huge difference between estimate and invoice-can I do anything?

hotcookie101

Ok first of all I am sorry for the length of the post, I have tried to summarise as much as possible

We have just had a bathroom renovated, guy was recommended, came round, gave us an estimate for the work. It seemed reasonable, he quoted us a day rate plus materials, but advised that if it took less time, obviously he would charge less, but if it took more, then would charge the extra. He reckoned 9 days to do the lot (this involved moving bath and sink, and loo(but not soil pipe) tiling floor and walls (initially this was half tiling ended up having complete walls tiled) and moving pipes for radiators to the edge of the room. The bathroom is 3m x1.8m ish......
So anyway, my OH stripped out the existing suite, and we discovered that needed a new studwork wall built as otherwise wouldn't really be OK to tile on what was there. The other walls were plastered, but not very straight, nothing was said about these. At this stage he reckoned half a day to do the studwork wall, so we said OK.
Then it turned out the floor joists were rotten (bath had been leaking for a LONG time ) and they all needed to be replaced. So he did that, and redid the floor, and moved all the pipes and everything. The tiling took ages as the walls weren't very straight,so had to be done individually etc etc etc..... After about 6-7 days we asked how far behind we were, and he reckoned 2, so that was ok

Anyway.... fast forward on, its taken 15 days, we FINALLY have a bathroom again, and we are happy with it. My problem is, that we have just got the bill, and its £1500 more than he estimated-the extra 6 days labour, plus the material costs have more than doubled-from 400 estimated to£900 actual. :eek::eek: The workmanship is excellent, and it looks really really good. But does it seem unreasonable to go from estimate of £1800, to actual of £3300 given the extra work involved? And should he have sat us down and warned us half way through? (thats what I do if I have something thats going to cost the client loads more) the other thing is, I am not sure we have that extra £1500 right now, next month sure, but not this one...

Does it seem like a reasonable amount of time to do the work involved (we have friends in the trade and they reckon its slow, unfortunately they also live 100miles away so couldn't do the job for us....

To be honest, we didn't get any other quotes as he had been recommended, and the one he gave us seemed reasonable. If I had known it was going to be closer to £3.5K I would have definately got more quotes.

I cannot fault his work, it just seems SO much more, I was prepared for it to be more than the estimate, but not twice as much
Sorry for the length of the post, I'm just really confused....

maninthestreet

It was an estimate, and not a quote, and there was additional work that was required to be done that could not be foreseen (the rotten floor boards).

hotcookie101

No absolutely, I knew that is was going to take longer, but when we asked him about the extra time involved for those, he reckoned 2 days, not 6?

andyhop

An estimate is exactly that, I would never accept a estimate, only a quote

We only give quotes but details in full what we will be doing

As for your material budget, A average bathroom costs approx £700 for basic building material and pipework if done correctly, This would include items like tanking, Plaster, Lighting, Electrics and plumbing

hotcookie101

Fair enough,
Guess we'll just have to find the cash somewhere. and in future get a fixed price for a job. Just didn't expect the difference between estimate and final price, in my line of work, if there is going to be a 10% difference in cost (and we are talking few hundreds not thousands) we have to discuss it in detail with the client.
He did give us a detailed list of what he was going to do, and as far as we can tell, the only extra was the studwork wall (he told us half a day for that) and the floor (which took a day)
£700 for materials, fair enough, I can see that, he did say 400 to begin with tho, I wouldn't mind so much if there wasn't a chance he under-estimated on purpose to get the job

andyhop

If the walls where not straight etc he should have pointed that out from the start, These could have be dot and dabbed with 12mm board or skimmed with Rapid set tile adhesive.

Live and learn and always get a fixed price quote, We can all give cheap estimates!!

hotcookie101

Yep, lesson learned....
thanks anyway, looks like bread and gruel for the next month
Or maybe just gruel, flour's pricey these days lol

misgrace

Couldnt you have a chat with him, and point out that he told you it would be approx another 2 days work, and if he thought it was going to be longer, why didnt he discuss it with you, or even you mention it to him.

If you can play on his good nature, (if he has one) lol, then maybe he will take some money off.

He should of mentioned all this to you, I sort of feel he has mislead you a bit, therefore, you shouldnt be expected to pay it all.

Cknocker

Itgs a hard one this one, and you can probably see now why there is so many disputes in building. You keep referring to your line of work, I din't know what that is obviously but I doubt it has the potential for the problems that building work can encounter. All you realistically do is get a quote for a job, but you have to ensure that quote defines what has been priced, for instance with the walls if you had a quote rather than an estimate the builder would probably still have come back and asked for extra, but then at least you can ask for a price up front.

The way I do it is draw up a schedule of the works and get that priced or give the builder the drawings and tie him down that the price is for the end result, in contracting terms this is the difference basically betweena design and build contract and a traditional contract. However for the builders risk he will charrge more.

All you can do now is sit down and talk with him, but you have agreed to pay him X per hour and his materials, which if it was a contract would be a cost plus basis, ie you take on all risk.