Stock taps which fall into one of several categories. These categories include mixer taps, designer taps and traditional taps. There has been a significant surge in the popularity of mixer taps in the last few years, and it’s up to the theme you want to create in your bathroom as to which of the tap styles you choose.
There are some technical considerations you need to investigate before you choose and install your taps. Mainland Europe uses high water pressure in a large majority of residences, while the UK has relatively low water pressure. In the UK, our water systems are usually gravity-fed from a tank in the attic; the pressure which eventually causes the water to be ejected from the tap at speed is created by the falling of the water from above, and this is usually referred to as ‘head’. As such, you need to be sure that any taps you choose are capable of working with low-pressure water feed systems; otherwise you may discover you have to install a pressurising system – which will be far more expensive than you originally intended. Check your system before committing to a purchase.
Contemporary Mixers
Our designer taps are at the absolute cutting edge of interior design and bathroom style. They are hugely contemporary, leading the pack in terms of interior fashion and sophisticated style, and can set off a design aesthetic which cascades throughout the rest of your home.
Designer taps can be expensive though, and they’re not for everyone. If you want to develop a contemporary design theme but you’re working to a budget which precludes designer taps, then you’ll probably want to carefully consider one of our mixer taps. As we’ve already established, mixer taps have been undergoing an upheaval in popularity since the early to mid-nineties, and they look set to usurp the more standard traditional dual tap design. Mixer taps are deeply contemporary, clean, cool and sleek, and contribute substantially to an urban feeling in your bathroom. Chrome is the most common finish in bathroom taps, and it’s great for building a modern bathroom with contemporary furnishings. There is a slight trend recently towards more industrial materials and finishes though, like satin chrome, stainless steel or standard steel. Also, the current trend at the moment is a heavy internal emphasis on geometric lines and clean, sweeping curves, evoking older, more traditional styles in an ultra-modern way.
Traditional Taps
For an out-and-out traditional style bathroom then the individual cross-head hot and cold taps remain ever popular, usually finished in brilliant chromium plate. They work particularly well with ceramic basins, and really stand out in traditionally themed bathrooms.
We also offer lever-style taps, which offer the same sense of tradition, but with more practicality and a more European twist. Levers are versatile and stylish, and they’re particularly desirable for those with limited mobility.
New Technology
Our tops offer you an alternative to entirely restructuring your bathroom; new taps will boost the modernity of any bathroom without having to rip out all the other fittings at the same time. We offer taps with in-built waste facilities, which are highly functional and very stylish. A new technology which many of our taps use is ‘ceramic disk’ technology, which replaces the older rubber found in many existing tap systems. The mechanics of this technology are simple and durable: there’s one fixed disk with a hole in it inside the tap pipe and one which turns according to the handle, which also has a hole in it. When the holes in the disks are aligned, water is allowed to pass through. At all other times, the water is completely blocked. This is a simple but highly effective mechanism. Furthermore, since the disks are ceramic, hard water scale and water-borne debris is very unlikely to interfere with the close fit of the two disks.