Buying your new bathroom is probably one of the largest and most demanding expenses you will face. The bathroom market is very diverse and you will need to make decisions about where to buy, how much to spend, and what bathroom style to choose. I will clarify some of your choices.

Your first decision is to decide upon a bathroom budget and how to raise the money. A new bathroom will increase the value of your home, so it is akin to an investment.

Your home has a maximum potential value according to its location. To prove that to yourself, just look at a flat in London, and then look at the same style and size flat in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The London flat will cost much more. So spend according to the potential marketability of your home. Estate Agents often say a 5-10% expenditure on interior upgrades is a reasonable cost. So a 100K flat could warrant a 5-10K expenditure on upgrades. Much of that could be for your new bathroom.

After fixing your budget, you need a bathroom design done. There are key decisions to about product types to make. You may want a steam unit, a whirlpool, a sauna, rainbars, bodyjets, a walk-in enclosure, a shallow tray, or many other bathroom fittings.

A bathroom showroom is a good place to start and ask the sales manager to do a design. He may need to visit your home. Designs are done using CAD (computer aided design) software or graph paper. After his design, you will have a good idea of what can be done. The sales manager will offer normally an installation service and provide a total price for supply and installation.

Giving your purchase to the showroom is the safest and easiest route. He has premises and is easily accessible and you will have just one contact. However, using the services and products from a showroom is probably the most expensive route to take. It is safe, but that safety has a cost.

Showrooms are given special pricing on certain lines, and they will recommend those lines. Also, the showroom has a limited supply line; maybe only 10% of supply lines. So you choice is limited. Labour via a showroom is marked up, so the installation will be expensive.

If you decide against using a showroom’s services, you can try shopping at a plumber’s merchants.

Plumbers’ Merchants have limited customer service and they rarely do bathroom designs. They are in business to serve plumbers, but they also do retail. Plumbers merchants are cheap, and the large nationally based ones can get almost any product.

You will need to have all your facts available to yourself. Buying that route will save you money. They will not install for you, so you will need to find your own plumber.

Plumbers advertise in their local papers and that shows they are looking for work. That will normally mean a far better price for you. Advertisements in the Yellow Pages for plumbers, especially with 0800 numbers, rarely advertise low cost services. Use a local paper if possible. Always use the services of a Corgi registered plumber whenever possible.

The Internet is another source and one that is growing very rapidly for bathroom supply. Bathstore.com embraced the web and it sells via the Web and its stores. There are countless showrooms also on the Web.

Buying via the Web will widen your choice dramatically and also open up deals to you for great prices. You will need to know the products well, and be careful about deliveries. Under the law, when you sign for something as received and in good condition, you have no legal recourse if the goods are damaged.

Phone the web retailer to put a human voice to the website. That will increase your confidence in the company’s services.

Happy Shopping.