Buying guides
Which one, for the job you actually have
A hub compares everything in a family. A guide answers one question — a budget, a first tap for someone who has never changed one, the three things that turn a bathroom that smells into one that does not — with a ranked shortlist and a reason for the order.
- Getting started
A first bathroom refresh, in the order it earns its place
Four changes cover most of what annoys people about an inherited bathroom, and the order matters more than the brands — because the first one makes the rest possible.
- Buying
Choosing a basin tap, by what the money actually buys
What separates a tap at thirty euros from one at ninety is the cartridge and the body metal, not the finish — and the difference shows in year ten, not year one.
- Flow and pressure
A shower that suits the pressure you actually have
A big head on a weak supply is worse than a small one. What to buy when the pressure is the constraint, and what to stop buying.
- Installation
Redoing a shower without opening the wall
Everything on this list connects to the outlets you already have. What a column replaces, what a rail set replaces, and which measurement decides between them.
- Buying
The bathroom fixes that cost almost nothing
Five small parts that reverse complaints people usually answer with a replacement: weak flow, a drain smell, a dripping lever, a leaking hose.
- Measuring first
A very small bathroom, measured before it is furnished
Depth is the dimension that decides a small bathroom, and it is the one nobody checks. What to buy narrow, and what to buy shallow.
- Water and limescale
A bathroom in hard water
What to buy differently when the water leaves deposit: cleanable nozzles, replaceable cartridges, and a treatment that is a scale product rather than a health one.
- Drainage
Stopping a drain smell with no leak to find
A smell with no leak is a missing water seal, not a deposit. Which trap depth fixes it, and why nothing poured in ever will.
- Fit and dimensions
A kitchen tap under a window that opens inwards
Folded height is the number, and it is printed in the smallest type. How to measure it, which way the tap should fold, and what to buy if it does not have to.
- Toilets
Making an old toilet work again
A running cistern, a weak flush and a loose seat are three cheap parts, not a new toilet. Which one to buy, and how to tell them apart in ten minutes.
- Getting started
A guest cloakroom, fitted out on projection
A room used twice a month has different priorities: a small basin, a deep trap that will not dry out, and fittings chosen so nothing has to be maintained.
- Installation
The tools for changing a tap, and the one with no substitute
Three tools cover almost every bathroom job. One of them cannot be replaced by anything, and one rule protects the chrome from the other two.