tiling quote almost doubled!

melb

I'd be interested in your thoughts. We had a tiler round who quoted £640 for the job which we agreed to. The person who recommended him said he charged about £33 per sq m and as the room and floor are 16 sq m I thought this obiously allowed about £100 for adhesive and grout. He has amost finished the job and his bill is £640 plus £130 for adhesive, £20 for grout and is charging an extra £150 for supposed "extra" work which was always part of the deal. I do not believe in every reneging on an agreement and I am not the type to start questioning bills after someone has fulfilled their part of it - we have no complaints about the standard of work - but I would be interested in anyone's view that the adhesive and grout weren't part of the original quote and we are now being charged extra. If I asked a decorator for a quote to do some wallpapering, I wouldn't expect to then be charged extra for the wallpaper paste. Please help as he is coming tomorrow to grout and be paid and I want to discuss it with him in a calm rational way.

HugoSP

Did you get the quote in writing?

If not then it is much more difficult to argue. I am assuming that you were reasonably lead to assume that the £640 was the total figure. Whether or not the job could be reasonably done for that sum is irrelevent. That is what you were quoted and that is what you should pay, unless you and he agreed extra work.

Lets take each issue in turn:

I recently did a quote and literally forgot to add the adhesive and grout. when I realised my mistake I had no option as I saw it to stick to my initial quote. I recouped some of this loss with some other work on the same job, so no harm done. However my quote was in writing and stated that standard materials was included. Most tilers will supply their own adhesive and grout, unless the arrangement is different, so I would say that it is reasonable to assume that this is included.

The Extra work. If this was agreed in the deal then you should pay no extra.

The only other explanation I could offer for the discrepancies is that someone else (his wife perhaps) has put the bill together.

My advice is to write the cheque out for the £640. Explain that this is what you firmly understand was the agreed figure for the whole job and that you see no valid justification for the extra charges.

The reason why you do not see any justification is that the 'extra work' he charged for was discussed as part of the quote, and that the materials were not identified as extra cost items on the quote.

Then offer him the cheque.

He may try to negotiate. I would advise that you consider offering him no more than £100 extra goodwill payment. The £640 you were originally quoted is not expensive for the work you had done.

As to why the differences exist:

I suspect he has messed up his figures as I did with mine. However I do wonder where he gets his £130 for adhesive from. I spent around £55 on wall tile adhesive for around 10.5 square metres, and had some left over - and that was DIY store prices, so I could have done another couple of metres. Assuming you've got around 4 square metres of floor in the bathroom that would leave £75 for floor tile adhesive. I have just spent £110 on floor tile adhesive to lay around 45 square metres of floor. Even if you double that cost that still only works out to around £5 per square metre.

The only other question I have for you is what type of bathroom floor do you have? Is it suspended timber or solid concrete? If it is suspended timber then he may have had to nail ply to it and use a more expensive flexable adhesive, and not have allowed for that.

melb

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and detailed reply. The quote was written down by us - nothing supplied by the tiler but that didn't worry us. He asked us to get the sealer which we didn't mind but thought this was probably to minimise his costs. I have since spoken to my partner who apparently said to him shall we get adhesive or anything else and the tiler said "no I get that" which my partner took to mean that's part of the deal. The tiler did have to pull 2 men off another job for a few hours to straighten up the wall before tiling as our builders hadn't made it straight enough and he's charged £180 for this which I think is very fair. He's also charging £150 for his extra work which was full tiling round the window when he says he quoted for half tiling which was never an option. He did also have to put some insuslation board over the undertile heating. However, what is galling is he has charged us for 5 bags of adhesive (for 13 sq metres wall and 3 sq metres) floor at £26 a bag so I think he's charging considerably more than he's paying and then £20 for grout. By the way this was for very large travertine tiles, done brick style with a mosaic border and pencil tiles on the half-tiled wall and it does look good. I just resent the feeling of being slightly "conned"

HugoSP

Mel

It seems that he has communicated with you very poorly

When he comes around to discuss payment I suggest you and your husband are there with him. Obviously his discussion with the tiler is crucial.

Agree a strategy and stick to it. Do NOT get into a sitution where one of you breaks ranks.

It seems that you're happy with paying extra for the straightning of a wall. On a job I did recently I actually had a major problem with one wall, but just had to build the adhesive out to level the tiles. The client was on a tight budget so I just made do. The problem is not noticable.

melb

thanks again. we've paid him the full amount. he said he never includes materials in his quote as he never knows how much adhesive he'll need. I said fair enough but you didn't say that to me otherwise I would have asked you for an approximation. I would never leave myself open to agreeing to "materials" without some idea. He stuck to his guns and we decided to pay him. Mainly because the finish is fantastic and I can't fault his workmanship. I said to him that I would accept that this was a lack of communication rather than a deliberate attempt to con us. I can now start cleaning up the mess! Thanks again for your time. By the way he did his grouting standing in our bath with his shoes on and 2 buckets with nothing protecting our brand new expensive bath. I said do you want something to stand on he said could do so I got him a dustsheet. Am I being fussy or does this show a complete lack of respect for his customer. He's also left his waste in our drive for us to clear.

nelly_2

Christ sake.......... he sounds proffesional!

TomsMom

melb wrote: »

By the way he did his grouting standing in our bath with his shoes on and 2 buckets with nothing protecting our brand new expensive bath. I said do you want something to stand on he said could do so I got him a dustsheet. Am I being fussy or does this show a complete lack of respect for his customer. He's also left his waste in our drive for us to clear.

No you are not being fussy. If he had any respect for your or your property he would have protected the bath before standing in it AND he would have taken his waste with him.

We are always careful when anyone does any work for us and, if necessary, protect our own stuff but we've never had a tradesman yet who has not made some attempt to clear up his mess/waste.

I hope he has not scratched or damaged your new bath and if anyone ever asks who did your wonderful tiling as they want him for a job then I would make sure you tell them that his tiling is fantastic but he is lacking in the other ways you have mentioned.