Was planning on getting our bathroom refitted late this spring, but Homebase
have a sale on this Thursday/Friday that includes a few half price bathroom
suites. Obviously, I can make up my own mind on what I like the look of and
what will fit. However, AFAIK, Homebase also arrange for the fitting if you
want them to. Not sure if this would be covered in their sale, but it it
was, it could be an attractive option. Two questions:

1) Has anyone here had Homebase fit a bathroom for them - are they any
good?

2) How much should it cost roughly (details below)?

The bathroom is 1780 x 1830mm. There is a standard bath in there taking up
about a third of the room behind the door, with the toilet and basin beside
each other opposite. Not planning on moving anything as there isn't enough
space to play with! Carpeted at the moment and has hideous green/white
tiling covering the walls. Would like to replace carpet with large stone
floor tiles and either re-tile or tile over the wall (either half way or
full way tiling). Current tiles are quite sound, if a little "curved" in
places.

Aside from that, I will be buying an electric shower (not sure if Homebase
will install that as part of it or not) so any recommendations on that would
be welcome and also how much I should expect to pay to have it fitted.



a

Aside from that, I will be buying an electric shower (not sure if
Homebase will install that as part of it or not) so any
recommendations on that would be welcome and also how much I should
expect to pay to have it fitted.

I would only install an electric shower if your house does not have a hot
water system, or it would be too difficult to plumb hot water supplies to
the room.

What sort of hot water system do you have? Perhaps we could recommend an
alternative.

Christian.

"al" wrote in message
...
Was planning on getting our bathroom refitted late this spring, but
Homebase
have a sale on this Thursday/Friday that includes a few half price
bathroom
suites. Obviously, I can make up my own mind on what I like the look of
and
what will fit. However, AFAIK, Homebase also arrange for the fitting if
you
want them to. Not sure if this would be covered in their sale, but it it
was, it could be an attractive option. Two questions:

1) Has anyone here had Homebase fit a bathroom for them - are they any
good?

AFAIK none of the big boys emply their own fitters, inc. B&Q, Homebase, MFI,
etc. They merely sub-contract the work, although they are your port of call
should things go wrong (which is good). I have two joiners friends who fit
kitchen/bedrooms for MFI and B&Q. As a guide, when MFI charge you £1000 for
fitting a kitchen, they get around £700 for their efforts (2 day work for 2
people), and the rest goes to MFI.



2) How much should it cost roughly (details below)?

The bathroom is 1780 x 1830mm. There is a standard bath in there taking
up
about a third of the room behind the door, with the toilet and basin
beside
each other opposite. Not planning on moving anything as there isn't
enough
space to play with! Carpeted at the moment and has hideous green/white
tiling covering the walls. Would like to replace carpet with large stone
floor tiles and either re-tile or tile over the wall (either half way or
full way tiling). Current tiles are quite sound, if a little "curved" in
places.

Aside from that, I will be buying an electric shower (not sure if Homebase
will install that as part of it or not) so any recommendations on that
would
be welcome and also how much I should expect to pay to have it fitted.



a

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
news:3ffacc3e$0$9391
I would only install an electric shower if your house does not have a hot
water system, or it would be too difficult to plumb hot water supplies to
the room.

What sort of hot water system do you have? Perhaps we could recommend an
alternative.


The house has normal central heating for hot water + radiators. The
current, bath fed shower (proper tap based one, not a push-on rubber hose)
is too feeble though. To use it I have to turn the hot water all the way
one, then put about a quarter turn or less of cold water. If the hot water
is on in the shower and the hot water is used in the basin, the shower hot
water stops. It just doesn't deliver a high enough volume of water to soak
you satisfactorily.

My in-laws have a power shower that sucks their immersion tank cold in about
10 mins, so I'm not too keen on them. My parents have an electric one (ie.
pull-cord then instant hot water from cold feed) which gives reasonable (if
not gym/hotel deluge levels!) umph to the water coming through it.

