I would like to fully remodel my bathroom and guest toilet including the wall changes (making bathroom smaller and adding the shower in guest toilet). My plan is to do it next year in spring.
Ideally I would have one company doing everything, not that I have to separately look for an electrician and plumber and wall builder,….
I have been looking for bathroom “experts” in Thun and there are some more like “family companies” and big ones like “Sanitas Troesch”
I would like to hear the experience from someone who did something similar in Switzerland, what should I specially take care of and is it recommended “smaller” companies or big global representatives?
Additionally, I am interested in knowing if I should change something in my insurance for that year, due to potential damage to my neighbor below? You never know, if some water will flow, and experience from back home is – there is always problem with neighbor getting the water damage…
We had several people renting here putting walls in. Out is a bit trickier and anyway, it all needs permission and the landlord can demand to put it back to the original state when moving out.
So you’re right, it’s worth thinking about it well.
They dont do the work themselves, they sub-contract. Shoddy workmanship, missed appointments without notice, 30 day estimate dragged out to over 12 weeks, surprise extra bills. But YMMV.
We had no issues with them so it depends a lot on where you are and who you get and that’s the same for all companies
IKEA etc all do the same and some workmen are obviously better than others.
There are lots of factors to consider - cost being one of them.
We used a fairly local one-man business and he didn’t care where we got the stuff from so bathroom furniture and various pieces came from Germany (same stuff they sell here at Sanitas Troesch) and other stuff came from Hornbach.
I did the electrics and painting myself and the chap ripped out the old bathroom, fitted the WC and shower and tiled it all.
If you go with a big company, you pay big company prices (economies of scale only means bigger profits for them - you don’t benefit) and you are at the mercy of which band of sub-contractors turn up on the day to do your bathroom. In real terms this means you can’t chose them or go via good reviews.
You can get excellent service from Fust but it can also be a nightmare, depending on who you get on the day.
But why would you put yourself through that roll of the dice as there aren’t any cost or time benefits going with them?
We had a contractor and they gave us the option to choose specific painter, plumber, etc. We did not, and when we needed work done later (6 years), we didn’t want to go with the non-local plumber.
If you have a local plumber, or can find a recommendation, you may want to ask them for contractor suggestions.
does Switzerland has some special requirements from the pipes and showerheads used from the standard in rest of europe or I can buy without problems something in EU and import? not that there are special requirements as with e.g. cars…
I thought hat @Ace had a thread warning about compatibility between EU and CH when doing renovations, but I can’t find it so I might be wrong. Anyone else remember the thread?
Strangely the plumbing here and in Germany, and probably all of the EU, uses imperial measures. So quarter inch, half inch and so, like the UK these are now slowly also sold in metric equivalent sizes so instead of half inch it says 1.2cm but the threads are the same.
I remember Ace said German taps are not designed for full mains pressure when I connect a tap pipe to the wall I always put in a valve so I can turn the pressure down.
I do not like taps with full mains pressure and the valve makes it easy to change the tap next time.
You can often buy Swiss manufactured bathroom equipment in neighbouring countries for lower prices than here.
I’d made some comments on the subject, certainly. From memory it was probably about the different spacing and thread direction of bath/shower taps. The distance between the pipes when they’re built in to walls is different, and in general Swiss ones have a female thread in the wall whereas French ones are male, so the tap fittings from each are designed to fit directly into them.
Hence you need adaptors both for the thread itself and to adjust the distance between them, and I’ve had issues before where said adaptors have cracked over time.
As far as pressure restrictions are concerned I’ve never been aware of any differences. And the idea of having to conform to special requirements just makes me laugh. I mean, I’m not stating that there are no special requirements, just that I would have laughed at the idea that I would need to conform to them if there were.
