About
Mr Useful is one man, and his name is Paul.
Paul Maguire is the sole owner and manager of Mr Useful Bathrooms. He lives in Solihull with his wife and two children, and bathrooms are his second career — he left the corporate world, retrained, and has specialised in them ever since.
A bathroom is a small room that needs a surprising number of different skills. Somebody has to take out the old suite, move the pipework and the waste, check there is actually the pressure for the shower you have chosen, make the walls flat, waterproof the wet areas, tile to a set-out that works, sort the heating, the lighting and the ventilation, and then fit and test everything. Done the usual way that is three or four trades, three or four diaries, and three or four chances for something to fall between them.
Mr Useful Bathrooms exists so that it is one person's responsibility instead. Paul does the quoting visit himself, plans the room with you, and stays your point of contact for the whole job and for anything that needs attention afterwards. Where a stage genuinely needs a specialist, he brings in tilers, electricians and decorators he has built relationships with over years — in his words, people he can trust and would have working in his own home. Several of his Google reviews name Adam alongside him for that reason.
What Paul talks about first, when you ask him about his work, is not the tiles. It is customer service, and then symmetry: checking the positioning of every item, making the best use of the space available, and matching what gets built to what you actually pictured. Care, attention to detail, and a customer who is happy at the end — that is how he describes his own priorities, and it is why the reviews keep using the words “reliable” and “trustworthy”.
He is also happy to arrange a reference visit, or a call to a previous customer, so you can see and hear what the work is like before you commit to anybody. That offer is not something most trades make, and it is worth taking up.
How Paul works
Three things that do not change, job to job.
Symmetry, before anything is fixed
Paul's own description of his work puts the positioning of fitments first: where the basin centres, whether the tile courses land level with the top of the bath, whether the shower valve sits square to the tiles. It is the difference between a bathroom that looks fitted and one that looks designed.
Your carpets go under cling film
Before the old suite comes out, the carpets on the route in get covered with a clear protector — the same idea as cling film. Small thing, but it is the kind of detail that tells you how the rest of the week is going to go.
A quote from a visit, not a phone call
Paul comes to the house, looks at the room, talks through what you want and what the space will take, and then prices it. There is no charge and no obligation — and it is the only honest way to price a bathroom, because the pipework is never where you hope it is.
Where Paul works
Solihull, and out across south Birmingham.
Mr Useful Bathrooms is based in Solihull, and the completed jobs in the portfolio are mostly within a few miles of it — Solihull itself, Dorridge, Dickens Heath, Monkspath and Olton. Shirley, Knowle, Hall Green, Acocks Green and Sheldon are all comfortably in range. If you are a bit further out, ring and ask.
Solihull borough
- Solihull
- Olton
- Monkspath
- Shirley
- Dorridge
- Dickens Heath
- Knowle
South & east Birmingham
- Hall Green
- Acocks Green
- Sheldon
- Hollywood
Thinking about the bathroom?
Ring or text Paul, or send a couple of photos and rough measurements by email. He will come out, look at the room and price it properly — the visit is free and there is no obligation at the end of it.
Paul is usually on the tools, so leave a message or a text and he rings back himself — you never get passed to a call centre.