Best taps and toilet for family bathroom

[LV0210]

Hi,

I am planning to renovate my bathrooms and I am absolutely bewildered by the level of choice available. Are there any particular taps and toilet brands that are better than others? I would be really interested to hear which brands you have in your bathroom and whether you are happy with them.

Thanks!

[DaveR]

There is a very good bathroom shop in Streatham called Potter Perrin. They have a good range of stock across different prices ranges and a number of different brands, and very good customer service, so will talk you through different products. We had our bathroom refurbed and after initially looking at loads of stuff online, we bought almost everything from Potter Perrin.

[alieh]

I've done bathrooms in two houses through Bells on Lordship Lane and about to do a few more bathrooms for our new house. I find them very helpful and they seem to do good discounts on the overall quote once you figure out what you like. If you have your measurements and floorplan you can just go in and give them an idea of your budget range and style and they'll start pulling out catalogues from different brands to give you some ideas. I find it very complicated to choose bathroom products based on factors like whether you have cavity walls thick enough for concealed taps, enough water pressure for certain fittings, etc so find it much easier to talk it through with somone in person.

[LV0210]

Thanks for the quick replies and bathroom stores to go to.

Perhaps this is the cynical side of me but I don't completely trust what Sales people tell me. The product they are recommending could be the one that carries the best profit margin for them or they need to maintain a certain sales level for that supplier etc.

As such I would be interested to hear good or bad experiences about the toilets and taps people have in their bathrooms. There is such a variation in price, I am wondering if paying extra does result in a more reliable and higher quality product?

[laurac]

We have had duravit products (happy d/happy d 2 range - sink and toilet) in two bathrooms now and I would definitely recommend them - they are not the cheapest but look good and last really well and you can shop around on-line to get the best price. My partner has always insisted on a steel bath and we have had a bette bath both times - looks great and they do a good range of style and sizes. We got our bath this time around (last summer) through Bells and also got all our brassware from them - matki swadling which we are pleased with. I guess we spent about ?3-4k on all the sanitary ware and fittings (including shower) but then got relatively cheap tiles and did all the decorating ourselves to save some money - I am expecting that the bathroom will last years and years though - in our last house it was in for more than 10 years and was still looking great.

I would second the recommendation for Bells - they were really really helpful - we were in there about 4 times finalising things and it is very handy to check through with someone in the know to see that you have everything covered. We also went to c p hart at waterloo which is pretty high-end but might be useful for space planning etc. - in the end we got our duravit bits from them because they could price match the best we'd seen on-line.

[RoLo1]

I would pay a little more for taps rather than the absolute cheapest... but I wouldn't discount IKEA taps for example, they must sell millions so have to be a fairly good standard. Toilets - I really don't see how they can vary hugely in quality, but someone may correct me on that, we've put in 3 and they weren't 'big' brands and no issues.

(In case it helps - my personal real learning is to opt for 'standard' size everything where possible, regardless of price - for example a square or circular toilet can look fab and premium but it means you have the tiles/ floor laid out to follow its shape. All you need is the toilet seat to get damaged, you may then find it impossible to find the EXACT same shape seat... we had this and found we had to get a whole new toilet (and cistern), plus re-lay the floor. We are having work done at the moment and I applying this principle to the downstairs toilet and even the kitchen sink)

[2nd time mummy]

Electric taps for the bathrooms they come with sensor so their no wastage of water and you can control temperature. Long term saving!

[slh2009]

I wouldn't really recommend Bathstore loos as you have to flush them at least twice usually...

[hoppermum]

Re: toilet, if you're having an enclosed cistern make sure you plan for decent access if something goes wrong. Having to break into expensive tiles / woodwork left us feeling pretty red faced! And when our plumber did come out to fix it (it was a fancy Grohe flush system) he roller his eyes and suggested that the simpler British made flushes were much more reliable (twyfords is the only name I remember him suggesting) as these rarely fail.

[vez]

We got Grohe taps when we did our bathroom and we got mixed reviews. They are generally good quality and not extortionate. But we don't have great water pressure so the bath filler produced a really soft flow which is not great if you want bubbles! But we are very happy with our grohe basin mixer tap and the thermostatic shower. we bought them all on amazon.

[scareyt]

We have an Armitage Shanks toilet and the push button flush is not too stiff for our little boy to press. Avoid getting a shaped / contoured toilet seat as our tippitoes toddler loo seat slips about on that one. A nice solid wooden seat and lid is good because you can sit on the lid while kids are in the bath. Also worth thinking about the shape of the toilet bowl - a larger water surface area means less little kid poo will end up landing on the porcelain. (tmi???)

[Vickie]

See products of catalog of house of enki, i sure, you like it :)

[goldilocks]

Second duravit recommendation. Avoid bathstore as can be quite prone to faults considering its relatively expensive. Mainly though - in terms of family bathrooms would recommend a soft close toilet seat and mixer taps rather than separate hot and cold, all else is to a great extent personal preference.

[Leonid32]

"l most all of the plumber himself ordered to houseofenki.comexcept cranes. they were in good condition 3 years ago when I made the order. Now look here, new models. may will order tap in the kitchen first."