Planning guide
Everything we ask on a survey — asked in advance, for free.
Most of what goes wrong on a bathroom, kitchen or renovation is decided long before anybody picks up a tool — usually by something being chosen in the wrong order, or by a question nobody thought to ask at the survey. This is the list of questions we work through on a free home survey in Hampshire, written out so you can work through it first. It will not make you an installer. It will make the first conversation a great deal more useful, and it may save you from ordering something the room was never going to take.
01
Before you go anywhere near a showroom
Measure the room, and the route into it
Width, length and ceiling height, and then the bit people forget: how the units, the bath or the worktop get into the house. Door widths, stair turns, whether there is a handrail in the way and what the landing will pivot. A 3m worktop and a Victorian staircase have a long history of disagreement, and it is much better discovered on a tape measure than on delivery day.
Find out what the floor is
Suspended timber, chipboard on joists, or concrete slab — it decides what the room can carry and how much fall a waste can get. A freestanding bath full of water and a person is a serious point load; a wetroom needs a fall built into the floor rather than laid on top of it. This is the single most common reason a design has to change, and it is a five-minute answer at survey.
Decide which walls are allowed to move
Structural or not, and what is inside it — a soil stack, a run of cables, a flue. Half the good layouts we draw involve moving one wall or forming one opening. Knowing which walls are candidates before you fall in love with a plan is the difference between a design and a wish.
Work out where you will live during it
One bathroom in the house, or two? Is there a second WC? Can the kitchen be down for three weeks, and if not, what is the temporary arrangement — a microwave and a kettle in the dining room is perfectly normal, but it should be a plan rather than a surprise. Programmes get built around this, so tell us early.
02
Questions worth asking any installer
Who is employed, and who is subcontracted?
Not a trick question and not a wrong answer — but you should know. An employed team means the same faces and one chain of responsibility. A pure fitting firm that subcontracts the building work means somebody has to co-ordinate two companies, and if it is not them, it is you.
What is genuinely included in the figure?
Strip-out and disposal. Making-good after the old suite or units come out. Plastering. Flooring. Decoration. Skip hire. Second-fix electrics. Any one of those left out of a quote can move the number by a meaningful amount, and the quotes that look cheapest are usually the ones with the shortest list.
Who is registered for the gas and the notifiable electrics?
Anything requiring a registered gas or electrical engineer must be done by one, whoever is running the job. Ask who that will be and ask for the certificate at the end. Do not accept a general assurance that it is 'all covered' — ask for the specific trade and the specific paperwork.
What does the company actually look like on paper?
Search the name at Companies House. Incorporation date, status, directors and registered office are all free and take a minute. Ours is 06371458, incorporated 14 September 2007, still active — which is a far more useful thing to check than any badge on a website, including ours.
03
The decisions that are hard to reverse
Lighting and sockets, before the ceilings close
Where the downlights sit relative to a mirror decides whether you are lit or shadowed. Whether an island has power decides whether it is a worktop or a piece of furniture. Under-cabinet lighting, IP zones round the bath, the fan overrun, the extra double socket nobody asked for and everybody uses — all of it is cheap now and disproportionately expensive later.
Floor build-up, and the doors
Underfloor heating, levelling compound, uncoupling matting and the tile itself stack up to more height than people expect. That stack changes the door clearance, the threshold step and the shower waste. It gets measured at survey because it cannot be adjusted afterwards without lifting the floor.
Waterproofing you will never see again
Tanking behind tile in a shower area, the membrane under a wetroom floor, the seal at the tray upstand. None of it shows and all of it decides whether there is a stain on the ceiling below in five years. It is also the easiest thing in the world to leave out of a cheap quote, because nobody can see that it is missing.
Order tile and worktop by batch, and order generously
Tile is fired in batches and the shade varies between them; a second order to finish a wall will not match. Stone and quartz vary too. Herringbone and diagonal set-outs turn a high proportion of tiles into angled offcuts, so the wastage allowance goes up with the pattern rather than with the price.
Three situations worth a phone call
You have been told a second bathroom is impossible
Worth a second opinion, particularly from somebody who does the building work as well as the fitting. We have made a fully functional bathroom out of a landing before now, with a new Velux for the daylight. The answer depends on the waste run, the joists and the roof — not on whether the space looks like a bathroom today.
The design came from a showroom and something does not add up
Showroom designs are drawn from your measurements and a plan, not from your soil stack. That is nobody's fault, and it is exactly why the survey happens before the order. If a drawing and a building disagree, we would far rather tell you at the survey than three weeks into the job.
You manage property and you are chasing five trades
Reactive and planned maintenance for landlords, letting agents, housing associations, councils and commercial clients is a standing part of what we do — plumbing, electrical, carpentry, doors, locks, windows, tiling, plastering and general repairs, all through one number.
Start with a free home survey, not a guess.
Ring Paul and the team on the number below, or send an email with a few photos of the room and rough measurements. The survey costs nothing and commits you to nothing — and you will get an honest view of what the room will take before anybody orders a thing.
We don't publish fixed office hours — ring the number and we'll arrange a time for the free, no-obligation home survey that suits you.