screens if the price is right, but I may suggest lying more for furniture if it’s going into your own home.
This stuff is lovely. I intend to put it into our en-suite.
It is on display in the old BathStore shops which ha e been bought by the new company who’s name I forget.
https://www.calypsobathrooms.co.uk/
We have just been going through the same. We have had some good success using Plumbsave and QS supplies online. Plumbsave were particularly good, in spite of their website being less than impressive.
When doing up the family bathroom I was recommended Better Bathrooms, their stuff was pricey compared to local/independent stores, i thought you get what you pay for. After spending a lot of money for the toilet, sink (inc vanity), shower tray, enclosure and return, cabinets etc I wouldnt touch BB with a barge pole (think they maybe bust - havent checked). Quality was atrocious. Cistern was leaking due to poor sealing washer (ruined all the grout directly underneath), the shower tray wasnt straight so the enclosure didnt fit true, lots of fettling to make it work.
their customer service wasnt great either. an expensive lesson learnt.
Another vote for Victoria Plum - good range and decent quality for the money.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
We’ve just had our downstairs loo redone with this stuff. Top quality. Our fitter was impressed
I use Tavistock stuff.
Not the cheapest but good quality.
In terms of supplier, I went with STC - Middlesex based but they may cover other areas.
I use City Plumbing Supplies.
They are owned by Travis Perkins.
If you're based near London, this place is worth investigating -https://www.bathdisc.co.uk/
My brother bought some kit from there for his shower and he was happy with it.
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Last edited by Bonny Marco; 2nd October 2020 at 22:56.
I buy Ideal Standard and Crosswater products from Doble Bathrooms. Heavy discounter with bricks and mortar shop.
https://burgeandgunson.co.uk/
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Just had great prices and service from Bathroom & Showers direct and Victorian bathrooms 4 u. The latter there was a small and understandable error with the outflow supplied with the shower base: it was sorted promptly and advised I could keep the one originally sent and had a correct replacement was with me in 2 days
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I've just been through this process & if you are looking at the sort of items sold by VP & the like then I can say that the most important aspect of the retailer you deal with is how they handle problems with the items delivered. You WILL have issues. I bought a bath waste from VP & it arrived with parts missing & the only way I could get them to pay any attention was to post a bad Trustpilot review. If you look at their contact page there is no phone number & no email address, just a web chat link. Their FB page is full of desperate customers who have wrong or missing parts delivered & cannot get VP to respond.
1) Be very wary of using VP.
2) Do not order everything in one massive order as it make it much harder to track issues like returns & back orders. Obviously try & make each individual order big enough to qualify for free shipping, but break it down into lots of smaller orders.
3) Find an item you like & then do a Google search for the part number. This will throw up loads of alternative suppliers & you can chase down the best price for each item. You can save a lot doing this.
4) Don't ignore Amazon - they were the cheapest for Grohe taps & showers when I was buying.
5) All towel radiators seem to be made in Turkey.
6) Use McAlpine for stuff like traps - it's excellent quality.
7) Many vendors are drop shippers so if you order an Ideal Standard bath from places like Heat & Plumb, Trading Direct or QS Supplies it will almost certainly be delivered by Ideal Standard.
8) I had good service & support from Heat & Plumb & Trading Direct:
https://www.tradingdepot.co.uk/
https://www.heatandplumb.com/
The website may be a bit average but you just need to care about the price & customer support.
9) Mirror cabinets are stupidly expensive - you can spend £550 without even trying. Be careful that many shaver outlets are not rated for toothbrush rechargers which sit connected for hours at a time.
10) If you're after higher end stuff look at https://www.reuter.com/?shipcountry=gb. Watch the shipping charges though.
11) If you do embark on a massive search process look at Tab manager extensions for your browser. I used Tab Stash & it's brilliant for organising lots of bookmarks.
I have done three bathrooms over the last couple of years, if they have a sale on Bathstore are very competitive, the only warning is check it’s all there when delivered, I didn’t have a problem but have read some horror stories.
I bought a bath mixer tap from VP, they sent five before a working one arrived, if you have a problem you will be on the phone for hours trying to sort it out.
I’m in the process of doing our main bathroom at the moment. We got most stuff from a local independent (Sussex plumbing supplies) who were very competitive and open to negotiation.
The sink and tap were sourced from Wickes who were also competitively priced and open to negotiation although not as keen as SPS.
Your local independent will probably also be as keenly priced as VP or Bathstore.
We sourced our bathrooms for our house refurbishment last year from Clifton. This included 1 bathroom, 1 ensuite and 2 toilets. The quality seems good and they negotiated on the price significantly from their starting point.
Thanks for all the pointers. Shame that you cannot go see the stuff in one big showroom but that just does not exist
Nor the next fit out I'm thinking of getting the toilet, sink, shower tray & enclosure from Selco. It seems to be non fancy stuff but trade rated so quality should be suitable.
Only ever bought timber and consumables from there never bathroom stuff.
Just had a look and their stuff looks lovely.
Problem I’m finding is that plumbers/bathroom fitters are a nightmare to get hold of at the moment as anyone that’s any good is booked up for months.
OP where are you based?
I think you'll do well if you look locally, certainly round here there are 3 or 4 good local bathroom centres, they will usually offer lower prices than book when you get talking, and if you can get a good local fitter they will havetheir own recommndations. If tiles are orted, ask your tiler too.
I def think you'll do better than the big online dealers.
If you can get hold of a tradesperson quickly, you don't want them. It's always worth waiting for a good one!
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