Cost of adding an en-suite

worlestone

We're trying to find out the cost of adding a small en-suite to a bedroom, 1.2  x 2 metres.  We've enough space, and plumber has said very straight forward for him, we've got a builder in who's said £14,000 inc VAT plus fittings (1200 x 800 shower, loo and sink ), this seems quite a lot to us, but nothing to basis this on.  Cannot find any website to help with estimating the costs.  Has anyone done this recently ? Is it reasonable? Where in rural Dorset, should that make a difference, and not confident with DIY, in our 60's

Any pointers appreciated, thank you

Edit - to add, the en-suite would back on to the existing bathroom through a partition wall, so all water/waste and electrics very accessible

flashg67

I suppose it depends on access for hot & cold water, drainage, adding walls/door/windows/radiator etc. 2 years ago I was quoted 4-5k plus fittings for a similar sized ensuite (NW England) (I ended up DIYing it in the end)

tacpot12

I don't know of any websites that you might use. The best advice is usually to get three quotes, but £14,000 inc vat does't sound out of the ballpark for a solid job. 

I think I would get the builder back to talk you through all the work they would do, and how the quote breaks down. For that sort of price, another hour explaining things to you, and agreeing the details of the contract would seem to be benefifical to both parties.  

Slinky

We've had this done recently as part of a much bigger revamp of the house. We had a separate quote for this as it wasn't originally on the plans. Our builder quoted £8.5k plus VAT, which included knocking a hole in the external wall for a window (we supplied) and digging out the pipework for the drainage. We supplied fittings for the room. The work also included knocking out the breezeblock walls of the existing cupboards which were where the new ensuite is.

diystarter7

Hi

Not sure where you live as prices vary.

We live in London and you can't even get a quote for anything at times and when they give you a price over the phone,
it is very high vs what we had paid before/etc

As the other poster said and it is good practice, get 3 quotes, and ensure like for like. Ensure you are asking if vat is inc as cowboys will shcok you at the end with vat. Get it written down price, start time and finish dates as far as poss.

Do your homework re any safety measures etc eG earth bonding etc and see if they mention it. Ask re eletrical works and if any minor works certificates are required etc but I'm not to hot on these so check or ask here be prepared.

Ask the person who will be completing the job is it them or another - ask if they smoke as I cant stand smokers' smells. (personal choice)

If you are liking one outfit, ask for similar work pics etc evidence in a polite way

Warning - the reviews for some of these outfits ie bathroom fitters, be careful and check that the 20 or so  positive reviews or so are not just for changing taps and toilet seats.

Good luck.

ps - how and when they will remove rubbish - not a  problem in your case but if taking out bath/basin etc but best to ask.

diystarter7

diystarter7 said:

Hi

Not sure where you live as prices vary.

We live in London and you can't even get a quote for anything at times and when they give you a price over the phone,
it is very high vs what we had paid before/etc

As the other poster said and it is good practice, get 3 quotes, and ensure like for like. Ensure you are asking if vat is inc as cowboys will shcok you at the end with vat. Get it written down price, start time and finish dates as far as poss.

Do your homework re any safety measures etc eG earth bonding etc and see if they mention it. Ask re eletrical works and if any minor works certificates are required etc but I'm not to hot on these so check or ask here be prepared.

Ask the person who will be completing the job is it them or another - ask if they smoke as I cant stand smokers' smells. (personal choice)

If you are liking one outfit, ask for similar work pics etc evidence in a polite way

Warning - the reviews for some of these outfits ie bathroom fitters, be careful and check that the 20 or so  positive reviews or so are not just for changing taps and toilet seats.

Good luck.

ps - how and when they will remove rubbish - not a  problem in your case but if taking out bath/basin etc but best to ask.

Btw, I just recalled, doing all of that work inc parts is a very good price where ever you live ( a while ago we had a quote for labour only to change bath, basin,wlc retile the whole room standard size i think the labour was 12/14k
Thanks

jennifernil

It sounds high to me!

For a bit of a comparison, we are in the middle of a refit of a 33 year old bathroom, size 2.4 x2.4 metres.     Although that does not require as much new construction as making a new room, as our house is timber frame and the plasterboard walls of the old bathroom are fully, and very well, tiled, all the bathroom plasterboard walls have to be removed.  Also all the old fittings of course.  This took our workers the whole of the first day.

Reconstruction involved overboarding the ceiling as downlighters were fitted, building a new bulkhead to widen the area at the head of the shower, taking up some floor as a radiator is to be relocated slightly and the basin plumbing also has to be moved a little, and moving the existing wiring for a wall mounted fan heater.  The new ceiling was plastered.

Fittings being installed are a new radiator, new fan heater, new electric towel warmer, existing extractor fan retained and refitted, existing large mirror retained and refitted, shaver socket retained and refitted.   

