• Adding colour to your bathroom

• Buying a new bathroom (Part 1)

• Essential, but never boring….toilets!

• How to pay for a new bathroom?

• A guide to bathroom furniture

4 key quality measures to look out for when buying sanitaryware

Whether you are planning a luxurious master en-suite or super-practical family bathroom, making the right decision on purchasing your sanitaryware is key. After all the hard work that goes into designing, choosing and installing a new bathroom, the last thing you need (or your bank balance needs!) is to have to rip it out a couple of years down the line because you’re unhappy with the quality.

Bathrooms come in all different shapes and sizes. However, one thing is for sure - there is a very wide range of toilets, basins, shower trays etc. to choose from as well as numerous bathroom retailers and stockists to buy from and there can be substantial differences in quality, and therefore in price, between the various ranges on offer.

The top 4 quality measures to look out for are:

Glaze Colour

A large proportion of people will purchase the basin from the same range as the toilet as it belongs to the same family. However, that is not always the case. If you decide to buy your basin and toilet from different ranges, it is important to find out if they are colour matched. This means that the glaze quality and the shade of white is the same across the ranges. If they are not the same, then they will look odd side by side once installed in your bathroom. It is important to establish this prior to purchasing your suite as you may not find out if there is an issue until after it has been installed and the items are side by side.

Glaze Quality

The toilets and basins within your bathroom suite are subject to several processes during manufacture that involve heating and cooling to specific temperatures so that the product is of good quality. Following this, a number of glaze coats are applied which give the product its shine and smooth finish. The higher the number of glaze coats, the better the quality and the more robust the item will be to chips, scratches and general use. Vitreous china is an enamel coating that is applied which makes tougher, denser and shinier and is a common choice for sanitaryware.

Flush Mechanism

The flush system within a toilet cistern is one of the most common components that will fail after time. Being exposed to water permanently and performing the flush operation thousands of times will inevitably lead to the system breaking down and wearing out. Cheap imported systems will fail more quickly than more expensive branded ones. Check the quality of the flush system you have in your chosen toilet to avoid additional expense in the future.

Guarantees

It is always worthwhile researching the guarantees for the various component parts of your new bathroom. There is a wide range of guarantee periods between retailers in the UK. If the guarantee period is high, this should install confidence in the purchase of the item and the ability for them to last the length of the guarantee. Different components within a suite have different guarantee periods ranging from 1 to 2 years on toilet seats to 25 years on toilets and basins. Always check guarantee periods as well as the replacement process.

27th Apr 2020