En suite bathroom help please

mae

We want a new en suite bathroom so we went looking today. One of the places we went quoted us £7500 fitted including tiling and concealing all pipes behind walls :eek: I don't know how I kept my face straight. It is a tiny tiny ensuite we want a toilet (obviously) a sink on a free standing dark wood unit and a shower unit for the corner.
Does anybody know of any recommended sites on the internet?
Also what is the average cost of fitting does anyone know please?

Looks like it will be cheapest for us to buy the items ourselves then get some to do the fitting? We went to other places to but we didn't get to the quote stage as the sales staff were very unhelpful and basically useless.
Any help appreciated.

RedOnRed

We were recently quoted £3500 to replace our electric shower with a power shower along with the enclosure, tray, new toilet and retiling. The tiling doesn't include supplying them.

Admittedly the quote is for top of the range stuff. For instance, the shower is a digital one which would mean that we would have a remote shower control fitted in our bedroom. Apparently that would mean us avoiding getting a wet arm by not having to stretch into the shower and switching it on...lol.

Depending on exactly how much you're having done you could be getting a "fair price" in plumbing terms anyway.

HugoSP

£7500 seems a bit steep but I suspect you are paying the retailers management fee. They will cream off the top and subcontract the rest.

Your suggested approach sounds reasonable but find a reputable fitter and discuss it with him or her first.

Where abouts are you? If you're near me I could quote for you.

mae

We are near Manchester.

The quote did not include the shower just the shower cubicle.

Thanks for your replies.

poppyroberta

Hi there

We went through or should I say going through the same thing.

Having en-suite and main bathroom done. We went to a bathroom company local to us via recommendations. They stock Villeroy & Boch etc so top of the range.

They quoted us £12,000 for fitting the en-suite with shower, sink, radiator and WC. Cost included ripping out old suite and taking off tiles etc and fitting in all new items as well as tiling. Cost did not include the tiles which we would have to purchase.

We were looking at 25K for both bathrooms not including cost of tiles. Well, way out of our price range!!

After several months managed to get a plumber via recommendations who is a god-send and if you can find a good plumber tiler etc then it makes the job a lot easier. He has been able to advise on fittings and sizes of what I need. I still want quality fittings etc and am even meeting up with him at bathroom places tomorrow so he can help me pick what I need. Saw the shower I wanted and was quoted appox £2,300 to £2,500 for the walk in large Matki shower we wanted for the en-suite. He has been able to get it for £1,800 so saved some money there.

He is able to get discounts on the items so I just need to tell him what I want plus he has a great tiler, electrician so he will be doing both the bathrooms. We are looking at a cost of £2,700 for the en-suite for ripping out old suite etc and fitting in new shower, 2 new sinks and WC. Quote also includes tiling and electrics for spotlights etc.

We have also bought the tiles ourselves. We went to Porcelanosa and loved the tiles there but were looking at approx £60 sq mtr so for our en-suite this was going to come in at approx £3,000 just for tiles. After many trips we have found a tile warehouse in Birmingham and ended up paying £750 for all the tiles for both bathroom and en-suite and they are gorgeaus porcelain tiles. It has been a bit of a nightmare to have to get everything myself but the difference in costs is amazing and I know we will hopefully save loads.

All depends if you are willing to take the time out to source what you want etc. I think the first thing is to get a good plumber as they can often get items cheaper as in my case and also recommend places to go etc. I think half the battle is finding the right person.

Hope that helps in some way. It is hard work doing it all yourself (well in my case it is and my other half is useless so leaves it all to me and I mean that literally). I must have measured the bathroom 100 times!!!!!:rotfl:

I use the following site for my inspiration of how I want my bathroom to look without the cost so have purchased and sourced items based on the look I want and hope that I will achieve it without the huge price tag.

Take a peek and good luck.

http://www.design-republic.net/bathroom_lavenham_his.htm

mae

Oh how lovely are the bathrooms in that link. I am going to do what you did thanks for the advice. I will hunt down a good plumber first and keep gathering ideas from the net in the mean time.
Thanks again

Dukie_Boy

HI MAE
HAVE A LOOK AT THIS SITE https://www.trueshopping.co.uk
i'm in the middle of doing my daughters bathroom .I made some detailed
equires about one of their enclosures .didn't go for it thou due to our drainage problems it would of meant pipes under the floor The corner we wanted it in was about 2m away from the existing drain

good luck
Dukie Boy

aeolus0-2

Whatever you do do NOT use 4bathrooms or their sister company Trading Post I used them to my cost. They will not reply to e-mails or phone calls and if they do their promises are rubbish.
BE WARNED.:mad:

plumb1_2

mae wrote: »

Oh how lovely are the bathrooms in that link. I am going to do what you did thanks for the advice. I will hunt down a good plumber first and keep gathering ideas from the net in the mean time.
Thanks again

Get 3 quotes, and ask friends etc for recomendations of plumbers.
If you get stuck i know a plumber in Sale Manchester.

RedOnRed

My experience is that you don't just want a plumber to refurbish your bathroom when you've got plastering, electrics, tiling and carpentry all involved too. That's unless the plumber is very multi skilled or able to co-ordinate other tradesmen.

I know the £3500 I was quoted to refurb my en suite seems a lot but the same firm did do a superb job on my mother in laws and the fact is we only had it done 6 years ago on the cheap and they did a shoddy job.

End of the day, i'd rather pay extra for what I know is going to be a first rate job rather then a lot less and end up having to have it done again in a few years time.

finnis

You will save a fortune if you source the products yourself and then get tradesmen in to fit it all.

Recently did our family bathroom and costs broke down as follows:

Tiles - 13 square metres - £400
Tiler - £300 - well worth it as the finish is excellent
Power shower - Mira Excel thermostatic - £300 Plumbworld (online)
WC - Ideal Standard push button - £200 Plumbworld
Flooring (Rhino Lino) About £300 fitted (6 square metres) available in any flooring shop
Taps - sink and bath filler - Bristan Sigma - £160 online supplier
Heated Towel Rail - £250 - Victoria Plumb (online) Free valves came with it as part of special offer.
Plumber £60 for towel rail

Sundries: plumbing hoses, shower rail and curtain etc £150-ish

I did save a bit of money as I plumbed in the shower, WC and taps myself, and already had a shower pump I could "T" into. Also kept the old bath and sink. I reckon the pump would have cost around £200, new bath and sink around £500 tops. If I hadn't done my own plumbing of taps and shower, I reckon on another £200.

All in all I spent just over £2,000 but if I had had to get everything new and not done any of the work myself I would have spent around £3,000.

Admittedly I didn't get a shower cubicle, but these are available online at very reasonable prices now. I did loads of research and after a while you realise that you can get the same product (like shower cubicles) supplied by different people at different prices but they are just called different names.

Trouble is I've now got to sort out my en-suite as it looks rubbish by comparison!