05 May, 2009

New Bathroom - Buying Tiles

We are *finally* getting our new bathroom...! The quote is in, the taps have been chosen and work is due to start in the next couple of weeks, this does of course mean that for the duration we will have some considerable upheaval to put up with (not least of which is having no means of taking a bath - I guess I'm going to have to use the showers here in the gym in Canary Wharf, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)...So Saturday we spent doing the last of the little jobs associated with the upgrade - choosing the tiles - which (one would have thought) should have been reasonably simple, however, we really did end up going all around the houses...first stop was Rogers Ceramics, a little independent tile shop at Gatton Point, which was a really tiny place and didn't seem to have a single kind of tile for under about £25 per square meter (and as we needed 20 square meters that would have cost us about £500!)-
Homebase reigate
Next up we stopped in the Homebase in Reigate, nothing *really* grabbed us, but they did have nice plain white tiles for £7.99/m2 (or about £160 for the job) - so a step in the right direction...if only they had more than 4 boxes in stock we probably would have finished the process right there and then...
Homebase reigate
Anyway, we headed on to Dorking and Wickes next, where they had even cheaper white tiles (£6.15/m2 - or £123) and again (unfortunately) only 6 boxes in stock...!
Wickes Dorking
Flyingpops went to the information desk and asked if they could order up some more, and the answer was no, they only way we could guarantee getting the whole lot from a single batch was to order them to be delivered, which would cost an extra £40! Most unhelpful...and so we ended up in Tile Base (just down the road from Wickes) -
Tile Base Dorking
- where the staff were extremely friendly and helpful (in stark contrast) -
Tile Base Dorking
- they had a *huge* palett of white tiles (all from the same batch) for £6.50/m2 (and it was "10% off day") meaning we got the whole lot for £117!  We even got a few sheets of embellishments for 99 pence each (down from £5)!
Tile Base Dorking
Flyingpops mum came (briging her estate car) to help us transport them all home (thanks Nanjan!), as there was absolutely no room in the Bug, and they are all now stacked up at the bottom of the stairs waiting for the work to begin! How exciting!

7 comments:

Sarah said...

Exciting!!! Cool mosaic tiles too. We have got some of those and it helps break it up the white a bit. And the blues are really pretty for bathrooms! I bet Flyingpops will have much fun buying accessories!

boohoo said...

Ray does bathroom-fitting (and kitchen...) so I've heard all about the expense of tiles and how much of a pain it is to grout ;) I like the ones you chose - very pretty blue colour.

Flyingpops said...

It was SO difficult to choose the tiles, how can they be SO expensive £49.50 per square meter in some places... hmmm - how?
We are really excited, our bathroom has been disgusting for far too long! Roll on June, when we'll be able to relax in the nice new bath!

Anonymous said...

dare I say..... baby and bathroom Shower!!! pardon the pun... A & R xx

Flyingpops said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Flyingpops said...

good idea vodqueen ... I can have a baby shower and get towels, flannels, bubble bath and loo roll.. instead of baby grows!

Anonymous said...

I'm up for that... hehe, Johnsons of course... !!! xxx