Advice

Well You can, but it will end up like this very quickly!

That is because proper bathroom mirrors are foil backed.

The foil on the back protects the back of the mirror from moisture in the bathroom.

Will the foil protect it forever?

No, eventually the moisture will find a way in.

But it will be 5 to 10 years and not a few months.

How long it takes to get in depends on how steamy your bathroom is,

and the quality of the mirror you buy.

Brands that specialise in mirrors tend to be longist lasting in our expirience.

We hope this information helps?

Well the most important thing is you don`t have to pull the toilet out from the wall or disconnect it to fit the new seat.

98% of all modern style toilet seats are top fitting, which means they can be fitted straight into the holes on the top of the pan.

Now the instructions you get with your toilet seat (and yes you should follow thm!) tell you how to fit the seat but not what hppens to the old broken one.

Well most of the old seat should come away easily enough (if it does not, then spray the hinges etc with WD40 wiggle a bit and leave for a while).

What you won`t be able to get out though is the bits that hold the hinges inside the holes at the back of the pan.

What you with these is push them downwards and into the void of the pan (if they are gunged in then use WD40 again).

Doing this will not affect the operation of the toilet and there is loads of room down there.

Then wipe those holes with some toilet paper and fit the new seat as per the instuctions.

Yes Laura Ashley do make bathrooms and they do in conjunction with Roper Rhodes

They have a few ranges taps, shower valves, toilets, mirrors, basins and pedestals

But what we really like is the bathroom furniture which is so well made but not cheap to buy.

You cannot buy this range of products online, but it is avilable to view in only a few bathroom showrooms

We have some of this furniture on display in our Wandsworth, South London showroom.

Now of course all the showrooms are closed for lockdown, but you can view the range at.

https://bathroomsatsource.com/category/laura-ashley-bathrooms/

As an independant we can say what we think about products and ranges, so here goes for Laura Ashley.

Furniture = Excellent design and you can feel how well made they are.

Taps = Good

Toilets = Good

Basins = Good

Showers = Look ok but you can only tell after a few years if they are durable enough

but no complaints so far. There may be better options from other brands for the same price.

Mirrors = Too expensive for what they are in our opinion

Is Matte Black the same as Matt Black in a bathroom?

We the quick answer is yes, for some reason Saneux who have matte black taps and showers.

Decided to call that colour Matte instead of matt (a devious maketing ploy perhaps?).

We have that range and other "normal" matt black taps from other manufacturers

 and leading bathroom brands from the UK and Europe in our Wandsworth London showroom.

We have over 110 years of bog flogging between us and we can`t tell the difference.

No mind i am sure there is a thing called tap blind and if not there should be :)

Perrin and Rowe shower valves are made in England in the Black Country

and come in Pewter, Satin and Polished Brass, Nickel, Gold, English Bronze and of course chrome coloured finishes.

Now as with with nearly all British bathroom manufacturers most of these options are not available off the shelf.

A lot of the cheaper traditional shower valves that are made in China can be made in bulk in all sorts of colours,

Perrin & Rowe is not like that but the Pewter, Nickel and Chrome finishes are normally available within a week.

The other finishes are normally on about a 6 week lead time (which means they are pretty much made to order).

It is well worth the wait as these are products that have a lot of love put into making them.

Of course that means that they are not cheap, but what in the life that you pay for is really worth it if it is cheap?

You can see and feel the quality oozing out of these shower valves and taps.

So in our opinion they are well worth the money.

It is not easy to find an Art Deco bathroom in the UK and you tend to have to mix and match.

You would of thought that this major design theme would have more admirers and manufacturers in this country.

There are several that have complete ranges such as:

Lefroy Brooks Mackintosh

and

Crosswater Waldorf

But these are quite expensive and then there are others that have parts of a collection like:

Heritage Gracechurch

Burlington Basins

Heritage Granley

Burlington Toilets

and the old classic

Bristan Art Deco Taps

Mostly we find our customers tend to mix and match, with a common option

to mix Burlington Basins and toilets with the Heritage or Bristan taps, 

couples with a normal (super steel) Bette or Kaldewei bath.

