Laufen bathroom installation in Wentworth Estate

Wentworth Estate is a private, gated estate in Virginia Water built around Wentworth Club and its golf courses, home of the BMW PGA Championship, around 15 to 20 minutes by road from our Bracknell base. Fitting a Laufen suite there means combining two things we plan around carefully: getting access through the estate's gate and any managing agent sorted before a van arrives, and handling SaphirKeramik basins and pans that are thinner and sharper-edged than standard vitreous china, and less forgiving of a knock. You source the Laufen sanitaryware, brassware, tiles and furniture; we strip out, first-fix, tile, plumb and snag.

Why Laufen's SaphirKeramik changes how we plan the job

Laufen is a Swiss sanitaryware manufacturer, and its SaphirKeramik material is the reason its basins and pans can have noticeably finer rims and sharper geometry than a standard vitreous china piece would allow. Once fitted and fixed, that material is strong. The part we plan around is everything before that point: getting a thin-rimmed basin off a van, through a house, and onto a vanity top without a chip or a hairline crack that doesn't show until the piece is under load. We treat Laufen pieces differently to a heavier, more conventional basin range from the moment they're unloaded, with more padding, more deliberate carrying routes, and less stacking of other materials near them on site.

What we install from the Laufen range

On a fit-only basis we install Laufen basins and pans you've bought yourself, along with whatever brassware, tiles and bathroom furniture you've sourced to go with them. That covers countertop and wall-hung basins set onto vanity units, close-coupled and wall-hung pans, and the brackets and support frames a wall-hung Laufen pan needs behind the wall. We don't supply the sanitaryware itself; our work is the strip-out of the old bathroom, the first-fix plumbing and any structural work behind the walls, the tiling, and the final fit and snagging of the Laufen pieces you've chosen.

Sequencing and handling on a Laufen job

A standard ceramic basin can sit on a bit of site clutter for a day without much risk. A SaphirKeramik basin or pan, with its thinner rim, gets stored away from foot traffic and other trades until the moment it's needed, and it goes in later in the sequence than a heavier piece might, once tiling dust and other work in the room has settled down. Taps, wastes and any brackets are test-fitted dry before the piece goes in for good, because a thin rim doesn't have much tolerance for a tap hole that needs forcing. None of this changes the overall programme much, but it does mean the last day or two of a Laufen fit is paced a little differently to a job with a standard range.

Coordinating access on a gated estate

Wentworth Estate is private and gated, and jobs on it usually involve a managing agent or estate office as well as the homeowner. Before we start, we confirm who needs to authorise vehicle access, what the estate's working hours and any noise or parking rules are, and how deliveries of your Laufen sanitaryware should be timed so a basin isn't sitting at a gatehouse rather than being carried straight in. Being around 15 to 20 minutes from our Bracknell base, we can keep return visits for snagging or a forgotten item tight, without the gate process adding delay to the programme.

The fit-only process, from survey to price

We start with a paid survey at £125, where we measure up, check what the strip-out and first-fix will involve, and talk through how your Laufen pieces will sit in the room. From there the job runs as strip-out, first-fix plumbing, tiling, then the install and plumb-in of your sanitaryware and brassware, finishing with snagging. Fit-only installs on Wentworth Estate start from £3,500, with the final figure depending on the scope of strip-out, the room layout, and how much first-fix work is needed.

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