Bath is replaced by shower, 900x1200 tray and enclosure, new back to wall toilet with cistern in unit, new basin with 2 floor standing units below, and new wall hung unit above toilet.

Floor is to be covered in new plywood ready for the fitting of LVT, which my OH will do himself.   He has also painted the  ceiling.   All walls will be fully tiled.

We have chosen and purchased tiles and fixing materials, shower, tray, enclosure,  basin, taps, toilet, cistern, cupboards, towel warmer, radiator, fan heater.

 Builders have supplied the rest.......plasterboard and any new timbers, plywood etc as required, plasterer, electrician, plumber, tiler.  Also a small skip for rubbish removal.

I have lost track of what we have spent on the stuff we purchased, we chose good quality and known brands so I reckon we must have spent around £4k.   Our builder is charging us a total of £5735 for all labour and other materials.

The whole job will take 9-10 working days.

These guys have done quite a lot of work for our family.......dormer windows and making a shower room and 2 bedrooms from the original 3 bedrooms in roof for our son, also refitted his en suite and his downstairs shower room and adjacent small living area.  

For our daughter.........new roof and velux windows in existing extension, redo 2 bedrooms and 2 ensuite shower rooms ( elderly property) 

 And for us they did our ensuite last year.  So we know they are reliable and good, tidy workers, and in great demand.  There is a queue to employ them. 

 Not really having paid anyone to do stuff in the house since it was built in 1988, we thought we were paying quite a bit, but it seems not!

Ganga

We live in the N E of England and are having our internal bathroom re-vamped ,bath out ,airing cupboard removed ,all walls fully tiled ,floor fully tiled , new shower tray fitted along with shower screen and false wall to hold new shower ,new ceiling with lights ,vanity unit with basin and toilet fitted ,we are supplying all materials except tile cement ,grout, boarding etc , just over £4.5k.

Sophie4120

Sounds quite high - but then I can only base it on what we've just been quoted. We're in Yorkshire and have been quoted 14k for a new bathroom with a lot of additional work.

Soil stack and hot/cold feeds are being moved, radiator being moved to a different location (plus adding electric supply for dual fuel), wall being removed and new stud wall being built to make bathroom bigger by 0.7m x 2m (bathroom is currently 1.7m x 3m).

This includes installing a new extractor fan (we don't have one currently), re-plastering walls, overboarding and skimming ceiling, supply/install of free standing bath, 900x1100 shower, sink, toilet, plus all taps/showers/valves (Hansgrohe, sink and toilet are Villeroy & Boch), tiling (full height in shower, half height the rest of the bathroom), installing new electrics (spotlights, lighted mirror cabinet, moving main switch) and supply/install of Karndean LVT flooring. 

They are supplying everything except for the tiles and the skip - we have other work being done so made sense for us to provide.

We were expecting our quote to be high due to moving soil stack/moving radiator/knocking walls out/rebuilding walls - to me it seems like a lot more work than you describe for yours, but there may be some hidden issues with yours that aren't immediately clear. As others have said, it may be helpful to ask them to break it down and give a bit more detail in the quote.

Gavin83

This thread is making me glad I did my entire bathroom DIY. Was a bit like Sophie4120's refurb, involving moving walls, moving radiators, completely redoing all copper pipework, waste pipe runs and soil pipe in the room and LVT flooring, plus an installation of a new extractor fan as there wasn't one before. Bath, sink and toilet are Villeroy & Boch and all the fittings are Crosswater. We went with paneling which was a lot of work in itself and I also built my own vanity unit.

Ended up costing a little under £4k in total. Were I quoted £14k I don't think I'd have bothered.

Currently doing the other bathroom which is working out at around £3.5k. Most of the stuff in there is Lusso.

benson1980

Gavin83 said:

This thread is making me glad I did my entire bathroom DIY. Was a bit like Sophie4120's refurb, involving moving walls, moving radiators, completely redoing all copper pipework, waste pipe runs and soil pipe in the room and LVT flooring, plus an installation of a new extractor fan as there wasn't one before. Bath, sink and toilet are Villeroy & Boch and all the fittings are Crosswater. We went with paneling which was a lot of work in itself and I also built my own vanity unit.

Ended up costing a little under £4k in total. Were I quoted £14k I don't think I'd have bothered.

Currently doing the other bathroom which is working out at around £3.5k. Most of the stuff in there is Lusso.

Slightly off topic- Was this your first attempt at redoing copper pipes- did you find it straightforward and did you solder them? Just asking as I’m thinking of taking on this aspect as well for my next bathroom project so would be interested to hear how you got on.

Re the OPs quote: 14k sounds like a massive amount of money especially when it doesn’t include the fittings. I’d be getting two more quotes, personally…