Bathroom refit quotes made my eyes water!

bpk101

Hi -

Currently hoping to rip out and refit the first floor bathroom in our 2 bed victorian terrace in East London. I’m getting some horrendously expensive looking quotes in from a variety of fitters approached… around £8k–£9k for fitting alone(!) This is pretty much across the board with 4 or 5 different fitters we've approached so far.

The bathroom is fairly small at approx 2.5m square but we do want to fit a lot in and we’re after a fairly high level of finish:

Full wet rom with frameless walk in shower enclosure (2 x glass screens channeled into wall and floor)
Under Floor Heating
New bath
Double countertop basins
New wall mounted toilet and concealed cistern
Wall mounted taps/controls throughout (meaning all basin, bath and shower pipework in walls)
Approx 60% tiled incl. floor, splashbacks, front of bath, cistern boxing and shower enclosure
New spot lights
Plastering and decorating

It’s an old Victorian terrace with all the usual issues so might need a fair amount of prep work doing, but is this really the going rate in London for a semi-decent spec install?

System

Everything in there is expensive - it's the spec and level of finish that is keeping the costs high, the only way to reduce costs is to lessen the spec (or install it yourself if you can get a decent finish!)

PlutoinCapricorn

I nearly died of shock myself, and it gave me some sleepless nights!

Quality fittings cost a lot, as do highly-qualified plumbers and electricians.

London is very expensive too.

andyhop

Compared to what we charge for a proper strip and refit I'd suggest getting more quotes . For what your asking it should be 10-12 days for 2 men , approx £1000-£1300 in building materials (for top spec items bought on durability and not cost) then your bathroom fittings and tiles on top. Average costs would be 8-10k all in for a higher end product

bpk101

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

I nearly died of shock myself, and it gave me some sleepless nights!

Did you go through with the expensive install in the end though and are you happy you stuck with your original spec?

It's a mid term home for us (5 years or so), do you think we'd see a return on a £15–20k bathroom makeover in London? Again it's a mere 2-bed terrace.

I just don't know wether to run with the full spec or reign it in. I'd hate to see us lose money...

PlutoinCapricorn

Who will manage the project? Are parking and rubbish disposal costs included? Is your wiring and pipework reasonably modern or will it all need to be replaced?

Sometimes only one man can get in at a time, which means a much longer timescale.

PlutoinCapricorn

I did get the price down a bit, but it slowly crept up until it reached the original level. I took into account the area I live in and the value of my flat, also something I read about the value of the property being increased by three times the amount you spend on the bathroom and decided to go ahead.

PlutoinCapricorn

I am very happy with my lovely new bathroom. The amount I spent does reflect the area and the property value. I had to get someone to arrange everything as I couldn't manage the project myself, which cost me extra.

phill99

The reason the quotes are so high is that there is an awful lot of work. And it is highly skilled work - not just the run of the mill plumbers. And with respect to andyhop it's probably 3 weeks or more.

andyhop

phill99 wrote: »

The reason the quotes are so high is that there is an awful lot of work. And it is highly skilled work - not just the run of the mill plumbers. And with respect to andyhop it's probably 3 weeks or more.

And with the greatest respect to Phil99,we do this daily and have done for over 10yrs ,usually 3-4 flights up with limited parking in the centre of Edinburgh . Its rare that we take more than 10 days on a 30sqm wall space bathroom .

That's walls back to brick, floor back to joists, ceiling back to rafters. Everything within the room from the point of entry is new and replaced in full

I'd never say buy on price alone, quality costs . At this price point most of your installers will also be VAT registered adding to costs

Sunshine62

I had a bathroom quote in 2002, from a local bathroom company (London suburbs) they had to remove the bathroom/toilet wall, removing old tiles back to the bricks, replaster, tile, etc. Back then for "crashing out" a standard bathroom suite, plastering and tiling, within a week.....they quoted £7K ! and the next quote was £6K! In the end we did it in stages using different tradesmen and we also had new windows fitted, all came in at under £3K.


So, all I can say is 13 years later, your hi-spec quote sounds more than reasonable against mine back then which was pretty standard. I think bathroom companies never give you best price on hardware, then they often sub-contract which puts the price up.