A question for people/businesses that supply/fit kitchens/bathrooms

[Deleted User]

Hi

This question is to anyone with experience, but particularly to people who supply and fit kitchens and bathrooms for a living.

I have removed everything from existing bathroom and kitchen and want to have the rooms completely revamped.

Budget is tight and I want to ensure I get the best price possible.

My plan is to purchase as much of the bulky things as possible so that I have them ready for the contractor to use (i.e. bathroom suite / tiles / cooker / fridge / dishwasher / kitchen units / taps etc).

The question is:

As a contractor, would this put you off the job, or even put you off giving me a quote for the job (because there is less scope for markup)?


Thanks in advance for replies.

phill99

I fit bathrooms and kitchens.

I often go to people's houses and thy say "we will buy everything'. It's not an issue if people have got the suite / units etc, but there are 2 things:

1. People often buy things without recourse to a professional. So when it comes to fitting, it is problematic.
2. People buy things as they thing thy will get them cheaper. But they won't. Most tradesmen will get high discounts and get stuff far cheaper than their customers.

Before you buy anything, make sure you get a fitters advice as what you want may not be realistic, or there may be a more cost effective way of doing something.

[Deleted User]

phill99 wrote: »

I fit bathrooms and kitchens.

I often go to people's houses and thy say "we will buy everything'. It's not an issue if people have got the suite / units etc, but there are 2 things:

1. People often buy things without recourse to a professional. So when it comes to fitting, it is problematic.
2. People buy things as they thing thy will get them cheaper. But they won't. Most tradesmen will get high discounts and get stuff far cheaper than their customers.

Before you buy anything, make sure you get a fitters advice as what you want may not be realistic, or there may be a more cost effective way of doing something.

Thanks for your insight - appreciated.

With regards to point 1, can you give me an example of what you mean by that? Are you talking about kitchen units?

2 - I'm not fussed about getting the discounts - I would just rather buy exactly what I want and then I don't have to break quotes down if you know what I mean.

Thanks

phill99

People are often influenced by design magazines and home makeover programmes, which always give the impression that anything can be done and you can have anything you wish in your home. In reality that doesn't happen due, partly to people's budgets, but more appropriately because of the complexities of installing what they want. Eg a customer may want a bath and separate shower cubicle in their bathroom, but in reality the bathroom is far too small, and people don't take account of shower door openings, access to waste etc.

[Deleted User]

phill99 wrote: »

People are often influenced by design magazines and home makeover programmes, which always give the impression that anything can be done and you can have anything you wish in your home. In reality that doesn't happen due, partly to people's budgets, but more appropriately because of the complexities of installing what they want. Eg a customer may want a bath and separate shower cubicle in their bathroom, but in reality the bathroom is far too small, and people don't take account of shower door openings, access to waste etc.

Thanks for elaborating.

To be honest, I have a good idea of what I want but the following things I am unsure of (in terms of expense and whether it's practical):

- Moving soil stack (presumably closer to the drain, instead of further away)

- Venting boiler through chimney (I assume this is possible - I know it's not a kitchen/bathroom job but it is in my kitchen plan)

- Creating new drain for kitchen sink (further away than present drain)

Thanks!

Rockingit

Everything in your list is things for builders / gas engineer - not kitchen fitter!

MX5huggy

I doubt you could put a domestic boiler flue up a chimney, it would be too long and you must be able to visually inspect the whole length of the flue.

Items 1 and 3 are best avoided.

evokit

are you needing to move the soil stack?
im in the process of moving a bathroom to the other side of the house.
my builder has just got extra soil stack pipe and will connect it to the old one, costing next to nothing.
venting a boiler up an old chimney is a no no - your not even allowed to duct extractors up them.
How far away are you moving the sink away from the old drain?
if its over a 2/3mthr you may need a new drain, if not can just pipe it on the outside.
If you do need a new drain, its mainly the labour cost to dig up and connect the new to old.
Ive just had to re do the water mains to our renovation project and paid around £225 for pipes and digging a 2ft7 trench about 8 mtrs including materials and digger hire

scousedave

Go to.howdens or similar who offer a free desinn service and the you know whst you need.
I fit kitchens and bathrooms and althouhh I like customer purchasing the goods as it keeps me below the vat threshold I often have to run around to go and get parts they had not purchased.

[Deleted User]

evokit wrote: »

are you needing to move the soil stack?
im in the process of moving a bathroom to the other side of the house.
my builder has just got extra soil stack pipe and will connect it to the old one, costing next to nothing.
venting a boiler up an old chimney is a no no - your not even allowed to duct extractors up them.
How far away are you moving the sink away from the old drain?
if its over a 2/3mthr you may need a new drain, if not can just pipe it on the outside.
If you do need a new drain, its mainly the labour cost to dig up and connect the new to old.
Ive just had to re do the water mains to our renovation project and paid around £225 for pipes and digging a 2ft7 trench about 8 mtrs including materials and digger hire

So does a boiler need to be on an external wall then? Or can it be put anywhere and be piped out to an external wall?

The current layout was originally kitchen/bathroom/lounge but I want to put the bathroom where the kitchen was, make the old, small bathroom a utility room, and put the kitchen in the 3rd lounge (don't need 3 lounges!).

So the new bathroom and utility room has drainage, but the new kitchen does not. The utility room will be next to the kitchen, so I'm hoping drainage won't really be a problem.

But it's probably about 3 or 4 meters away from the old sink drain.

evokit

If you can get the boiler on an external wall do it or you will end up paying just as much for the flue as you did the boiler.
I've always put my combi's in the loft on the gable end.
this time as I'm converting the loft its going to the outhouse.
Even if they need to do you a new drain connection for the kitchen, on the scale of the job your doing it shouldn't be much to do so