The reason for this is partly financial as they are a lot cheaper.

But also if you were selling the house then the design of these are not quite so extreme as

the Lefroy Brooks Mackintosh and Crosswater Waldorf ranges.

So if you were to sell the property then the new owners if not devotees of that style.

Would at least be able to live with it for a while (without feeling the need to knock the price of a new bathroom off the asking price).

The reason why we would suggest a normal bath is partly because they are a better quality than say an acylic 

Heritage Granley bath and realistically you do not end up seeing the bath a lot.

So why not put a plain rectangular bath and then do something (like tiling) a MDF bath panel.

This way it can easily be changed if you wanted to put something more in vogue when you sell.

These are just of course just some of our advice gleaned from over 100 years in the bathroom business between us here.

Of course the most important things to consider are do you have enough water pressure to operate the taps and shower valve you choose?

Also what will work within the constraints of your budget?

If your Vado shower valve looks like the one below with only one handle then 

click on the picture below and this may be what you are looking for but please read

the listing carefully as it will only work on the models listed below:

EVO-145T, EVO-147T, LIF-145T, LIF-147T, MAG-145T, MAG-147T,

NUA-145T, NUA-147T, ORI-145T, ORI-147T, SEN-145T, SEN-147T,

ZOO-145T and ZOO-147T

If your Vado shower valve does not have that number or look something like the picture below,

With only one handle and only one outlet (meaning it contraols one function in your bathroom like a slide rail kit)

Then this cartridge will not work for you.

We strongly advise you contact Vado technical on 01934 745163 to make sure this is the right cartridge for you

as getting it wrong will cost you a lot of time and money and Vado do loads of different thermostatic cartridges

Technical information for the cartridge:

Overall Length (inc locating pins and spindle)  - 94mm 
Spindle Length 25mm
Spindle Width - 10mm
Width - 40mm 

....................Corona Virus: Showroom and Online Shop Update....................

Hello, as things stand today (December 22nd 2020) in these difficult times:

Our showroom in Garratt Lane, Wandsworth is closed until the 4th of January

When we and our suppliers normally return from our Christmas break.

Whether that will be possible this year we are not sure yet?

Our ONLINE SHOPS ARE OPEN as normal, and we will start dispatching your orders again

on the week starting the 4th of January 2021. 

When we and our suppliers return from their christmas breaks.

We can also dispatch every item you can see in our online shop.

They just might take a little longer than normal as everyone gets back to working normally.

We wish you all a safe and as merry christmas as possible

and we hope that next year will be better for all of us!!

There are thousands of different shower heads in the UK bathroom market.

So which one should you choose?

Well basically there are 2 different sizes and they are

8" which is 200mm in new money

or 

12" which is 300mm in diameter

The basic rule on what to buy is governed by what water pressure you have.

So if you have a Combi boiler or a low pressure system then the smaller the shower head,

the more more concentrated the water will be coming out of and thus a better shower.

If you have a Megaflow or Unvented system then you can have as large a shower head as you want.

As you will have the water pressure to utilise all of nozzels of the larger surface area on the head.

Also as a general rule price does come into it as well as some of the better UK manufacturers like Vado

maximise the water you have by injecting the water with air as it goes through the shower head.

You can fit cheaper heads but you will end up changing them more often, also they tend to get scaled up quicker.

Which then also stops the water flow.

So in conclusion if you don`t have high (2+bar) pressure then the biggest shower head we would recommend for you,

would be the 8"/ 200mm head.

Matching brushed brass coloured bathroom heated towel rails

One of the most difficult things when buying a brushed brass coloured bathroom

over the last couple of years has been to match the surge in taps of that colour,

to everything else that is needed to make your bathroom look complete.

Like matching accessories, bath screens and heated towel rail.

Well at least one of those areas have been sorted now with this 

range of heated towel rails (see link below)from JTP. Just Taps Plus

were one of the first brands to bring out brushed brass finish taps in 2019,

so we trust them to produce bathroom items that last in this finish.

As we have sold loads of their taps without issues so far over the finish

https://www.bathroomsatsourceonline.co.uk/epages/BT4543.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT4543/Products/VOS1206BBR