I am thinking floors and bathroom fixtures mainly as I have a kitchen guy here I like.
Thanks!
Hi, we are planning a renovation and want to investigate the option of buying suppliers from Germany. Does anyone have a shop in Konstantz or walhnut they have had good experiences with?
Go to Obi near Waldshut
https://www.fxruch.de/
Singen also has Obi and Bauhaus:
https://www.bauhaus.info/fachcentren...-singen/fc/649
https://www.obi.de/baumarkt/singen/
All basically within 1km radius.
I had a look here a couple of weeks ago: http://www.reisser.de/ . I went to the shop in Waldshut.
For the tiles, the exhibition is not massive. They do have nice things, but they are very overpriced in my opinion - probably taking advantage of the Swiss customer. I found them even more expensive than many of the shops in Switzerland.
They did give few contacts for people who would come to Zurich to do the work - didn't contact them though.
For bathroom items, the selection is bigger, but prices aren't better than www.reuter.de or even close to that. The interesting thing is that they only work with Swiss plumbers if you like to install anything, so I don't see any benefit from doing that.
We are now dealing with a couple of "Swiss" builders to do the work (tiles, parquet, bathroom). I prefer the sort of person who can do a bit of everything, rather than the super Fachmann coming from Fust or Richner that won't do anything for less than 30k.
For the tiles, we might get them from here: http://stone-atelier.ch/
Small business, good selection and very friendly English speaking sales people. The prices are not bad and they can even do the work if you like, although he admitted it would be more expensive than with a builder.
Please, share any useful info you find out!
Yesterday I found another place that looks decent: http://www.mpv-baukeramik.ch/ .
It is in the area of Volkestwil. The owner is Swiss, with Italian roots - doesn't speak a word of English, but he is very friendly and will speak Kinderdeutsch for you if needed.
The selection is very good and the products really look good - mainly Spanish, Italian and German. They sell Porcelanosa products - very elegant Spanish ceramic maker. Also some handmade Moroccan tiles.
Prices are a bit more than in the previous recommendation that I sent you, but still lower than Waldshut (ca. 60CHF per m2).
The place is shut on Saturdays, unless you ask him for an appointment.
By the way, we got a very "reasonable" quote from a Plattenlegger based in Switzerland. You can probably get it a bit cheaper in Germany, but I won't take the risk if it is only 1/2k more.
We are still waiting for another quote - will share names and experience when done.
So we finally made it to Germany and while I saw a lot that I liked I agree with you that the prices are not much/if at all cheaper then here. We saw basically the same things as at Richner here and with the 20% discount Richner gives (apparently they will give it if asked), some of them were cheaper here. Bathroom fixtures, radiators etc, much cheaper in DE but we didn't pick anything yet.
Thanks for all the tips so far, if I find any deals I will post them here. Next stop a garage door and a kitchen. Any ideas for the door ? Kitchens are everywhere - any great recommendations appreciated, either here or in DE. We are going landhaus style.
Hey CB1,
We have just finished our renovation. We renewed one bathroom and floors in the whole place (90m2 tiles + 65m2 parquet).
For the bathroom products, we finally went ahead with www.reuter.de . We bought very good brands at prices that you can't even think of in Switzerland. We had a look at few places here and I can't really accept paying double price for a German made product. Basically they only order the product from a German provider...which I can do as well.
For tiles and parquet, we ordered everything from a local shop in Wollerau: www.ceramicas.ch . Not massive choice compared to any of the big places in Zurich, but much better and individual service. Herr Lùˆnnemann had no issues with having our appointments on Saturday and spent easily 2 hours each time. His English is basic, but enough to help when my German was not sufficient.
He works with Italian, Spanish and German providers, so you can be sure you will find pretty much anything and he will even get samples for you if you are interested on any product he doesn't have in the exhibition.
We ordered everything through the builder who did the work in our place and he got a 15% discount on the retail price.
The best piece of information I can share with you (and any other EF member doing renovations at home) is about the builder. His name is Marinov. You can find his contact details and some examples of his work in his website: http://www.plattenexperte.ch/index.html
He works alone and only brings people in to get bits done that he doesn't want/can do - he took care of the whole bathroom renovation, but called a plumber to adjust the pipes for the new shower. Also brought someone in to lay the parquett down.
We are very satisfied with how he organized everything and the attention to detail he showed in every step of the renovation project. He is very knowledgable and always has very good ideas when things can't be done as initially planned.
The final price was fair for the amount of work he did during 3 and a half weeks and in particular for the fantastic commitment he showed before, during and after the renovation process. As example, we had an issue with the drain he installed in our walk-in shower (the siphon wasn't right and didn't block the smell...) and he solved it within 48 hours despite of having already started another renovation somewhere else.
I communicated with him in German, as he speaks perfect high-german, but he can also manage with English in case of emergency .
I found him in this website: https://www.ofri.ch/DobromirMarinov?rating_amount=all and contacted him by email for an appointment. You can see few other reviews there.
Hope this information help.
He's doing a job at our place at the moment!
Then I can only hope you can confirm our great experience with him. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing the info! Sounds like a success.
We are just about done ours and fired the original contractor 10 days before we started because he gave me a bad bad feeling. Perhaps it was the reference to 'I know how to deal with difficult English speaking women- I am married to one.' We ended up with the guy who did our current home who I didn't find friendly back the but actually he has been amazing and my kids now think he is famous in construction.
For those who are embarking on this path I can echo most of what you mentioned. We did the whole house so used an architect who got us 10-35% off the retail price for materials and some labor -- I think they al carry a buffer and if you ask they will give you the discount. Tiles ended up being cheaper then in Germany, bathroom stuff was almost the same. I suggest everyone negotiate and shop around. We got the kitchen supplier to sell us floor appliances at just under half the price. Swiss German is the family langauage so it was easier but a lot of these guys speak English and want the business.
FX Ruch was great. Went there today, found nice looking tiles at 30 Eur per sq (there were some below, most were above). The guy was very helpful, arranged to reserve them for us for a month (which is what we needed) and gave us a discount without asking.
Highly recommend.
That's great news. I did consider going to FX Ruch, but was too lazy to drive there.
For comparison, we paid very similar prices for our tiles in www.ceramicas.ch . We used three different tiles and prices were 32CHF, 25CHF and 37CHF per m2. Obviously you can also claim the VAT, making it even cheaper.
Knowing the real prices for porcelain tiles in South Europe, I didn't feel comfortable enough to pay the 100CHF per m2 that I saw in places like Richner and co.
Anyway, good luck with your project!