Luxury Bathroom On A Budget

Expensive bathrooms rarely look expensive because of what was bought. They look expensive because of alignment, restraint and detailing, all of which are decisions rather than purchases. Here is how we help customers get a genuinely high end result on a mid range budget.

Spend here, it always shows

The shower valve

You operate it twice a day for fifteen years. A good thermostatic valve holds temperature when a tap runs elsewhere, moves smoothly and does not scale up. The difference between a £90 valve and a £280 valve is felt every single morning.

Tiling labour

Cheap tiles laid brilliantly look far better than expensive tiles laid carelessly. Grid alignment, consistent joints, level surfaces and neat cuts around the valve and niche are what your eye reads as quality. This is the least sensible place in the whole project to save money.

Waterproofing and preparation

Nobody sees tanking, boarding or levelling, and they are the difference between a bathroom that lasts fifteen years and one that fails in three. Invisible, essential, never worth cutting.

Extraction

A properly sized humidity controlled fan keeps the room looking new. An underspecified fan will have mould on the ceiling within two winters, which undoes everything else you spent.

Save here, it rarely shows

• The toilet pan. A mid range soft close back to wall pan looks and performs almost identically to one costing three times as much.
• The bath. If it is mainly used as a shower base, a good quality reinforced acrylic bath is entirely sufficient. Steel and stone baths are a luxury for people who actually bathe.
• Tile brand. Porcelain from a mid range range performs the same as a designer equivalent. Choose the format and finish, not the label.
• The vanity. A well fitted mid range unit with a quality worktop and good handles reads as bespoke joinery.
• Full height tiling everywhere. Tile the wet zones fully, then use a quality moisture resistant paint elsewhere. This alone can save £600 to £1,200.

Cheap decisions that read as expensive

1. A recessed shower niche, tiled internally with the same tile. Costs perhaps £120 of labour, looks bespoke.
2. Grout matched exactly to the tile colour, which removes visual clutter and makes any tile look higher grade.
3. Continuous flooring running unbroken under the vanity and behind the toilet.
4. One consistent metal finish across taps, waste, rail and handles rather than a mixture.
5. A large mirror, ideally wider than the vanity below it, with integrated lighting.
6. Concealed cisterns and wall hung fittings that keep the floor clear.
7. Warm 3000K lighting spread across the ceiling rather than one central lamp.
8. A deep single colour on the non tiled walls, which costs the same as magnolia and looks considered.

The biggest saving of all

Keep the layout. Leaving the toilet, bath and basin roughly where the drainage already suits saves anywhere from £800 to £2,000, and in most rooms the original positions were chosen for good reasons. Put that saving into the shower valve, the tiling and the lighting and the room will feel far more expensive than a rearranged one with cheap fittings.

What to avoid

Ultra budget shower enclosures with 4mm or 6mm glass, which flex and rattle. Wall panels chosen purely on price with visible plastic trims. Bargain bin brassware where the chrome plating lifts within two years. Very large format tiles in a small room where you will pay for cuts and waste. And any saving made by leaving out extraction, tanking or an electrical certificate, which is not a saving at all.

Let us price two specifications

We are happy to quote a considered mid range specification alongside a premium one so you can see exactly what the extra buys. Free survey, fixed written price within 24 hours, all plumbing, tiling and electrics carried out in house by our own insured Stoke-on-Trent fitters with a written workmanship guarantee.

Common questions