Need advice on 'extras' we're being charged for fitting a bathroom

Doozergirl

As long as that RSJ blocks all possible routes to outside from all possible waste positions on the tray, then okay.

Presumably these people are also charging VAT where the other two perhaps weren't?

curiosity101

Doozergirl - I just want to extend a big thank you for the time and thought you've been spending on my thread today. It's appreciated.

Also yes all of the prices I listed were including VAT - one of the reasons we didn't go with the £5100 one was cause it seemed too much lower than the other two (we specifically asked them if it included VAT)

Now we're home we've had a look and measured up. We can't see any reason why either the joist or the steel is in the way. It's close (the edge of the waste would be around an inch away from the edge of the joist) but we've allowed for tile adhesive + tile thickness whilst looking at it. We're going to have to get a floorboard up to confirm for sure though cause we were eyeballing it through a gap.

Also we got the price for some of the extras through:
£350 - Dot and dab the walls ready for tiling (10m2, he's done the whole room but it's only 10m2 more than he was already planning to do on the original quote)
£60 - Build up the floor with 9mm ply
£80 - The additional pipework required for plumbing in the suite
£65 - A new door frame
So £550 + VAT (so £660)

Doozergirl

Not a chance at £350 to dot and dab! It's half a day's work (as you can vouch for if it's already done) What have they put on the wall? Plasterboard or concrete Hardiebacker?

What was the wall currently made of?

The floor and the door frame, hmm, okay if that includes labour. Presumably they are putting Hardiebacker over the ply once that's done?

The pipework is very clearly included in their quote as it says to your spec and there are no caveats.

Post a pic of the joist situation when you get the floorboard up. I know it's not a big room but we want to see where the tray goes and the path to where the waste leaves the house.

Ruski

Blimey - I've just charged £2.5k to do almost exactly the same job.

I must put up my prices, but then again I'm too damned honest!

Russ

curiosity101

It's plasterboard on the walls.

The original walls are a mixture of brick and breeze block, then plaster, then some sort of green paint which I guess was meant as a basis for all future decoration. Cause the entire house has this green paint once you start stripping back the wallpaper.

I was comfortable paying for the door frame as an extra, seems a bit steep though for literally 3 bits of roughly 20mm x 119mm wood.

There was no mention of Hardiebacker so I'm not sure.

I struggled to get a picture of the joists cause we couldn't fully lift the floorboard but they were right and the waste overlaps by 1-2cm. However that makes me think that there must be a shower tray that has the waste in the 34cm gap between the joists. So I'm going to take a look online. I'd rather have wasted the money on the tray as opposed to have one on legs.

curiosity101

We've just paid them the next installment btw - we paid £500 deposit to secure, then have just paid just over £5k then when completed it's £1k + extras.

Any advice on how we should handle this?

southcoastrgi

Sounds expensive to me, I wouldn't be buying shower trays or cubicals from a builders merchant either tbh

Doozergirl

Why would you pay someone £5,500 for two days work, so far?

The materials they have to buy costs a fraction of the price of the job. . There's just no need!

Who are these people?

curiosity101

Those were the terms we agreed to originally. Deposit to secure installation date, then most of the cost of installation on commencement, then £1000 on completion.

I can drop you a PM if you're particularly interested? They really do have great reviews so it doesn't really add up. It feels to me like they're very capable of the job and I have no worries they'll complete the work to a high standard. But they've just made a bunch of assumptions and decided that it wont be a problem if there assumptions are wrong cause rather than do a bit more investigation it's easier to just charge us.

Doozergirl

Yes, PM me, please.