Is £300 ok for 4 sqm tiling with materials (in London)?

mark7144

I've been quoted £300 to tile 4 sqm of wall (around shower tray).

I'm providing the tiles but nothing else. The area to be tiled is currently just plasterboard. The tiles are fairly large around 300x600.

This quote seems quite high to me? I have no idea about cost of materials here which means I don't know the labour cost.

Doozergirl

I think that's pretty high, but it's not outrageous. It is London.

jk0

I suggest you view some videos on Youtube and do it yourself. You might want to replace the plasterboard with cement board, and then tile over the join. (Use noggins below to support the join.)

PasturesNew

He's probably charging you a "whole day rate" as he might have to put off other jobs that would've been the whole day (or half day, as relevant).

"Bitty jobs" get priced like that, it's best to accumulate a big list of stuff.... then get somebody in to do everything, else you're paying for his down-time or missed opportunity of taking another booking.

mark7144 wrote: »

...£40/hr ....

I wanna be a tiler!!!!

Why do all "the blokey jobs" pay so well?

I've thought about this in the past and ... I'd actually just want to be "a pointer"... with tiling you have to lug heavy stuff about ... not into heavy stuff.

mark7144

Any idea what materials would roughly cost for this type of job?

I have no idea so don't know what he's charging me for labour.

mark7144

PasturesNew wrote: »

I wanna be a tiler!!!!

Oops, meant £40/sqm. I'm assuming his labour wouldn't be more than that but I don't know.

jk0 wrote: »

You might want to replace the plasterboard with cement board

I meant to actually say cement board. It was recently replaced due to leak.

Doozergirl wrote: »

I think that's pretty high, but it's not outrageous. It is London.

What would be more reasonable for this job?

Doozergirl

I wouldn't expect to pay much less than £250. And that's with a guy we use all the time!

A per metre price on a small job isn't fair because you'll end up with cuts on every single metre so the labour is more. My kitchen splashbacks are no more than 4 square metres, but with very small metro tiles, window reveals, corners, plug sockets etc. it was nearly a three day job!

Yours is a day rate, easily. There's about 20 cuts in yours, even.

mark7144

Thanks, that's really helpful

jk0

mark7144 wrote: »

Any idea what materials would roughly cost for this type of job?

Oh, well he'll likely buy the cheapest tile adhesive he can find...


https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Ceramic-Tile-Adhesive-Grey-12-5kg/p/230633


and the cheapest grout:


https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bostik-Smooth-Finish-Grout-J100-3-5kg-White/p/171199


So £14.25 in all.


Edit: (If he's a cheapskate like me, he'll remove the spacers to use on the next job, so no cost at all for them. )