Quote lacking details

confused,moi?

Hi All,

Just received a quote for a wall tiling/shower installation job I need to have done. The lack of detail surprised me - e.g. he did not state which shower unit, bath screen, bath mixer taps etc would be supplied. No details of which manufacturer/supplier, no product codes and no prices. He just gave me a total for the whole shebang.

This is my first time I have had to invite a tradesman to do such work and the vagueness of his quote surprised me. I definitely want to have sight of and know the price of the items before he places an order on my behalf. That's not too much to ask, is it?

McKneff

Not normal. Dont sign anything until you are completely satisfied,

I dont know how he can supply a quote under such circumstances to be honest.

Personally, i would have thought you should be telling hime what you want, which taps, shower screen, tiles, the whole shebang....

List all this and write down exactly what you want doing,

Really, only then can he give you an accurate quote......

If this is your first time at this, get 3 seperate quotes from reputable tradesmen.
And also remember

A quote is a fixed price, no messing about with it. The word Fixed tells it all.

An estimate is a roundabout price, they can charge you a completey different price at the end of it all.

Good luck, please come back on here for any help and like I say, sign nothing.....for now

McKneff

Other than that, buy all your materails personally and ask for a quote, again from 3 tradesmen.

Any

I always choose everything in the bathroom myself, and the tradesman installs it. Sometimes they can get it cheaper than me, but my last one said he would prefer me sourcing it and he'll come and do the job.
I mean, that's what they do in design places too... you choose colours, designs, baths etc and they put pictures together and send tradesmen to do the work..

Never heard of anyone getting a bathroom done on basis "here,pls just build me a new bathroom. Any bathroom."

Have you seen/know of any other jobs he's done?

rach_k

Did you ask for the detail? You say it's not too much to ask but if you haven't asked that means nothing.

The plumber we use does quotes pretty much like that, but then that may be because when we had the bathroom done we said, 'white loo/bath/sink please, whatever will fit best (tiny room), large white tiles, with the taps similar to what's there now.' If you haven't given much input, he may think you don't mind and will just get something standard, like we did. If you have preferences, you need to tell him. There are zillions of options so getting him to suggest items, then you say no you don't like it so he suggests something else and so on is a waste of everybody's time. Tell him what you want and see what he can do.

For the record, our plumber is excellent!

confused,moi?

Hi McKneff,

Yes, he was the first guy to give me a quote and I have had two other guys come this week so am just awaiting their quotes....From my own experience and from listening to others, there are tilers/plumbers who prefer to supply the shower/bathscreen/ taps etc from their favoured supplier only and promptly diss the likes of Victoria Plumb and similar companies and then there are others who prefer the client to do the purchasing and are happy to recommend the likes of Victoria Plumb etc. You can see the relevance of my username???

When the first guy came, he stated he could provide the shower, bath mixer taps and bathscreen and bath panel giving me a ballpark figure for each item (which compared favourably with Victoria Plumb and other company brochures) so I was expecting exact details in the actual quote not just one line of "labour for job and material supplied. Total of £950.

phill99

As somebody that installs bathrooms and kitchens, this is how we work:


If you want to buy stuff off of the internet, that's fine. But we wont fit it. Most of it is poor quality, over advertised and over priced. Plus if there are problems with it, it takes a number of days to get replacements, which holds the job up. If the job is held up because of a clients purchasing choice, I will charge them for delays.


I give my customers catalogues from national distributors that work through local independent plumbers merchants. They have 24 delivery so that if there are problems, we only have a 24 hour delay. I put into my quote a PC sum for basin, loo, bath etc., plus £x per sq m for tiles. This then gives them a total cost for the complete installation which helps them with budgeting. If they want more expensive fittings, they can add some more money, but if they want to spend less, they can opt for cheaper fittings. Seems to work for me and am now booked into March for bathroom installs.

southcoastrgi

I have no problems with giving customers the make & model of materials but I'm not giving you individual prices so you can then either think I'm making too much profit or you wanna try & buy it cheaper, the price at the bottom is all you should be considering & comparing with other quotes