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Bathroom brands and retailers - what's your experience?

51 replies

standupsitdownturnaround · 23/12/2020 07:10

Hello All!

We are redoing our small bathroom which was in a state of disrepair when we moved in.

It will be shower over bath, countertop sink and a close coupled toilet.

Has anyone got any info about the best brands for the units (taps, bath, toilet, shower) and fittings? (Lights, underfloor heating, towel rail, mirror, shower screen..)?

We are on a tight budget but determined to do our research and hopefully get a good quality finish.

And does anyone have any experience of different retailers?

The reviews of Victoria Plum are unbelievably mixed. Lots of 1 stars.

I've downloaded Which? App which is helpful but I want to hear first hand experience and tips!

Thanks in advance

OP posts:

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Twinkie01 · 23/12/2020 07:20

Hansgrohe are good for taps etc and either Villeroy and Bosch or Duravit for ceramics/shower tray, bath etc.

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Othering · 23/12/2020 07:22

Victoria plumb was great for us.

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standupsitdownturnaround · 23/12/2020 07:28

@Othering

Victoria plumb was great for us.

Thanks for replying! Is this Victoria plumb with a b on the end or Victorian Plumbing?

Can I ask which brands you went with? I can see they stock a lot of Orchard products which have reviews but they're not included in any Which? Summaries.

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standupsitdownturnaround · 23/12/2020 07:29

@Twinkie01

Hansgrohe are good for taps etc and either Villeroy and Bosch or Duravit for ceramics/shower tray, bath etc.

Thanks for this. Did you go for a Duravit toilet? They're quite expensive but are universally well rated for quality and durability. They've got nice designs too.

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PragmaticWench · 23/12/2020 07:56

I keep reading on here that Victoria Plumb are awful but Victorian Plumbing are good.

It's worth finding decent brands then shopping around online yourself for the best price.

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Upupupintheair · 23/12/2020 07:58

We went for the high end look, we used a company called Lusso stone. The prices aren’t as bad as you might think! That was for all our taps and fittings, stone freestanding bath, 2 vanity units and sink and 1 wall hung sink.

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PowerslidePanda · 23/12/2020 08:12

Homebase did our design, supply and fit and they were very good. We were told Bristan was a good brand for taps, but 4 years on, I'm not impressed!

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Shimy · 23/12/2020 08:12

Hi OP, hope you don’t mind me hopping on your thread, we have the same dilemma. Tight budget, smallish bathroom etc.

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Shimy · 23/12/2020 08:13

By the way , ‘Franke’ is also a VERY good brand for taps.

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SoosanCarter · 23/12/2020 08:13

If you have a local plumbers merchants, you can get a good discount off the list prices. Small family firms often the best, and very knowledgeable.

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BumbleFlump · 23/12/2020 08:16

We have rocca and grohe taps - would highly recommend, especially rocca

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BumbleFlump · 23/12/2020 08:17

Btw the guy who did our bathroom actually said he wouldn’t fit Victoria plumb because it’s crap

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FollowThatStarTonight · 23/12/2020 08:21

We recently bought Victoria Plum stuff and it was great, I was really impressed for the price. I don't know if we were just supremely lucky but all of our items were strange sizes and couldn't be found at B&Q etc, but VP had something that met each of the requirements.

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standupsitdownturnaround · 23/12/2020 08:32

@Shimy

Hi OP, hope you don’t mind me hopping on your thread, we have the same dilemma. Tight budget, smallish bathroom etc.

The more the merrier and the more info the better! There are so many considerations it starts getting confusing

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standupsitdownturnaround · 23/12/2020 08:33

@BumbleFlump

Btw the guy who did our bathroom actually said he wouldn’t fit Victoria plumb because it’s crap

I've heard this before and seen it on TrustPilot. They seem to have really polarised reviews which I haven't seen with other retailers.

Do you know if he was talking about their own brand items or more their service delivering any products?

