Bathroom remodel

Toyo_86

Hi,

just moved into my house and the bathrooms need a definite upgrade. I got a quote from Victoria Plum for the ensuite which is quite small with just a shower, for £6000, which seems quite expensive. Any suggestions?

Thanks

AdrianC

Presumably "just a shower" actually means shower valve, tray, cubicle, sink, wc, plumbing, tiling, flooring, paint...?

Price all the various materials up, then see how much they're charging for labour. Bet it won't be cheap, and they're relying on the "one-stop-shop" angle.

Doozergirl

Victoria Plum, on the whole, is cheap imported non-branded stuff. 

£6,000 is in the right starting park for a quality fit, but not for stuff that will need refitting in a couple of years.  

dimbo61

Use Aquaboard as the walls in the shower cubicle.
Do you know any local builders or can you talk to the neighbours about recommendations for builders, tilers etc

noh

Ours was £8.5k with a local tradesman.
Depends what you want. "Hotel" type bathroom or just replace what is there.

knightstyle

We are paying £3.8k for a refit, taking out a bath and putting in a shower plus moving the sink.  Biggest cost is labour and most shocking is the price of Nuance boards to match existing ones.

Toyo_86

Thanks all. Any recommendations on where I can get quality bathroom accessories?

gozaimasu

You can at least save a few hundred on labour by ripping everything out yourself. Alternatively, do all the work yourself. It's not as hard as you think. Watch some videos on tiling. It really isn't that hard.

My last bathroom (2016) was B&Q for £3100 interest free credit and it took 2 guys a week for all tiling, replacing bath, sink, toilet. £129 a month to use my bathroom for 2 years before I sold it. The only reason I didn't do it myself was because I didn't have a spare bathroom to use in the meantime. An en-suite is even smaller than my old house bathroom so seeing you've been quoted double the price seems ridiculous. Has labour really gone up that much over the past 5 years?

You've got the luxury of having a useable bathroom whilst you do up your en-suite. 

Doozergirl

Toyo_86 said:

Thanks all. Any recommendations on where I can get quality bathroom accessories?

If you're trying to save money, I'd recommend asking a local independent plumbers merchant for their reliable trade ranges.  

Orherwise, branded products with decent guarantees - especially the brassware.  

MFWannabe

We’ve just done our bathroom using a recommended plumber and buying items from local plumbers merchants 

AnotherJoe

MFWannabe said:

We’ve just done our bathroom using a recommended plumber and buying items from local plumbers merchants 

And that cost ... £1k? £3k? £10k?