Open to any suggestions - I just want to have a good volume of water land on
me in the morning! Not having to worry about central heating warming up a
tank first would be a bonus.



a

My in-laws have a power shower that sucks their immersion tank cold
in about 10 mins, so I'm not too keen on them. My parents have an
electric one (ie. pull-cord then instant hot water from cold feed)
which gives reasonable (if not gym/hotel deluge levels!) umph to the
water coming through it.

Well, it sounds like you might have a mains cold supply. If so, a venturi
based shower might be ideal for you. The flow rate is not quite as good as a
power shower (which probably appeals to you!), but it will be much better
than the feeble electric shower. It also means the water is heated by gas at
a fraction of the running costs of electric. So you save running costs,
installation costs AND get a much better flow.

If you don't have a mains cold supply to the bathroom, then a twin impellor
pump might be worth having. This will also benefit bath filling. The final
other alternative is an all-in-one power shower which consists of a single
impellor pump after an internal mixer. If you choose a shower with a flow
control, you don't have to have the full deluge, but you'll still save
loadsa money on water heating and it will be easier to install, as the
electricity can come off a nearby ring main (via a 30mA RCD FCU if
necessary). It doesn't require a 10mm cable run specially for it like an
electric shower.

Remember that the electric shower basically requires a mains cold supply
too. So if you don't have one handy, the installation issues for it are even
greater.

Not having to worry about central heating warming up a tank first
would be a bonus.

Try setting the timer to heat the tank for you! In fact, running it close to
24h a day (or off from 23:00-5:00) isn't a bad idea on a modern insulated
tank. The temperature drop during the course of a day isn't sufficient to
make not doing so much more efficient.

Christian.

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 15:27:39 -0000, "none none" wrote:

fitting a kitchen, they get around £700 for their efforts (2 day work for 2
people), and the rest goes to MFI.

So £175 each per day? About £22 per hour? That's not too bad a rate
IMHO, depending on their skills etc.

But things like travel time could be a problem.

PoP

If you really must use the email address provided
with my newsreader please be aware that the email
is processed with spamcop. As a result your email
to me might be treated as spam!

"none none" wrote in message
...
AFAIK none of the big boys emply their own fitters, inc. B&Q, Homebase,
MFI,
etc. They merely sub-contract the work, although they are your port of
call
should things go wrong (which is good). I have two joiners friends who fit
kitchen/bedrooms for MFI and B&Q. As a guide, when MFI charge you £1000
for
fitting a kitchen, they get around £700 for their efforts (2 day work for
2
people), and the rest goes to MFI.


Interesting rates. You think it's about a 2 day job for a bathroom too?
Needs a plumber, an electrician and a tiler ... which I suppose is similar
to a kitchen!




a

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
news:3ffada55$0$9388
Well, it sounds like you might have a mains cold supply. If so, a venturi
based shower might be ideal for you. The flow rate is not quite as good as
a
power shower (which probably appeals to you!), but it will be much better
than the feeble electric shower. It also means the water is heated by gas
at
a fraction of the running costs of electric. So you save running costs,
installation costs AND get a much better flow.


The current bath has hot water from the boiler and cold water from the attic
storage tank. However there is mains water into the bathroom for the cold
tap in the sink, so it probably wouldn't be a huge job to pull that across.
I've had a look at venturi design at this URL:

http://www.brookwater.co.uk/jetstrea...i_mainpage.htm

I understand how it works in principle, but remain slightly sceptical ...

If you don't have a mains cold supply to the bathroom, then a twin
impellor
pump might be worth having. This will also benefit bath filling. The final
other alternative is an all-in-one power shower which consists of a single
impellor pump after an internal mixer. If you choose a shower with a flow
control, you don't have to have the full deluge, but you'll still save
loadsa money on water heating and it will be easier to install, as the
electricity can come off a nearby ring main (via a 30mA RCD FCU if
necessary). It doesn't require a 10mm cable run specially for it like an
electric shower.

