Do I have enough to make my improvements?

nerak_y

I have acquired some money that I want to use to do some home improvements, long over due! I love my wee flat but it has that unfinished feel as we have always had to make do with my own decorating and quick fixes.

So, I have £4000 and I would love to be able to get some nice flooring laid and also redo the bathroom. The bath is an old one and the surface has little chips and is discoloured. The whole suite is dated so I really fancy something contemporary that will last the next 14-15 years when I will be mortgage free!

The rooms to be floored would be two bedrooms,(3m x 4m & 4m x 5m) living room (5m x 4m) and hallway (1m x 5m) as kitchen has already been done with left overs that should cover the bathroom too.

Does this sound doable? I have no idea who much tradesman cost so I guess I will have to get a few quotes in soon too.

Any help appreciated, it's actually quite scary having money to do something for once so I want to get it right!

Thanks Nerak_y

trailingspouse

£4000 is a nice amount, but not a huge amount.

If you're wanting to do all of this on £4000 you will have to cost out everything carefully, and get at least 3 quotes for each trade that you are planning to use. I would suggest you do as much of it yourself as you can, that way you can spend more on the fittings, flooring etc.

Just to put it into perspective, we will be tackling our main bathroom soon (room 8 of a 10 room renovation). Granted, it's a big room (it's actually the same size as the kitchen), but I'm budgeting at least £4000 for that room alone. We do our own demolition, and our own painting and tiling, but we will need to pay a plasterer (two days), an electrician (we want a heated towel rail and a shaver socket putting in - half a day), and a plumber (as long as it takes). We'll need to buy paint, tiles, and grout, and hire a skip for all the old stuff. And THEN we can begin to look at how much the new loo, basin, bath and shower are going to cost. And after all that, there's the 'little' things - light fittings, window treatment, mirror, bath mat, etc etc etc. And I've promised myself some new towels when it's all done.

I think bathrooms particularly are a case of - how much do you want to spend? You can get some really nice ones at a very reasonable price, or you can spend a small fortune. You just have to decide how much you can afford and work accordingly.

cattie

Labour usually is the largest part of the cost. £4k wouldn't go very far where I live, which is on borders of London. It would just about get the bathroom done by shopping very carefully, but doubt there would be much left over towards flooring.

Getting quotes for labour is the best way to go & the cheapest option is usually to source as much as you can yourself, bathroom suite, taps,tiles, flooring etc. & then just pay tradesmen for the fitting & any bits & pieces they need to buy such as copper pipes, grout etc. to get the job done. You can save a lot of money this way.

stebiz

Can you do anything yourself? Might be an idea to buy your own laminate and then advertise on gumtree or contact joiners to see what tradesman will lay at say £6 a square meter. That is what I did with mine. Check that one room is done to your satisfaction and then let them continue.

As per bathroom get them to replace suite which you supply yourself then if money left you can do the rest.

nerak_y

Thanks for the replies. Yes the plan is to source my own materials as much as I can. I am in Scotland so I expect tradesmen are a bit cheaper than those down South..I hope anyway!

Of course if money wasn't an issue I would get the best I could, but I will most likely keep it as low as I can. I have found flooring I like in B&Q and they are doing 4 for 3 just now which brings the cost down and I will get my father along on over 60's day for additional discount!

Regarding bathrooms suites I have been looking at a website called betterbathrooms.com. Certainly makes it more affordable but not sure if the quality would be bad. Anyone used them before?

I will do the wall stripping and papering, everything else I would be a bit worried about attempting and the resulting finish!

Nerak-y

the_matrix

If you can keep the labour costs down £4k is a lot of money.

ToeDipper

We've bought our loo and sink from better bathrooms. Not installed yet but the quality seems absolutely fine. We actually live near a showroom and had a good nosey before buying. The one thing I would mention is that the loo seat seems a non-standard shape with unusual hinges - not sure how easy it will be to find a replacement. If this would bother you it might be an idea to give them a call before purchasing to check whether this is an issue with whatever product you like the look of.

We used plumbworld (another online retailer) for our bath and have been very pleased with the service. My parents bought the family bath and shower from them, we're happy with the goods and service at the time, and have no complaints several years on.

Our costs will be around £1500 plus labour (quotes for fitting and tiling are on the to-do list!).

carlamarie_2

We did our bathroom 18months ago. It cost us £1700 this included bath, sink, taps, bath panel, tiles, plumber, plasterer, paint, wall mounted mirrored cabinet, 2x stand up cabinets (for toiletries and kids bath toys) and vinyl flooring.
We was lucky with the flooring to find an off cut big enough, this brought the price down.

We did get three qoutes of builders to do all the work and these came in at £3000 for just labour. So I suggest trying single people to do single jobs rather than one company to do all.

Our bathroom set and taps were from Victoria plumb. The bath is extra deep and you can cross your legs when sitting in there. Its lush!

Basically I advise you shop around for both labour and products.

nerak_y

Thanks for the replies :-)

I got 2 quotes last week, and still waiting on one getting back to me. One guy was younger and came back to me with a very reasonable price of £550 to remove old suite and tiles, install new bathroom suite and tiles/panels and shower. I would still need a plasterer on top of this. The other guy project manages and has a team of tradesmen so things flow without me having to get stressed. Hoping to have his quote tonight as I have chased him up. I liked him and he showed me plenty of pics of his work but I suspect the cost will be massively more than quote 1.

I am thinking better bathrooms for sure, they seem better value than Victoria Plumb although I have seen a few bargains there too. And am now veering more towards wet wall than tiles!

I would be delighted to have it all done within £1700 Carlamarie but not sure how likely that is as yet!

My flooring has been bought with underlay for £230 in B&Q's 4 for 3 deal so just need wood trims and threshold bars. A friends joiner hubby is doing it for £300 for me so I am happy with the floor price!

Nerak_y

andyhop

nerak_y wrote: »

Thanks for the replies :-)

I got 2 quotes last week, and still waiting on one getting back to me. One guy was younger and came back to me with a very reasonable price of £550 to remove old suite and tiles, install new bathroom suite and tiles/panels and shower. I would still need a plasterer on top of this. The other guy project manages and has a team of tradesmen so things flow without me having to get stressed. Hoping to have his quote tonight as I have chased him up. I liked him and he showed me plenty of pics of his work but I suspect the cost will be massively more than quote 1.

I am thinking better bathrooms for sure, they seem better value than Victoria Plumb although I have seen a few bargains there too. And am now veering more towards wet wall than tiles!

I would be delighted to have it all done within £1700 Carlamarie but not sure how likely that is as yet!

My flooring has been bought with underlay for £230 in B&Q's 4 for 3 deal so just need wood trims and threshold bars. A friends joiner hubby is doing it for £300 for me so I am happy with the floor price!

Nerak_y

£550:eek::eek:

I spend more than that on materials on a bathroom fit

nerak_y

Hi Andyhop, I will be supplying suite and wall coverings, or do you mean the other bits and pieces. The worry I have is it is very cheap, and he is young which concerns me a little in terms of his experience. I think I will message him and ask for some pics of his work or references. It's a fine line between doing things on a budget while not dropping in quality.

My other guy is getting my quote back to me tomorrow evening.

Nerak_y