Bathroom refit- £12,000???

Beenie

We have a 6' x 6' bathroom which needs to be brought up to date.

The job is remove the existing suite and tiles, and replace with a new wall hung toilet, a basin and vanity unit, a shower tray and pumped shower with walk-in panel, an extractor fan and inset ceiling lights (4). The bathroom then to be fully tiled.

The quote for basin, tiles, lights etc is £7760 and the fitting charge on top will be £4400 (so just over £12K).

I think we can source cheaper bathroom bits and knock at least 20% off that part of the quote, but its the fitting charge that seems high. The company says it takes all the headaches out of doing the work as they have all the tradesman you need, so you're not faffing about finding tilers, plumbers, electricians yourself, but the cost seems very high to us. What do other tradesmen here think?

aylesby

We are doing roughly the same in Cheshire
I sourced the materials for 3.5k and fitting will be the same.
My fitter is not VAT registered.

Beenie

£7K is more realistic! The company I'm talking about is Ripples (which is a national franchise I think) and is VAT registered.

We're not in a hurry to kick this off so will definately be getting further quotes.

LEJC

personally i think you are paying a premium for a "national" company do supply and fit the bathroom.

Have you approached local plumbers or bathroom fitters...they are probably still able to get the suite and fittings that you want and fit at a much lesser cost than your original estimate.

We have recently constructed a new bathroom in a property we have refurbished...ours came in at below £4000 including all electrical work using tradesmen(plumber,plasterer,electrician,tiler)....i appreciate that potentially we opted for a vastly cheaper suite than something ripples has to offer but sourcing the fitting independently is likely to reduce the price certainly from what you have been initially quoted.

Its actually not difficult to find the tradesmen yourself,so their quote to you about them taking the hassle away is true they will take the hassle away ...but they will charge you for the pleasure of doing so.....there are several ways to approch the situation you can either start with the electrician or the plumber and they will in turn probably each recommend someone to do the other bits that they have previously worked with...and actually they all seem to then co ordinate around each other.

southcoastrgi

way too expensive for all of it, get some independant quotes

artbaron

That's a loony quote. I've just had almost exactly the same done on a 8 x 5 bathroom and the cost was under £4K. Good quality gear, too, with walk-in shower, floor and wall tiling, sink with vanity storage, LED heated mirror, etc. What's more the room was completely knackered before-hand, the walls were crumbling away, sopping wet and there was 1/2cm of water on the floor, so everything had to be dried and replastered. The job took two weeks.

keystone

Beenie wrote: »

.....and the fitting charge on top will be £4400.

aylesby wrote: »

materials 3.5k and fitting will be the same.
My fitter is not VAT registered.

What do other tradesmen here think?

Jaysuss. I don't charge nearly enough obviously. Its about a ten(ish) day job..

Cheers

kaya

They are taking you for a mug , that's a a stupid price

Beenie

kaya, they aren't (yet) seeing as we haven't gone with this price. I'm just checking at the moment. MIL in Yorkshire paid £5500 for a similar job, we are in Essex and thought £7000-ish would be fair for goods and fitting. The problem is that customers don't know what is fair- this is the first time we've done this sort of thing. I don't want to screw the last penny from some poor sod trying to earn a living, but neither do I want to pay over the odds. Hence my checking here. I'd only be a mug if I paid up in full without further quotes!

buglawton

No one has mentioned their locality. Labour costs near London can be 3 times those in say, N.E. England or Wales.

keystone

buglawton wrote: »

No one has mentioned their locality. Labour costs near London can be 3 times those in say, N.E. England or Wales.

No but my location is quite clear surely. £ 4½k is a quite obscene price for fitting a bathroom.

Cheers