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FollowThatStarTonight · 23/12/2020 08:34

I'm amazed by bad reviews of Victoria Plum as it's been one of our DIY successes of the year but maybe it was different items.

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Reese123 · 23/12/2020 08:40

Don’t get a durability toilet I think it’s absolutely awful

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Shimy · 23/12/2020 08:46

@BumbleFlump

Btw the guy who did our bathroom actually said he wouldn’t fit Victoria plumb because it’s crap

I got exactly the same from our local plumbers, so questioned him further what he meant by ‘crap’, and he said, it’s their service. You order items and only half of it arrives, or the sink stand arrives, 3 days later etc. So in his case it wasn’t the products that were the problem. This left me wondering whether this is what everyone else means.

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EL1984 · 23/12/2020 09:39

Our builder is fitting our new bathroom as we speak. I havent seen the finished product so can't really comment on the quality. I shopped around (which ended up being a bit of a pain recieving various deliveries whilst in temporary accommodation, but if you are going to be there then it could be worth it).
I got hansghrone taps and shower mixer as has heard these were high end (I got some of them off amazon!). Drench were good, I actually used the chat function to ask some questions and the guy said to come back to him for 'the best price'. I got a relatively small discount but found it useful to have the human contact to sort delivery etc.

The surprise cost for me was the tiles! See if you can find some cheap tiles that look nice.

Our builder has built a shaker style vanity unit and the man who is supplying/fitting the kitchen quartz worktop is getting us an offcut from another job for our vanity and fitting it for £150!

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BumbleFlump · 23/12/2020 10:23

standupsitdownturnaround
Think it was the quality of their bathroom fittings but then again the guy who did ours is a neighbour who usually does high end but fitted ours on mates rates (still quite high mind but lower than what he usually charges)

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PigletJohn · 23/12/2020 11:43

Bristan taps

Aqualisa round-knob shower mixers

Carronite baths

McAlpine traps

Avoid pop-up plugs

Soler Palau extractor fan

Established UK WC maker such as Twyfords

I find Plumbworld a good supplier

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Shimy · 23/12/2020 12:30

There is currently a Tavistock toilet and vanity sink being sold at Costco for a really tempting price. Does anyone know if they’re any good?

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Murinae · 23/12/2020 13:05

We fitted Victoria Plum about four weeks ago in our shower room. The delivery was fine and quick and turned up when they said they would. One cupboard was broken on delivery. I went on the web chat and we just had to take photos and they sent another within three days. Didn’t want the broken one back and we had to take it to the tip. Plumber said quality was great of the shower tray and the glass shower doors. Plumber brought the waste fittings so no idea on those. The Victoria plum toilet has been fine up to now. Cupboards are good quality with soft closings. We went for the Orchard Derwent. I found them expensive for showerwall boards so got them from a different company. I also got the (Grohe) shower from another company too as it was cheaper.

I found them good. Never sure with all the reviews if it’s for Victoria plum or Victorian plumbing! Anyway I can recommend Victoria Plum. We went for them in the end as they had the cupboards that fitted best and toilets that don’t stick out very far so we had more room to walk past into the shower. Our plumber said Victorian Plumbing fittings are not standard Uk sizes but other than that I didn’t use them so can’t comment.

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Murinae · 23/12/2020 13:10

Bit outing but due a name change anyway! Here’s our Victoria Plum one.

Bathroom brands and retailers - what's your experience?

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dudsville · 23/12/2020 13:17

I redecorated two bathrooms using Victoria Plumbing, great prices, fine products and delivery BUT THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS APPALLING! Sorry the caps were required! A toilet wasn't advertised correctly and I had to send it back for an exchange. Firstly I had to fight to get them to acknowledge the incorrect advertising. They'd since updated their website but randomly I still had the original page saved because I'd emailed the product to my builder to check it was ok. Then the return palava, I could tell the courier by the way he handled it the toilet was going to be returned damaged but I had to fight for this too.

For this reason I won't ever use them again. Last thing you need when your house is upside down is to have to argue with customer service.