25 Step Guide to Designing and Buying a Bathroom
A Professional Designers Guide
Step 12. Choosing a Bathroom Company
If you are choosing a bathroom company or individual, beyond your design, to supply and install your bathroom, then it is best always to start with at least 3 small scale local bathroom companies first. Are they recommended ? Have they fitted a bathroom you can see and discuss with the owners? Have they ex-customers you can ring? Are they well-established and have they a good reputation ? Are they competative and do they offer good value ? Do they have qualified installers ? All of these questions are relevant and perfectly reasonable to ask. If the supplier is not co-operative with your enquiries, then I would be cautious to go further.
Internet options
The internet is a wonderful resource for bathroom information and groundwork for your scheme, but hopeless for making decisions about who is the right designer or bathroom retailer when looking at most websites. I find it easier to decide on this part of the process by visiting the bathroom showroom, even if it is very small. You are buying a service aswell as the products, so a face to face meeting always sets the scene. It is also a show of intent to the bathroom retailer, that you are serious about your project. If you ring up and say you are just getting bathroom designs and quotes at this stage, you will not be taken very seriously. Also it will save time in the long run to clarify the capabilities of your bathroom retailer for more difficult design schemes.
Local is best
I have continually sold the virtues of small independant bathroom retailers, and will do so here. If there is a direct phone to the person designing and ordering your bathroom, or acting as back- up for your own bathroom scheme, they will be more vocal about the potential problems with your design and choices, and often help to tidy it up. A plumbers merchants staff from my experience will happily laugh in your face when the bathroom equipment does'nt fit, and be happy to charge you for re-stocking and re-ordering!!
Specific bathroom specialist
It is sometimes necessary to research and select your bathroom retailer and installer based on your specific design requirements, such as if you require a bespoke or minimalist type bathroom specialist. Most bathroom retailers are quite general, and easily out of their depth with top-end equipment and specialist fabrication of furniture, and Corian type wall panelling and worktops. It is important to be ruthless and demand clarification of your installers abilities and if possible see examples of what you require. It is a universal problem that most retailers will over-sell their abilities in a tough market.
Tradespeople
I have mentioned the need to know who is running and fitting your bathroom scheme. Good plumbers,tilers,fitters and other trades are not in short supply, but good ones are !! If the trades are sub-contract how long have they worked with this company ? Will they stick around if the you or the company are not happy. I have seen too many companies use their customers as guinea pigs for un-tested tradespeople, and then have to pick up the pieces when they walk-off at the first sign of trouble. Paye staff are more predictable but are prone to taking longer because they get paid every week and know how to avoid hard graft. I have seen the best and most skilled work from sub-contract for my top end projects.
Showroom benefits
I have mentioned the need to visit a showroom whatever scale it is. A showroom is a visible base for your project management, and also as a place to go, if you are not happy, to demand a solution. A single plumber contractor set- up for instance, will not take too kindly to you turning up on their door step at 6.30 pm to talk about your problems. It is annoying enough when trades do not answer the mobile, but worse when they get upset when you stand in their hallway justifiably asking for communication.
Good attitude ?
It is important that your bathroom retailer and installer are approachable and prepared to look after your interests in your absense with your project. If they are easily swayed by the sub-contractors and happier to keep them happy, then hard decisions will always go against you and effect the quality of the final result. tradespeople will always have their opinions and preferances. It is the main contractors job to explain each part of the scheme and not leave sub-contractors to interpret anything. If you require your shower valve on the left because you are both left handed, then it is not up to the plumber to find out, it has to be made clear and specified. A good retailer will have a grasp of the design and the technical problems and stand their ground when inferior work is turned out. This is the part of a contract that has disappointed me most when I stand alone fighting for a customer in mediation when nobody wants to put a job right and stand the cost when the scheme is obviously wrong.
Up to date designer
If you are more demanding of your bathroom designer and require a more cutting-edge scheme with a clarity of design then you require a professional design service. I fear this will be hit and miss with your local retailers so you will have to look a little harder and further afield. I have provided a link to my online design service if you are having problems and need design advise.
Easy to contact ?
It is an indication of what is to follow if your retailer/installer is difficult to contact and prone to switching their personal phone off when on someone elses site. We all have problems to solve and the business has to be looked after. It is a continuous frustration to me and to customers if I cannot get through to suppliers and contractors. It should be no surprise if you are landed with this problem on your contract when the company representatives have been late , havent turned up, or not rang when you asked them to! before you decided to use them.
Prompt service ?
If you get a prompt design service and turn round is this a good indication of who to go with ? I would say no. It is dependent on how busy the designer is and how much backup they have. I have lost business often because I am expected to drop what I am doing to clear a path for a project because it is assumed that I have nothing else better to do. It is important to set out a reasonable timescale for your design stage and exclude a designer when it is obvious they are not interested. If you have not exchanged contracts on the property yet, then the designer will probably not put you to the top of the pile! so be realistic about what you expect from what is mostly a free ( to you ) service.
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