Bathroom fitters covering Crewe and the villages around it

Railway terraces, and what their bathrooms need

The Grand Junction Railway started housing its workforce in 1842, first around Moss Square and then in the grid of streets north-west of the station through the 1840s and 50s. Those terraces have a bathroom that was fitted decades after the house was built, nearly always in the back addition off the kitchen or above it: a narrow room with the window at the end, a soil stack on the yard wall and a waste run that has been altered more than once. The job that suits them best is a walk-in shower across the narrow end with the toilet and a slim vanity along one wall, and the plumbing work is usually about tidying what previous owners left behind: isolation valves where there were none, a waste laid to a proper fall, and a stack connection made properly rather than with a push-fit bodge.

Wistaston, Shavington, Haslington and the streets near Leighton Hospital are a different proposition: semis and detached homes with square bathrooms, timber floors and room to plan. Basford West, by the A500 and the railway, is adding up to 370 new homes whose developer bathrooms will come round for replacement in time, as new-build bathrooms do.

Crewe's water and the showers that suit it

United Utilities supplies Crewe from two zones: Gorsty North covers the town centre at an average of 65 milligrams per litre of calcium carbonate, and Gorsty South covers CW2 at about 73. Both are moderately soft, though the sample range is wide, from 20 up to 147, so the odd address sees slightly harder water. Limescale is not a major issue for Crewe bathrooms; what matters more in the terraces is pressure on old mains, and we test it before you choose a shower, because a rainfall head on a weak supply is the most common disappointment we see.

Building control from Delamere House

Crewe is in Cheshire East and its building control office is in the town itself, at Delamere House on Delamere Street, delivered through the council's company Civicance. New drainage, structural work and bathroom electrics are the notifiable parts of a bathroom job; the electrics that need certifying are done by a registered electrician we work with, and you get the certificate. Crewe has no town-centre conservation area (Crewe Green is the only one on the Cheshire East list for the town), so external vents and pipe positions are rarely a planning question here.

Plenty of places in Crewe to choose a bathroom

Crewe is unusually well supplied with showrooms. Easy Bathrooms and Tiles at Grand Junction Retail Park and Wickes on Lockitt Street carry suites and tiles off the shelf; City Plumbing's Bathroom Showroom on Macon Way is the merchant option; and there are two independents, Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Supplies on Mill Street, trading since 1992, and Total Tile and Bathrooms on Victoria Street. Buy in any of them and we fit it, or ask us to shortlist for you and quote each item at its price.

What we do in Crewe

• Back-addition bathrooms in the railway terraces replanned around a walk-in shower
• Full renovations and refits in Wistaston, Shavington, Haslington and Leighton
• Wet rooms, ensuites and downstairs toilets
• New-build bathroom and ensuite upgrades
• Tiling, wall panels, plumbing, towel rails, extractor fans and lighting (electrician certified)
• Repairs: leaks, running toilets, resealing, regrouting, cracked tiles
• Landlord and HMO bathrooms, including rented terraces near the station

Emergencies in Crewe

If a pipe bursts in Crewe at night, a local plumber will reach you sooner than we can. Once it is stopped, we repair the bathroom properly, whether in a railway terrace off Dorfold Street or a semi in Wistaston, or refit it if the damage runs deep, as a booked job.

Which towns we reach in an emergency