Material cost for a new bathroom

sam1970

No I did not. The builder has an account with the warehouse and he gave me itemised invoices made by him..not the warehouse invoices

Risteard

Anything needed for a job is absolutely the customer's expense. It's called profitable business. And telling you that you're talking nonsense when you plainly are is not bad language. Barber's and taxis aren't charging you for labour only but for a haircut or fare so again that was a nonsensical point.

Dan-Dan

sam1970 wrote: »

We have just completed converting a normal room into a bathroom (no bath-just shower). My agreement with the builder was to pay him for labour and material excluding the tiles and the bathroom suite.
The work is now complete and the builder has dropped an invoice for £1500 for material alone (different pipes, adhesive, grout, silicone..etc). I have not got clue about these things but it seems to be excessive to me. His argument is that this was not a bathroom originally and he had to put every thing from scratch. I noted that he even charged me for new drill bits for his equipment.

What do you think? Is it reasonable to spend £1500 on material alone?

is the £1500 inc VAT ?
Just out of interest, what was the labour charge ?

Toby09

What does the materials include?

busybee100

I would find out how much he intends to charge for labour before anything else then assess if the total comes in at a reasonable price as this could go either way.

We've just had a new bathroom with all new pipes, drains, electrics etc. and materials added up very quickly.

If his labour charge is low it might be best to keep him onside.

sam1970

Thank you guys. The labour charge was £3600 in total. The material was £1500 inc. VAT and it included large amount of various size pipes, drains, electrics, adhesive, grout, silicone, drill bits etc

Suicidemachine

How long did it take and how many men including himself?

sam1970

two men for 3 weeks

Suicidemachine

Doesnt sound too bad to me but thats just my personal opinion. Just had a quote for an ensuite myself which means eveytthing you have had new pipework/plaster/stud walls/tiling/shower sink etc etc etc for £4.5k and that is 1 person taking 8 working days.

cybervic

Risteard wrote: »

Anything needed for a job is absolutely the customer's expense. It's called profitable business. And telling you that you're talking nonsense when you plainly are is not bad language. Barber's and taxis aren't charging you for labour only but for a haircut or fare so again that was a nonsensical point.

I don't think OP is talking nonsense. Yes customers pay for everything needed for the job but in most practice the cost of tools should be included in the labour cost or better still included in the overall quotes. Drill bits maybe consumables but it's still part of tools. Often customers want to buy materials themselves, they may buy plasters, tiles, bathroom suits, socket plates, but they won't buy drill bits for tradespeople. However, if the cost of drill is only minimum say £20/£30 then I'll suck it up if the job was done well.

OP if you aren't sure about material cost, just do spot check on some items and see if it sounds about right, for example, did he buy 30 meter copper pipe when you only needed 5m? Did he buy adhesive that covers 100m2 area when you only have 20m2? did he buy the most expansive drill bits costing £50+ per set....etc. You can use Toolsation or screwfix website to check price and specs for item.