Tiler charging too much

roseberry

We got a quote from a tiler to fully tile our bathroom , both walls and floor.

He quoted us £530 before he started the work. Now that he has finished he wants £770.

Surely this is way too much, I understand that tradesmen may go over budget but to add a further 45% seems exessive! To add to it, we also gave him an extra £141 during the job for some moisture board.


I dont actually have the dimensions of the bathroom to hand as i am at work but it is by no means big, it can just about fit a toilet, shower, sink and bath in comfortably.

The work had taken him around a week to do, but that wasnt full days as he was moaning about the plumber being there. It appears to us that he had underestimated the job so its took him longer than anticipated and he's decided to charge us extra for that. I was under the impression that we paid him for the job, not for the amount of time it has taken him.

He has broke down the extra costs on the invoice he has given us and one was to fit and buy plyboard to the floor - shouldnt this have already been in the initial quote?

thanks for your help on this

Alan_M_2

What was the format of initial quote? Was it an Estimate or a Quote and was it in writing?

Are the extras detailed on the invoice over and above the original quote/estimate?

Was any of this extra work discussed during the week it took to complete?

Was any of the work over and above the original quote/estimate?

roseberry

Alan_M wrote: »

What was the format of initial quote? Was it an Estimate or a Quote and was it in writing?

Are the extras detailed on the invoice over and above the original quote/estimate?

Was any of this extra work discussed during the week it took to complete?

Was any of the work over and above the original quote/estimate?

Hi, thanks for replying.

We do have it in writing and I am unsure if it was a quote or an estimate! I should have asked beforehand!!!

I have the invoice in front of me, here are the details.

Tile floor and Walls in bathroom £530 (which is what we thought we would be paying)

Supply and fit 3 moisture boards over existing wall to cover pipework £90

Supply and fit plywood flooring over existing floor £110

Plaster repairs under bath area to make wall level with rest of wall £40.

Total amount due £770

Surely the extras he charged should have been in the initial estimate/quote?

He did tell us about fitting plywood flooring but didn't say anything about cost. All he kept saying was "well I've done extra than what I thought so it will be a bit more" referring to the bill. I can't see an extra 45% of the price being "a little bit more!"

booty40uk

What exactly did your original quote/estimate say?

nickj_2

if you asked him to do all of this then that should have been included in his original price
if it took him longer then that is down to his poor quoting , i always quote exactly what i'm going to do and then if the customer wants to add to it then everyone knows where they stand

McKneff

The original post said 'tiling walls and floor'

Why did you think you could get all this extra work for nothing if it wasnt in the original quote.

I had my bathroom done but some floor boards were rotten so had to be replaced, this took the plumber longer, along with some other odd bits that came up while he was working. something to do under the bath, and I asked him to put board over the floor so it was nice and even for my flooring, i really expected it to be added to the bill.

roseberry

booty40uk wrote: »

What exactly did your original quote/estimate say?

it said quote (it was a quote - my girlfriend has verified)

quote includes moisture seal (which he thought was cheaper than what it was!)

to tile floor and walls £530

Alan_M_2

Without the full text of the original quote/estimate you're not going to get a sensible answer to this.

roseberry

McKneff wrote: »

The original post said 'tiling walls and floor'

Why did you think you could get all this extra work for nothing if it wasnt in the original quote.

I had my bathroom done but some floor boards were rotten so had to be replaced, this took the plumber longer, along with some other odd bits that came up while he was working. something to do under the bath, and I asked him to put board over the floor so it was nice and even for my flooring, i really expected it to be added to the bill.

the problem was that he did not tell us throughout the job how much things were going to be as he was doing them and in some cases he just did them when we could have gotten the stuff cheaper and fitted elsewhere.

anyway - this has settled now, we confronted him and he knocked £60 off the bill, i'm sure we could have gotten this further down but the guy started shaking and was very nervous (probably an act:D) and i felt like I was bullying him.

in the end - we can just put the scenario down to experience and we will learn from it.