What's the difference between twin and single impellor pumps? Or more to
the point, what's the reason for either? The only reason to not go for a
power shower for me is that it will run out the hot water too quickly. The
electric shower my parents has is just a cord pull to heat the water it
produces, which surprisingly comes out at a reasonable rate.

Try setting the timer to heat the tank for you! In fact, running it close
to
24h a day (or off from 23:00-5:00) isn't a bad idea on a modern insulated
tank. The temperature drop during the course of a day isn't sufficient to
make not doing so much more efficient.

There's a lot of loss through the pipes in our house (1935 vintage) - some
touch floorboards and heat the floor! Nice in the winter, pain in the arse
during the summer! Leaving it running all day I think would be wasteful as
I'm only awake/there for about 7 hours a day!



a

I understand how it works in principle, but remain slightly sceptical

I've never used one. However, my understanding is that they do work.

What's the difference between twin and single impellor pumps? Or
more to the point, what's the reason for either?

A twin impellor pump pressurises both hot and cold gravity supplies. A
single impellor pump can either pump a single hot water supply (as you are
using mains cold, which needs no pumping) or can pump the outlet of a flush
mixer valve before it gets to the hose/head.

There's a lot of loss through the pipes in our house (1935 vintage) -
some touch floorboards and heat the floor!

Provided you have a cylinder thermostat with a large hysteresis, the primary
circuit will not be hot for long periods of the day. You will easily still
save money over an electric shower in energy efficiency. Also, it shouldn't
be difficult to lift a couple of floorboards and stick a thin layer of
insulation on the pipes if the heat bothers you.

Leaving it running all day I think would be wasteful as I'm only
awake/there for about 7 hours a day!

Then time it to run from 1 hour before you are there/awake until 1 hour
after. You should never run out then.

Christian.

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
et...
A twin impellor pump pressurises both hot and cold gravity supplies. A
single impellor pump can either pump a single hot water supply (as you are
using mains cold, which needs no pumping) or can pump the outlet of a
flush
mixer valve before it gets to the hose/head.

Well, we currently don't use mains cold, but as it goes to the basin I
presume it wouldn't be too difficult a job to branch it off to the
bath/shower too.

Provided you have a cylinder thermostat with a large hysteresis, the
primary
circuit will not be hot for long periods of the day. You will easily still
save money over an electric shower in energy efficiency. Also, it
shouldn't
be difficult to lift a couple of floorboards and stick a thin layer of
insulation on the pipes if the heat bothers you.

Isn't the idea of an electric shower that it saves money by only heating up
what you need? I think the powerful ones are about 10.5kW ... does that
sound right?

Leaving it running all day I think would be wasteful as I'm only
awake/there for about 7 hours a day!

Then time it to run from 1 hour before you are there/awake until 1 hour
after. You should never run out then.

I do and I currently don't (run out that is!). It's enough for 4 people in
the course of an hour to all have hot water. My only experience of a power
shower is at the in-laws, where it sucks the hot tank dry in about 10-15mins
.... which is crap!



a

Isn't the idea of an electric shower that it saves money by only
heating up what you need? I think the powerful ones are about 10.5kW
... does that sound right?

Yes, the electric shower will be more efficient at point of use, as there
isn't any hot storage for the heat to leak away from. However, electricity
costs many times the cost of gas, so the small leakage you get is
insignificant.

I do and I currently don't (run out that is!). It's enough for 4
people in the course of an hour to all have hot water. My only
experience of a power shower is at the in-laws, where it sucks the
hot tank dry in about 10-15mins ... which is crap!

Well, a cylinder and boiler should be easily capable of beating 10kW
continuously. A modern modulating boiler with reasonable modern cylinder
could run at 20kW or more continuously and never run out.

If you just choose a shower or pump with variable flow and turn it down
rather than having a gusher, you won't run out. Obviously, ensure that the
hot water is turned on at the programmer.

Christian.