Bathroom Quote

LUHG1878

Hi,

We've been quoted £9k to have our bathroom done, new bath, toilet, sink, and shower, all tiled. Bathroom is 4m x 3m, with 3m high ceiling, and we were told it would take 7-10 days.

The strip out of old kit should take about a day, thereafter it's a straightforward job, new layout will actually make things easier, all of which the fitter admitted voluntarily. The ceiling is being lowered by about 6-9 inches to make easier install for new lighting and wiring for xpelair, but again this isn't a big job.

The price includes everything, but I think that's way too much?

We're not looking for anything fancy, it's a functional family bathroom, and we just want to freshen it up, no fancy fixtures or fittings.

I've asked for a breakdown of material and labour, as I would be happy to purchase the materials myself and pay for labour only.

The biggest job will be the tiling, which will include all walls and floor. Assuming I supply all tiles and grout etc, would it be reasonable to expect a tiler to do this kind of job for £25-30 per sqm?

We had our kitchen floor tiled about 3-years ago, that cost us £25 per sqm, and he did a great job of it, wish i'd kept his number!

I'm thinking along the following lines;

Tilier - £1,350 (£30 x 45sqm)
Electrician - £250 x 1 day
Plumber - £250 x 1 day
Joiner - £250 x 1 day
Fitter - £250 x 4 days (2 for strip out, 2 for fitting)

Labour Total = £3,100

I think i've been generous here, as I can't see the electrician, joiner, or plumber needing more than half a day each. And i've doubled the fitters time to allow for snags.

I've priced up all the materials to approx £3,000, so I think a price in the region of £6,500 is where i'd like to be.

Am I being unrealistic here?

Risteard

LUHG1878 wrote: »

I've asked for a breakdown of material and labour, as I would be happy to purchase the materials myself and pay for labour only.

Purchasing materials yourself is always the wrong thing to do.

glasgowdan

Get another quote or two, tell them your budget is 6500 and what materials you want...i expect it'll be doable.

theEnd

I had mine done last year and it took 23 days! Pretty much two people working everyday (might have had 2 days off the whole project).

There's a lot of work. Cost £7.5k, again nothing flash.

Doozergirl

Get comparisons, but that's a big bathroom!

If you want to round up all your own guys then it *might* cost that in labour, although there's allowance there for plastering damaged walls or fitting cement board to floors/walls.

What is does a 'fitter' do when you have other trades in?

There are some serious materials going on in a job like that if you want a quality job. I don't care if your fittings are simple ones.

Lots of 'not big' jobs make a big job. For a fully tiled room, with a suspended ceiling, a layout change and 45 square metres of tiling I don't think it's that bad.

Have they included tiles and fittings in that? If they have, I'd stretch to say it's cheap.

phill99

As somebody that runs a company specialising in kitchens and bathrooms, I am always amazed that someone who has never fitted a bathroom can tell experienced tradesmen how long a job should take. You have not differentiated between first and second fixes. Also I am not sure what the difference is between a fitter and a plumber? My plumber does all the first fix, a tiler tiles and a plumber does scond fix.

You haven't allowed for fittings, pipe work, over boarding, timber, etc etc.

I think you are being niave and, respectfully, ignorant.

tired_dad

IMHO a full refit for a bathroom like this (high ceiling) could easily hit 9k. Ofcourse it could be done for less however you need to know the standard of work. The best fitters in my area will easily quote that

LUHG1878

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated!

@Risteard - i'm not sure i'd necessarily agree with that. The tradesmen might get a small discount on materials, but will undoubtedly add a margin for their time and effort, which is fair enough. But, if i'm prepared to spend time to shop around online then i'd be confident in getting materials cheaper.

@glasgowdan - I will hold off until he comes back with a breakdown, but yeah I think I will look around for another couple of quotes, as I think its doable at that price too.

@theEnd - I appreciate there's a fair amount of work involved, hopefully not 23 days worth though! And at £7500 it's not too far off where i'd like to be, and if i'm being told 7-10 days, again it makes me think it's doable within my budget.

