recommend a site for buying rads, sinks, toilets, etc.

[laike]

preferrably designer / high end stuff, not looking for the cheapest thing going.

any advice for choosing one rad / sink / toilet over another, besides looks and price?

assuming it's better to buy online than in a shop, bath store / whatever / whatever?

cheers

 

[sam51]

try the local ones. usually a price for every one,
all stuff is pretty much the same,take sottini,for eg,posh stuff of ideal standard,
pays your money take your choice,

 

[Ray Stafford]

It seems to be my day for disagreeing with Sam51! Sorry Sam.

All stuff really isn't much the same! You should see the sanitaryware sample that we were offered last week.

The pan didn't sit flat on the floor, the outlet was over 1cm off being round, the basin had a flaw in the glaze that a blind man could have seen from 20 paces. The WC seat was the nastiest I have ever seen - worse than one I was offered at 60 cents a little while ago, and I thought that was overpriced.

We rejected it out of hand, but I see its for sale all over the internet. Very cheap too, if you want rubbish.

Towel rails and designer rads are even worse. It seems that everyone with £30k and a lock-up has imported a container of towel rails and set up a website. Believe me, there are some serious quality differences between suppliers, although they all look the same on a 400 x 400 pixel photo.

I would suggest that you go to a couple of local independent merchants with showrooms, and actually see what it is you are buying. Once you have decided, by all means go on line to keep your local trader honest - but unless you know exactly who you are dealing with online, its worth paying a few percent extra to deal with a local place - at least you will have somewhere to go back to if anything goes wrong.

 

[sam51]

It seems to be my day for disagreeing with Sam51! Sorry Sam.

All stuff really isn't much the same! You should see the sanitaryware sample that we were offered last week.

The pan didn't sit flat on the floor, the outlet was over 1cm off being round, the basin had a flaw in the glaze that a blind man could have seen from 20 paces. The WC seat was the nastiest I have ever seen - worse than one I was offered at 60 cents a little while ago, and I thought that was overpriced.

We rejected it out of hand, but I see its for sale all over the internet. Very cheap too, if you want rubbish.

Towel rails and designer rads are even worse. It seems that everyone with £30k and a lock-up has imported a container of towel rails and set up a website. Believe me, there are some serious quality differences between suppliers, although they all look the same on a 400 x 400 pixel photo.

I would suggest that you go to a couple of local independent merchants with showrooms, and actually see what it is you are buying. Once you have decided, by all means go on line to keep your local trader honest - but unless you know exactly who you are dealing with online, its worth paying a few percent extra to deal with a local place - at least you will have somewhere to go back to if anything goes wrong.

i agree ray, i let the cliant choose, give them a few brochers,from british makes,ideal standard,armitage shanks.tyfords.ect.
i still believe we make the best stuff,
but joe public are hard to convince,
bathstore sell cheap rubbish expensive,
internet the same,
my next cliant is getting it from b&q,2 bathroom suites,
told them not to,but they have vouchers,
when i said its all the same,take a ideal basin for eg, probably come with a 25 year guarantee,
if you pay £100 or £200, if looked after it will last,
all sanitary ware can have flaws in them,
what i normally do is bin the fittings on the foreign makes,
syphons ball valves,
fitted a roca w/c,40 miles away,constant problems,roca didn't want to know,
so muggings here went back foc,and binned the internals,
fitted dudley syphon and ballvalve. job done.
wont be fitting roca again.

 

[Destroyer2813]

What makes you think buying online is better i would rather go into my merchants any day off the week and order stuff that way i know when it gonna be delivered if i have any problems they will sort it straight away, yes i may pay a couple of ppounds extra but that way i know the quality of the materials and have nice easy back up not having to talk to someone over the phone who isnt reallly bothered about your order. Go and visit a couple of places with showrroms and take your room measurmenrts and you can probably get pictures done that will show what the products will look like in the room. I do this or all my bathroom customers gives them a good perspective on how the fittings will look. For service shop local shop independent

 

[SimonG]

Find a showroom or two. Can't beat getting hands on to checkout the quality of what you are buying.