ᐅ New Bathrooms: Bathroom Studios, Intermediaries, and Inflated Prices

I am renovating a small historic townhouse and am trying to understand the construction industry. It somehow still seems to operate as if the internet doesn’t exist, with workflows, lack of transparency, and shady dealings.

At the moment, I am still waiting for a quote for furniture and ceramics, but I expect the price to be about 1.5 to 2 times higher than what I would pay ordering individually from common suppliers. What I find especially strange is that even if I do the installation myself, I won’t receive the quote directly from the showroom, but there will always be a plumber involved. This plumber will add their margin to the prices when issuing an invoice. At least that’s how I understand it.

I will definitely have a plumber install the pipes and water fixtures, as well as the heating system and possibly a ventilation system. But is there any good reason not to order the toilet, furniture, and other parts directly?

The showroom says, "but then you don’t have a warranty." I have the normal statutory warranty on these parts. If I assemble the furniture myself, screw it to the wall, and connect the water to the faucet, I will not have a warranty on the tightness. If I drop the toilet, I have to pay for it myself. That is clear to me. But beyond that, is "warranty" something I should really worry about?

Partylöwe schrieb:

I am currently still waiting for a quote for furniture and ceramics, but I expect the price to be about 1.5 to 2 times higher than what I would pay ordering individually from common retailers.

Is there a reason you are ordering from a studio rather than choosing a good, reputable product from a hardware store or builder’s merchant of your choice, especially since you plan to install it yourself?

We built with a general contractor, but years ago for our old house we ordered through a plumber and only paid about one third of the studio price. Have things changed that much since then?

ypg schrieb:

Is there a reason why you order from a studio instead of choosing a good, reputable product from a hardware store or home improvement center of your choice, especially when you plan to install it yourself?
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We built with a general contractor back then, but for the old house several years ago, we ordered through a plumber and only paid about a third of the studio price. Have times really changed that much?

I went to a studio because I was counting on their advice. I’m happy to pay for that. What really confuses me is that I won’t get an offer from the studio itself, but from an intermediary plumber. What the studio itself charges is completely unclear to me.

Or am I missing something here?

Another example: An electrician offers me sockets from their wholesaler, but the unit price is higher than what I would pay online. And I can’t buy the materials myself if the electrician refuses, since they want to make a profit on the materials.

I mean, I understand how it worked back in 1990, before the internet. But today?

Partylöwe schrieb:

Another example: The electrician offers me sockets from his wholesaler. The unit price is higher than what I would pay online. But I can’t buy them myself if the electrician refuses (because he wants to make a profit on the materials).

But he would install them then, right? It basically comes down to a mixed calculation, since he installs them and provides a warranty on the work. And the invoice naturally includes the warranty. Or did I misunderstand you?

Partylöwe schrieb:

It somehow still seems to work despite all the delays, lack of transparency, and shady dealings, as if the internet didn’t exist.

The place where you looked at the bathroom furniture only sells to registered specialist tradespeople.
That’s usually indicated right at the entrance.

They also offer budget options, what I would call project-grade products.
Just wait for the quote from your plumber first.

This has nothing to do with shady dealings or anything like that.

I can fully understand your problem. Sanitary fixtures, tiles, kitchens, heat pumps, and similar items are often very non-transparent and overpriced. And as you already mentioned, there are many alternatives nowadays thanks to the internet.

The argument “but then you don’t have a warranty” leads most people to agree to pay much more. To me, that feels sneaky and hard to understand.

One might think that so-called wholesalers are cheap, but that is far from the truth – everything is overpriced. Either many contractors are really that naive and constantly buy overpriced goods, or they make huge profits from it. This topic frustrates me the most during my building phase. It’s easy to save over 10,000 euros (€) with simple measures. I could really write a list of such examples.

After letting off some steam, I would like to address your question. We also had our building services/plumbing contractor do the rough installation, meaning all the pipes behind the walls. We sourced and installed the cabinets and ceramics ourselves. You have a warranty on all the pipes behind the walls and also on the fixtures themselves. As long as you are able to properly connect the drain, install the water connection without leaks, and drill holes in the tiles, I don’t see a problem.

A tip for the execution: We selected all the cabinets and ceramics in advance and printed out the technical drawings. It’s best to choose something you like and that has good availability. Before the plumbing contractor started work, we met onsite and went through every point in the drawings to fix the position of every water and waste connection. This took about two hours onsite. If you want something different later, you can compare the drawings with each other.