How To Choose A Bathroom Fitter

A bathroom is one of the larger sums most households spend on their home, and it is handed to someone who will be in the house for two weeks with the water off. Choosing well is mostly about asking a few specific questions early and paying attention to how they are answered.

Start with the survey, not the price

The quality of a fitter shows in how they survey. Someone who measures the room, tests water pressure and flow, lifts a floorboard or checks joist direction, looks at the soil stack and asks how the room is used is going to produce a price you can rely on. Someone who glances round for five minutes and emails a number that evening is guessing, and guesses get corrected later at your expense.

The questions worth asking

1. Who will actually be in my house, your own employees or subcontractors?
2. Which trades do you carry in house and which do you bring in?
3. Who tests and certifies the electrical work?
4. Is this a fixed price, and what specifically would change it?
5. What is the payment schedule and what is due on completion?
6. What is the workmanship guarantee, in writing, and for how long?
7. Can I see two recent jobs of a similar size?
8. Who removes the waste?
9. What happens if you find something unexpected behind the wall?
10. When could you start and how many working days will it take?

Comparing quotes fairly

Quotes rarely cover the same scope, which is why they differ so wildly. Line them up and check each one against the same list: strip out, waste removal, plastering, boarding, tanking, floor preparation, plumbing, electrics and certification, tiling with material and labour separated, the suite, sealing, decorating and the final clean. Once you normalise the scope, the genuine price gap between reputable local firms is usually much smaller than it first appeared.

Payment, done properly

A modest deposit to reserve materials and a start date is standard. After that, staged payments tied to visible progress are fair to both parties, with a meaningful final payment only due once you have walked round and signed off the finished room. Be wary of any request for a large cash sum up front, or for payments running ahead of the work completed. Pay by bank transfer or card so there is a record.

Warning signs

• No written quote, or a single figure with no breakdown.
• Pressure to decide today, or a discount that expires at the end of the visit.
• Cash only, or a request for most of the money before starting.
• No fixed address, landline or trading history you can check.
• Vagueness about who is doing the electrics or who certifies them.
• Unwilling to show insurance documents.
• No mention of waste removal, tanking or making good.
• Reviews that are all recent, all short and all generic.

Good signs

A fitter who tells you what you should not spend money on is usually worth listening to. So is one who explains a constraint honestly, such as why the toilet cannot easily move, rather than promising anything you ask for. Clear communication before the job almost always predicts clear communication during it. Ask how they handle problems, because on an older property something will come up.

Checking a local firm

Look for a physical presence in the area, a consistent phone number, a review history spread across years, and photographs of real jobs rather than manufacturer stock images. Ask for two references from customers within a few miles of you. Any established Stoke-on-Trent fitter should be able to provide that without hesitation.

What we do

We survey free and in detail, quote a fixed written price within 24 hours with the scope itemised, use our own employed plumbers, tilers and electricians rather than subcontractors, remove all waste, certify the electrical work and back the job with a written workmanship guarantee. We are happy to show you recent jobs nearby and to answer every question on the list above.

Get a quote you can compare

Ask us for a fixed price and put it alongside anyone else's. If ours is not the best value once the scope is matched, we would rather you knew that.

Common questions