Loughton Bathrooms (LB)…Essex
We approached Loughton Bathrooms (LB) Lower Road Loughton Essex to renovate our bathroom.
They surveyed, quoted in a very timely fashion, and we moved on to a design session with Mehmet Ali (MA) at the end of which MA told us it will take a couple of days for him to email us a user-friendly design/plan. We were plied with brochures and awaited the design. So far, all good.
Without any discussion with us, the email from MA stated they would not be proceeding with our bathroom renovation. Reasons given outlined at 1 and 2 below and some weeks later 3 below.
1 Cannot supply the sanitary ware we wanted
2 Not wanting to reuse our pumped shower and accessories.
3 Small company, limited labour slots, and very busy. Cannot accommodate all who want their services.
We pointed out that at no time did we stipulate what sanitary ware we wanted. We were asked for an idea of style. This we gave. We did ask if we could re-use our pumped shower and accessories. As explained in emails from MA and Neville Ali (NA) the reason for not reusing, was sound and acceptable to us. We’d have asked LB to supply new.
NA then made further contact, and we had a friendly exchange of views, We spoke about, crossed wires, misunderstandings etc. Following which we agreed to try again. We made an appointment for a planning session with Jodie. Ill health meant we had to postpone.
It was after this, and before we could reschedule, that MA emailed stating reason 3. Again, no discussion. Would they have time slots sometime in the next 6 months for example. We will never know.
Personally, and acknowledging equal culpability with LB I regret allowing some of our exchanges to become fractious. I am 78 years old and should know better. It is extremely frustrating to be rejected by your local bathroom centre and not understand why. Of course, LB are under no obligation to supply us or anybody else for that matter. Both MA and NA assured us it is nothing personal.
So, providing you avoid the pitfalls/misunderstandings we seemed to have gotten into I still think for the reasons we wanted them to renovate our bathroom in the first place, they will do a good job.
Update 22 Feb 2026
My wife suggested that to be fair I should mention that this was in fact the second time we had wanted to engage Loughton Bathrooms (LB) to renovate our bathroom. The first time was a couple of years ago. They were friendly and helpful. Produced an acceptable quotation in good time. Sadly, challenges in the USA with the care of my elderly mother-in-law meant we had to devote our energy and time to dealing with that. Once those problems abated, we went back to LB to renovate our bathroom.
My wife also suggested that it would help matters if there was a check list from LB setting out the process and what needed to be done and ideally when. For example, we were told that during our meeting with Mehmet Ali he would facilitate our viewing the wall tiles that were mounted on very large and heavy display boards. Too heavy for our feeble bones to move. Perhaps we misunderstood because no such help materialised. Maybe that would have been later in the process.
Update 27 February 2026
For the avoidance of doubt, I should add that during our design session with MA he was professional and helpful. Little things that come to mind.
We were discussing shower accessories, and we mentioned that at present we had a 2-tier caddy to hold shampoo, conditioner, soap etc and a single tier caddy that only held a 50+ year old plastic ducky, a present from my wife. In a flash our design included a plastic duck sitting in a tray. A lovely gesture we thought. The original driver for renovating our bathroom was to make it more user friendly for me and the start of some mobility issues.MA mentioned the possibility of qualifying for a VAT concession on health grounds. A possibly very welcome saving. When discussing tiles, we mentioned some we had seen originally on display but were told they were no longer available. MA called the supplier to ascertain if perhaps they still had sufficient for our needs. They didn’t but it was good of him to call them.
That said shortly after that meeting MH informed us that LB would not be involved in our project for reasons I mentioned in an earlier posting