New shower - few questions

Next month I'll be fitting a new bathroom, after looking at the space we had, etc we have decided that we want to fit a small shower enclosure.

This is stretching my budget it a little, but I'm hoping I can find decent fittings, etc for reasonable money.

1st off the enclosure, was looking at the 800 quadrant Screwfix one, although in silver it was £350. Seen this on ebay, sounds like it's of same quality, can you really go too far wrong with an enclosure?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/800-x-800-or-...yZ112553QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Secondly, I am most likely going to go for a fixed shower head with flush fit mixer valves (pipework in the cavity), or maybe a fixed head with additional flexy shower.

Looking around, the price of the mixer valves and heads can vary a great deal, some places want around £300 for valve/head. Is there anywhere people can recommend that I look?
Saw this on ebay which is similar style to what I want, although separate flow/temp controls would be nice - is it too cheap to be any good?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OSCIL-FIXED-H...ryZ32875QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Finally, a lot of the mixer valves I have looked at say they will operate from 0.1 bar. In reality will the shower operate well if supplied by a lower pressure unbalanced system? Would I get very low flow, or hot/cold problems?
Would I be far better using a small pump to give balanced high pressure? Such as one of these:

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;j...A?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=salamander+ct50

Hoping someone can help - thanks

Or would I be better going with a known make and something like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;j...THZOCFGA?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=capella#

shower head isn't exactly how I'd like it but not far off, you'd think you could get a mixer valve & head from same company for less which really is all I want, but I'm yet to find it, apart from above but I'm aprehensive about the ebay one.

Hallsy said:

Next month I'll be fitting a new bathroom, after looking at the space we had, etc we have decided that we want to fit a small shower enclosure.

This is stretching my budget it a little, but I'm hoping I can find decent fittings, etc for reasonable money.

1st off the enclosure, was looking at the 800 quadrant Screwfix one, although in silver it was £350. Seen this on ebay, sounds like it's of same quality, can you really go too far wrong with an enclosure?

Click to expand...

IMO you get what you pay for, I've seen lots of cheep and nasty crap leak like anything.

Heres a couple of brands i'd recomend:

Roman
Showerlux
Daryl

Daryl are alot more pricey but are very good. Roman and Showerlux are alot less in price but still good enclosures.

Hallsy said:

Secondly, I am most likely going to go for a fixed shower head with flush fit mixer valves (pipework in the cavity), or maybe a fixed head with additional flexy shower.

Looking around, the price of the mixer valves and heads can vary a great deal, some places want around £300 for valve/head. Is there anywhere people can recommend that I look?
Saw this on ebay which is similar style to what I want, although separate flow/temp controls would be nice - is it too cheap to be any good?

Click to expand...

Have a look At some better known brands such as:

Mira
Aqualisa

Hallsy said:

Finally, a lot of the mixer valves I have looked at say they will operate from 0.1 bar. In reality will the shower operate well if supplied by a lower pressure unbalanced system? Would I get very low flow, or hot/cold problems?
Would I be far better using a small pump to give balanced high pressure?

Click to expand...

If you go for the sort of shower with a fixed head with the big shower roses like the picture you have posted, i'd recomend getting a pump on it (If you have an indirect system). Pressure provided just by gravity from these big shower roses are very poor without a pump. Salamander pumps like the one you have looked at from Screwfix would be ok. Check the spec on the shower before you decide on the size of the pump you require.

Thanks for that

I happen to have a Showerlux brochure here so will take a look.

I'll take a look at the shower head/valve manufacturers you mention, athough I don't rally want to pay the earth for them.

Personally I would stay away from eblag and buy locally...that way if there's any trouble it's not too far to return the product...I once got caught out with a shower tray which was a load of hassle to return, in fact in the end I didn't.

If your budget doesn't stretch to what you really want (quality and looks etc..) then wait and save...a leaking shower enclosure is not fun, i've been there.

I can recommend Mira showers...although a local merchant recently told me they are not as good as they used to be...made abroad now apparently.

Have a visit to local plumbers merchants and bathrooms stores....have a look at the quality for yourself not just in pictures.

More expensive isn't necessarily better...that's why I recommend doing the leg work.

Hopefully I'll get over to my local merchant this weekend. Wasn't really looking at showers last time we were there.

I was hoping to get a nice looking valve & head for around £150 - seems that might not be possible!!