Bathroom refit quotes made my eyes water!

SuzieSue

Yes, bathroom quotes are 2 to 3 times what you expect them to be.

Check out the payment terms. My friend wanted for a high spec bathroom in Sussex and all the larger bathroom fitters wanted up to 90% upfront. It was normally 50% on placing the order (she wanted them to supply everything) and then another 30-40% on delivery and the balance on completion.

She was shocked as she had only expected to pay a small deposit on order, but she had no choice but to pay most of it up front as they all had the same payment terms.

PlutoinCapricorn

A lot does depend on how much needs to be done, but the work may well take 4-5 weeks from start to completion. Mine certainly did.

My costs were high partly because I got very new, high quality models of hot water tank and shower-bath.

bpk101

Thanks all for the input so far... so i guess the costs we're getting for the spec and work involved (yes, pretty much back to brick, joists and rafters) isn't that far off the mark after all :eek:

Fitters have suggested 3-4 weeks work involved based on 2 men working.

There's no way we can entertain slowly doing the bathroom up with different trades, we've had 8 months of renovating the house so far as it is and it's a painfully slow process with all the research, finding and selecting tradesmen etc for every little job that needs doing (and getting them all in the right order!) I think we just want a fitting team in for 3-4 weeks and it's done.

All the quotes we had in were fully itemised, and payment terms look to be about 30% up front.

Oh... apart from 1 quote we got for £4.5k, this came via text... 'hi - thanks, i can do your bathroom for £4.5k, cheers'

So professional!!

PlutoinCapricorn

Another point that helped me to come to terms with horrifically high costs was that my bathroom had not been touched since the block was built - in 1966. The quality was very good, and the fittings had lasted very well. This made me decide to go for very good quality items.

I read that it is quite common for people to upgrade their bathrooms every 10 years or so. With luck, what I now have will last for decades. It helps to justify the costs when I think that I would have paid the same amount anyway if I had upgraded a few times with cheaper stuff.

I hope all this makes sense.

martinsurrey

If its a 3 week job for 2 people that's 30 man days, £8k inc vat is £6.6k excl VAT, which is £222 per man day, which for London isn't far out, especially since you want a top spec finish, so jack the lad fitters wont be up to it.

bpk101

So my first fitter won't budge from his £9.5k inc VAT quote saying he thinks it's a reasonable price for the extent of work involved, taking 2 men 3-4 weeks. However he only offers a 6month guarantee on the works.

My second fitter has come down to £7.2k (VAT free) but only if we pay the majority in cash(!) Again he thinks 2 men for 3-4 weeks. He's offering a couple of years guarantee on the wet room.

Both came recommended from a high end bathroom shop, and both certainly seem to know their stuff with regards to wet room installation. The only thing I should say is the bathroom shop had a preference for fitter 1, suggesting customers feedback on fitter 2 was they came across a bit like 'blaggers' (which with respect to thei paid in cash offer I can sort of appreciate).

Thoughts?

ryder72

So you pay cash for a wetroom fitting job. You get problems and there is no evidence that they even did the job.

Dont mess around with wet rooms as they can go horribly wrong if not properly done and you want to know that there is some fallback is it does go wrong.

Unfortunately there is always a lot more work involved with bathroom fitting than you most people realise and that is reflected in the cost.