en suite bathroom quote sounds v high

pigeonpie

Builder just quoted £6000 to replace a tiny en suite bathroom. We want a new shower cubicle in that semi circular D shape (door slides rather than opens out as room is tiny) with mixer tap and detachable rail based shower head; new basin with small storage unit underneath and new toilet.
New floor probably necessary too and tiling in mosaic tiles in the shower area, otherwise just splash back around the basin with the rest of the room painted. Spot lights to include one with an extractor over the shower area. And a tall wall mounted towel rail.

It has to be of medium quality but contemporary looking to go with the rest of the flat.

The shower room is the size of a cupboard, maybe 1 1/2 m2.

We are in London but in shock at the quote was expected around 3 - 4gs.

Not sure if a bathroom company would be cheaper or not. I don't know any east european builders or plumbers either. I do want it done properly but this seems a lot even by London standards, or am I out of touch?
(I know this is a fortune should you NOT be in the smelly city)

dave82_2

We have been doing up a house in the London area and tend to find that builders are expensive for small jobs because they

A) sub lots of the work out
don't like small jobs they want big jobs with high income and long periods of work.

It might just be they don't realy want the work!

My advice would be get them to break the quote down then you can see if it is a rip of or not as you can go see how much the materials they are quoting for cost and also how much something like tiling would be on their quote compared to a tiler.

We have paid over the odds for a few jobs just to get the right person by this I mean somone who spends time with us talking through and planning the work rather than just pulling a figure out the air.

You will get all sorts of quotes from cowboys to extorsion you just need as much information about what you are getting for you £s

keystone

First reaction is that it is possibly a factor of two or so out but need rather more data to go on. Are you sure that the room is only 1.5 square metres or is it 1.5 x 1.5 m in which case its still small for shower, basin and loo.

Where in London? - congestion charge and parking costs can ramp the price a bit.

Moral of story - don't go to a builder for this type of work.

Get two other quotes for comparison purposes.





Cheers

pigeonpie

thanks, I have 2 more builders and a plumber (who does tiling too) coming this week.
We visited a mid range bathroom showroom in SE13 (quality seems good) and priced what we need in terms of shower, taps, loo, basin at about £1700 at most. Tiles will be extra. Lights too.
The bathroom is 1.5m x 1.7m so I got it wrong, but still very tiny. It does need totally redoing; it is ex tenanted this flat and bits are falling off the shower cubicle etc.
Mr 6 grand is requoting....I told him he was way over our budget so we'll see.

Lucy_Lastic

Have you looked at Betterbathrooms.com? Very good prices, prompt delivery, good quality goods. I went to Wickes for tiles, they do free delivery.

phill99

But it ain't the suite etc that is the big cost. Whether its a £300 bathroom suite or a £3000 one the costs of installation are the same. Remember, before the suite actually goes in, there may be 3 days work - remooving the old one, removing tiles, installling lights, plastering, upgrading electrics for the shower. Probably a day for the suite and then tiling (floor and walls).

Also the size of the bathroom is almost irrelevant. Small bathrooms are a pig to work in - difficult to maneouvere in, difficult to have 2 people in there at once and plus the tilker will have a high number of tiles to cut relative to the total number of tiles.

keystone

Lucy_Lastic wrote: »

Very good prices,

theres usualy a good reason for low prices.

prompt delivery,

as long as you don't want something in a hurry.

good quality goods.

:rotfl::rotfl:See above.

You missed out:

Nothing resembling any sort of quality management system and;

Absolutely the very, very worst customer support function I've ever had the misfortune to experience.

Otherwise not bad.

Cheers

keystone

phill99 wrote: »

But it ain't the suite etc that is the big cost. Whether its a £300 bathroom suite or a £3000 one the costs of installation are the same. Remember, before the suite actually goes in, there may be 3 days work - remooving the old one, removing tiles, installling lights, plastering, upgrading electrics for the shower. Probably a day for the suite and then tiling (floor and walls).

Also the size of the bathroom is almost irrelevant. Small bathrooms are a pig to work in - difficult to maneouvere in, difficult to have 2 people in there at once and plus the tilker will have a high number of tiles to cut relative to the total number of tiles.

This post is spot on.

Cheers

keystone

pigeonpie wrote: »

thanks, I have 2 more builders and a plumber (who does tiling too) coming this week.

No - do NOT go to a builder! You just get inflated prices that way.

We visited a mid range bathroom showroom in SE13

So no congestion charge then.

priced what we need in terms of shower, taps, loo, basin at about £1700 at most. Tiles will be extra. Lights too.

So my factor of 2 out isn't that far off the mark although with a £1700 suite your prolly looking closer to 3.5 than 3. Either that or I don't charge enough.

The bathroom is 1.5m x 1.7m so I got it wrong, but still very tiny.

OK thats a bit better. I squeezed a bath, WHB/vanity unit and a loo into a 1.6 x 1.6 not so long ago. Now that WAS fun.

BTW if the room is that sized treat any suggestion of a two man team doing it to justify a higher price with the greatest suspicion. Theres no way on earth that two men can work in a space that size at the same time.

Cheers

Hugbubble

Just got similar size en suite done, with similar specs, and it cost ~£2k labour (sorry, can't remember exactly without the bill to hand). The fittings (not supplied by the person doing the fitting) probably came to about £1700. And we didn't go for the cheapest fittings- or supplier either- with everything being Roca, Twyford and Hansgrohe, and not cheap tiles.

So in short, even for London, that sounds extreme.

phill99

Hugbubble wrote: »

So in short, even for London, that sounds extreme.

But you don't know the full story. Plastering? Electrics? Need a skip? Plus its a flat. If its above 2nd floor, you need to allow extra time to get everything up to the flat. If you have left something in the van, its a 10 minute round trip to get it!