Quote for making a single door opening into double

devotee

I'm hoping to convert a single door that leads into my garden to two - really want to put in french doors.

Today I got a quote for the hole only and it came up to £1900! Don't have a breakdown of the quote yet, but I guess the usual, lintel, brickwork, making good etc. To me it sounds a bit steep for only a hole in the wall, am I right? I'm in London though, will try to get more quotes but would like to have a starting point.

The door itself I got a quote for £1100 including fitting and that's on top of 1.9k quote.

So is this reasonable or too much? I got a boiler moved the other day and that was three days work for £1200, lots of pipework etc, so hole in the wall sounds loads..
Thoughts?

SteveV2

Does come across to be very high.

If I did that job, you'd buy the materials and i'd do the work for less than a quarter of that price. I don't live in London though so I guess that could be standard rates. But compared to that boiler move? Way too much.

devotee

That's what I thought! I'm waiting for a couple of more quotes so let's see!

ormus

about twice the price as up here in the NW. (id would expect the doors to be inc for that price).
so probably about right for london.

devotee

No with doors it's £3000.

SteveV2

End of the day it's a 1 man job for 2 days max, the second day would be the plastering bit so not an all dayer, although I bet you'd be charged a whole day.

Have you looked up how much materials would cost? New Lintel would be the expensive(est) part but that's still not a bank breaker. What brick is your house made from? Sometimes it's hard to find a match, if reclaims are used they'll cost a bit too, but again, not a bank breaker.

devotee

Thanks I'll look into it. I think the brick is quite common, plus they'll remove some of the bricks to make a hole, I don't see why those can't be reused.

And Ormus, we don't earn twice the wage in London, compared to NW.

devotee

Well I got another quote £1400 this time from the guy who's company moved my boiler. He told me it was a four day job, £620 to go on materials, £600 his and his assistant's fee and the rest is vat. Is it really a four day job? I know my walls are thick, but does it make such a difference?

SteveV2

Still £500 less. If it takes them 4 days then so be it.

I'd class that as a win for you!

Maybe show the second quote to the first company and see what happens.

Overall, sounds about right now though. I said originally if I took on something like that the customer would buy materials and I would charge around a quarter of the overall price. His £600 sounds good to me.

SteveV2

Sorry, figures are wrong though. VAT would be £280 on £1400 so there's a £100 missing somewhere

devotee

I rounded the figures up..... So you do think it's a four day job? Thanks!