new bathroom quote

becs

Help,

I'm at the end of my tether with plumbing quotes at the mo. We live near Peterborough and have rung over 25 plumbers for quotes to install new bathroom. Of which about 12 have bothered to come and 6 then bothered to send us written quotes. The problem is cheapest quote is £3500!
We want a new bath installing in same location but with wall mounted valve, sink and wc installing but places swapped over and a new recess shower installed with 4 bodyjets in an old airing cupboard. We need the old soil stack removing as it is internal and we are having a new external one put up to free up space. This is not part of the job. We have already moved the hot water tank out of the cupboard. We will remove the old suite,tiles and flooring. We will tile and lay the flooring ourselves in the new bathroom. There is at tops 2 weeks work. I had a very similar bathroom done just over a year ago near Huntingdon and paid £1000 labour charge and it took a week. Unfortunately the plumber there doesn't come up as far as us. I am just staggered at these quotes, am I being unreasonable here? Seems like we're doing alot of the work,dread to think what it would be if we weren't!

ormus

i would offer your old plumber an extra 500 quid for travel expenses!

becs

Thanks,

Have tried but he's Cambridge based and it's a terrible journey from Cambridge to Peterborough and just too far so not interested unfortunately. I'm not against paying a plumber a reasonable rate but based on these quotes the plumbers round here are making at least £70k a year! Wonder if the taxman knows that this is such a wealthy area!

BobProperty

becs wrote: »

I'm at the end of my tether with plumbing quotes at the mo. We live near Peterborough and have rung over 25 plumbers for quotes to install new bathroom. Of which about 12 have bothered to come and 6 then bothered to send us written quotes. The problem is cheapest quote is £3500!

One has to wonder whether they are all talking about you in a plumber's merchant somewhere in Peterborough. "Have you been asked to quote for that bathroom where....?"

becs wrote: »

..... We will remove the old suite,tiles and flooring. We will tile and lay the flooring ourselves in the new bathroom......

:eek: :eek: :eek: customer doing work alert! customer doing work alert! :eek::eek::eek:
You will be able to do all this to fit in with the plumber's schedule, I take it? You will be paying him even if you are late doing your work and he can't start when agreed? (please look closely at my avatar, the tongue is firmly in the cheek )
You also realise that any guarantee you can expect to get will be very limited.

becs wrote: »

There is at tops 2 weeks work.

I've never been involved with a bathroom re-fit where the customer has done some of the work that hasn't taken more than 2 weeks elapsed time.

becs wrote: »

I had a very similar bathroom done just over a year ago near Huntingdon and paid £1000 labour charge and it took a week. Unfortunately the plumber there doesn't come up as far as us. I am just staggered at these quotes, am I being unreasonable here? Seems like we're doing alot of the work,dread to think what it would be if we weren't!

OK it sounds a bit on the high side, but I don't know what the local market is like, nor what your bathroom looks like. If you've had 6 quotes, I can't see it getting much cheaper.
Finally, please don't extrapolate one quote into an annual income, leave that to sloppy tabloid journalists. I have to pay for insurances, tools, a van, stock, accountant etc. before I even spend time quoting for jobs that 24 other people have been asked to quote for.