£6k for a bathroom in London?

unbeareableLightness · 13 May 2015 at 2:43PM

Hi everyone,

I live in London and I'm looking to get my bathroom refurbished. It's a medium-sized bathroom, 2.5m by 1.8m, and I'm just looking for a standard refit of the bath/basin/toilet/radiator, about 15 square meters of tiling, and a bit of extra shelving and changing the lights/fan. I thought this was a fairly simple job and had £4k budget for it. I've had three quotes so far and to my surprise they start at £6k (for units and labour), as follows:

Wickes: £6k
Homebase: £6.5k
Independent builder in my area: £5k just for labour/materials/VAT so with units it will be £6.5 - 7k.

I know it's London but this still seems really high to me. Should I keep trying to find someone who will do the labour for about £3k or just accept one of these quotes?

Any help appreciated!

martinsurrey · 13 May 2015 at 4:07PM

Without a lot more details no one can answer if its good or bad.

Top of the range tiles with top of the range suite and they are all a cheap quote.

unbeareableLightness · 14 May 2015 at 11:12AM

I'm definitely not looking for top of the range - I'm going to get mid-range to cheap suite and tiles. Most of the cost though is labour, £5k out of the £6k budget it seems, which will stay the same no matter what products I buy.

Is that fair?

Jaynorth_2 · 14 May 2015 at 12:47PM

Are the walls in good order or will they need re-plastering / bonding? Are you having the entire bathroom tiled or just part of the bathroom? I had my bathroom refurbished recently and got 4 quotes from independent fitters all in the region of £3900 - £4500 for labour and materials, excluding the bathroom suite, and my bathroom dimensions are larger than yours so I think you should get more quotes. I am in outer London.

Annie1960 · 14 May 2015 at 1:47PM

I'm in St Albans, and have just had a virtually identical quotation from Wickes. My bathroom is small, about the same size as yours.

I had expected about £4,500, and am now looking at sourcing supplies through small local plumbers' merchant, with a plumber to do the fitting, and separate tiler. I don't have a price for this route yet.

wymondham · 14 May 2015 at 5:07PM

Are bathrooms more expensive in London?

PlutoinCapricorn · 14 May 2015 at 5:16PM

I paid £17k for a complete refurbishment of a tiny bathroom: a lot of plumbing and electrical work was involved, and I had to pay for parking and rubbish clearance. I did get a new tank and pump, and high-quality fittings though.