@Doozergirl - it will be a big bathroom, it's currently a cramped bathroom with bath, shower, sink, and toilet, with a separate w.c beside it. Originally it has been one room but the previous owners have partitioned it at some point. Removing the partition actually makes life easier as it allows us to relocate the shower and bath to an area where services are easier to access, and also a large percentage of tiling is on the partition. The tiles won't need removed by hand, which will save time, as they'll come down with the partition.

The fitter is the person I have been dealing with, he's actually a joiner to trade, and he fits bathrooms and kitchens mainly. He would effectively be the project manager, and the other trades would be supplied via him. He won't touch electrics and plumbing, but he would do the ceiling, fit the new door, bath, shower cubicle etc, as much as he could do basically, which would minimise the time the plumber and electrician need to be involved.

However once he's stripped everything out and put up the ceiling he'll be sitting on his thumbs until the tiler is finished i'd expect.

I appreciate what you're saying, there will undoubtedly be some hidden surprises when the partition comes down, when the bath is removed etc, and a degree of patching will need done before the tiler can get started, but there's enough provision in there for it I think.

Yep, that price included tiles, and the majority of fittings, but I wouldn't say it was cheap. I did my costings after I spoke with him, by which point I was confident in what was involved, and what was being supplied, and I was genuinely surprised by the price.

@phill99 - with all due respect, it was him that told me how long it would take, he said 7-10 days, if anything I have allowed for more time in my labour estimate.

I also stated I had priced for £3000 of materials, if I were to go the labour only route. I had included a provision of £200 for the ceiling materials, which may be too low, but it won't be off by much.

I'm not trying to tell anybody how to do their job, if it came across as such then apologies, it was not my intention to offend anyone. If he comes back and says labour is X and materials are Y, and he says that they are much higher than what I think because of X, Y, and Z, then fair enough, maybe i'm wrong, which is why I posted here, for a bit of guidance from those perhaps a bit more aware of what's involved than me.

@tired dad - maybe I am being unrealistic, and I appreciate good workmanship doesn't come cheap, and maybe another couple of quotes will confirm where the price point is.

Thanks All.

Risteard

LUHG1878 wrote: »

@Risteard - i'm not sure i'd necessarily agree with that. The tradesmen might get a small discount on materials, but will undoubtedly add a margin for their time and effort, which is fair enough. But, if i'm prepared to spend time to shop around online then i'd be confident in getting materials cheaper.

I would suggest that their discount on materials could be much greater than a "small" one. However it is also worth remembering that you will have no warranty on any materials that you supply from the tradesmen. Your warranty will be with whoever supplied them. And therefore you will be liable for all extra labour associated with faulty/inappropriate materials. Inferior materials could also inflate the labour cost to fit them simply because they take longer to fit.

HHarry

As with all these jobs it's really difficult to say. I've just done a 1.8 x 2.2m en-suite, which cost the Customer £11k.

If they're any good their quote has to include for the unknown. You can easily rip the floor up and find a horrendous mess of piework underneath, or a joist running in the way of a waste pipe, or an issue with the ducting for the extractor. You could get a lower quote that assumes the best, and then hits you for a load of extras at the end.

Things like throwing the bath in position don't take that long - it's the fiddly finishing bits that make the difference that always take a suprisingly long time.

The tiler we use charges £35-45 a metre depending on what he's laying. Don't forget that if someone else is organising all those trades then they may include a markup.

I'm not saying that £10k is a fair price, but I can see how you could get there.

LUHG1878

Thanks for the replies guys;

@Risteard - I appreciate what you're saying, and in some cases that's maybe true but, for example, when we went to the tile shop yesterday they said they would give us a 12~15% discount if buying them ourselves, mainly because of the size of the order. That's the same discount they'd give to a trade tiler, and they also let us take some sample tiles away with us, so they were really helpful.

Also, the Mira shower we like is on offer with 10% off at the moment, and comes with a 5-year guarantee.

@HHarry - yeah I appreciate there can always be surprises, but we have great access under our bathroom via the basement, the combi boiler is located in the basement too, so all pipework will be done from underneath comfortably.

The biggest and most time consuming job will be the tiling. I asked the guys at the tile store what the going rate was in our area, and they said they have 3-4 really good tilers that they recommend, if we didn't have anyone, and they all charge £25-30 per sqm. So that gives me confidence that we can get close to our budget.