Bespoke Bathroom & Kitchen Fitting in London

Almost every failure in a bathroom is a waterproofing failure, and almost every waterproofing failure happens before a single tile goes on. Tiles and grout are not a waterproof layer. In a wet area, the substrate has to be a board suited to the job and the junctions have to be tanked — corners, floor-to-wall joints, and anywhere a pipe passes through. Work done properly at this stage is invisible for twenty years; work skipped here shows up as a stained ceiling downstairs.

Kitchens fail differently. The usual problem is that services were positioned to suit the old layout, so the new units are built around compromises — a waste run with barely any fall, a boiler flue in the wrong place, sockets that end up behind an appliance. Moving services during first fix is straightforward; moving them after the units are in is not.

The order is strip-out, then any structural or layout change, then first fix plumbing and electrics, then boarding and tanking, then screed or floor build-up, then tiling, then units and sanitaryware, then second fix and sealing.

Levels are set before tiling starts, not discovered during it. Floors in older London properties are rarely flat, and a floor that falls 15mm across a bathroom will make a wall-hung unit look wrong no matter how carefully it is fixed. Correcting that in the screed is routine; correcting it later is not.

Natural stone — marble, limestone, travertine — is porous and needs sealing before grouting and periodically afterwards. It is unforgiving of standing water and of the wrong cleaning products. Porcelain is harder, effectively non-porous and far more tolerant, and large-format porcelain now reproduces stone convincingly enough that the practical choice is often the better one.

Solid timber moves with humidity, which makes it a poor choice for a bathroom floor and a considered one for a kitchen. Engineered board is stable enough for both and can be sanded back if it is damaged.