What we do
Everything a bathroom needs, under one name.
Mr Useful Bathrooms covers the three things a bathroom actually involves — design, supply and installation — and you can take all three or just the last one. Paul quotes the job, runs the job and is the person you ring afterwards, whichever way you go.
01
Full bathroom refurbishment
The core of what Mr Useful Bathrooms does. The old suite comes out and goes away, the pipework and waste are reworked to suit the new layout, walls and floors are prepared, the room is tiled, the new suite, screen, brassware, heating and lighting go in, and everything is sealed, run and checked before you get the room back. Paul quotes it, Paul runs it, and Paul is the person you ring afterwards if anything needs looking at.
- Strip-out and disposal of the old suite
- Pipework, waste flow and water pressure sorted before anything is boxed in
- Wall and floor tiling, waterproofing and sealing
- Suite, screen, taps and shower fitted, run and checked
02
En-suites and shower rooms
Box rooms, landing corners and slices of a bedroom all become en-suites, and the questions are always the same: where can the waste run, what will the floor take, and is there enough pressure for the shower you actually want. Paul checks those on the first visit rather than halfway through. The portfolio includes a Dorridge en-suite where the bathroom was extended into the bedroom next door, finished with mosaic tiling and a low-level shower tray.
- Creating a bathroom where one did not previously exist
- Low-level trays, quadrant enclosures and walk-in screens
- Waste runs and pressure checked at quote stage, not on site
- Extraction and lighting planned in from the start
03
Design and space planning
A bathroom has to be practical, but it is also a room you use every day and — for a lot of people — the one place in the house where you get five minutes to yourself. Paul plans the layout with you, whether the space is small and intimate or large and luxurious: what will physically fit, how the room reads when you walk in, how much elbow room you need at the basin, and where the symmetry lands. He is candid about what will not work as well as what will.
- Layout and space planning for refurbishments and brand-new rooms
- Positioning and symmetry of fitments worked out on paper first
- Small intimate spaces and large luxurious ones treated the same way
- Honest advice on what the room will and will not take
04
Supply — or fit your own
Mr Useful has access to the major bathroom brands, so the suite, fittings and radiators can be supplied as part of the job. Plenty of customers would rather buy their own, and that is completely fine. If you do, have the conversation before you order: sizes, finishes, quality and the extra parts a design needs to actually work are the things that go wrong from a showroom photograph. Paul also keeps a list of local suppliers he rates.
- Supply of suites, fittings and radiators from the major brands
- Happy to install customer-purchased items
- Advice on sizes, finishes, quality and the bits people forget
- Local suppliers he actually uses, rather than a trade kickback
05
Wall and floor tiling
Tiling is part of a normal bathroom job here, and it is also available on its own. The portfolio runs from a full mosaic walk-in shower enclosure to large-format stone-effect walls with a mosaic border, to dark porcelain floors laid through a kitchen. Setting out is the part nobody sees and everybody notices: get the centre lines and the cuts balanced first and you never end up with a sliver of tile in the most visible corner of the room.
- Wall and floor tiling, mosaic through to large format
- Borders, niches and recessed shelving built into the tiling
- Set out dry before adhesive is mixed
- Tiling taken on as a standalone job as well as part of a fit
06
Plumbing, heating and ventilation
Pipework, accessing waste flow pipes, water supplies and pressure, tolerances and clearances, safety, heating and lighting, and ventilation are all part of the installation rather than somebody else's problem. Heated towel rails and underfloor heating are easiest to plan at design stage, while the floor is still open. Extraction gets specified for the room it is actually in, because a badly ventilated bathroom will ruin good tiling within a couple of winters.
- Pipe runs and waste reworked for the new layout
- Water supply and pressure checked before the shower is chosen
- Heated towel rails and underfloor heating
- Extraction sized for the room, not the smallest fan on the shelf
07
Electrics, lighting and decorating
Some parts of a bathroom have to be done and certificated by the right trade. Rather than leave you to find an electrician and a decorator and then coordinate three diaries, Paul brings in people he has worked with for years — tilers, electricians and decorators he has chosen himself and would have working in his own home. Work that needs certifying gets certified. You still only have one person to ring.
- Bathroom lighting, shaver points and extraction wiring
- Work that needs certifying done by the right qualified trade
- Decorating to finish the room off properly
- One point of contact for the whole job
08
Smaller jobs and replacements
Whether you just want to change a basin, replace a suite that has had its day, sort out a shower that never worked properly, or retile a wall that has started to let water through, the job is worth a phone call. Plenty of people meet Mr Useful on a small job first and come back later for the whole bathroom. Ring and describe it — if it is not something Paul takes on, he will say so.
- Suite and basin replacements
- Shower and enclosure swaps
- Retiling and re-sealing where water has got behind
- Honest answer if it is not a job for him
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.
Not sure which of these your job is?
Most jobs are a mix of several. Ring Paul and describe the room — he will tell you straight away whether it is something he takes on, and come out and look at it if it is.
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.