How much should a new bathroom cost?

[Deleted User]

Hi all

I have a small bathroom. Around 2.6m x 1.6m. I used B&Q and Victoria Plumb design service and got quoted over £14k! I appreciate this is everything being ripped out and replaced, but this just seemed way too much. I costed up materials and that alone came to around £4k. Is labour really that much? 


Update - A bit of an update. Spent the last couple of months listing things out and getting quotes. 

For fittings, we decided to go somewhat high end and the total cost including tiles is £4k.

Labour cost do still have me a little shocked. We are changing the position of the toilet which requires a new soil stack to be drilled. Radiator is also moving position. 

I have two quotes and both are withing £300 of each other at the £8k mark (that includes VAT). One is from a plumber/bathroom specialist and the other is from a more general builder. 

I appreciate it's not a like for like comparison, but the quotes for labour are a little tough to swallow as the bathroom shops quoted a similar amount but that included the fittings (though not the tiles). Though again, that would be with everything being in the same place. 

 

Doozergirl

A proper bathroom refurbishment is a serious building project.  

It's not just labour, plumbing materials are also quite expensive.  

It's not an unreasonable price, no. I've done plenty at that price level and have even done one that was into six figures!  

The bigger companies will charge more than just a local building company would.   I also wouldn't use Victoria Plumb.  Poor overall quality imo.  

mi-key

It really depends on what you want. If its just a normal functional bathroom and you can do the work yourself then a few thousand would easily cover it. If you want posh tiles and bath suite etc.. then the skies the limit.

Personally I would never spend loads on a bathroom that small as it doesnt really add any value to the house more than putting in some nice looking and functional. It's quite funny that people spend loads on a bathroom when it's probably the room we spend the least time in !

Belenus

mi-key said:

It really depends on what you want. If its just a normal functional bathroom and you can do the work yourself then a few thousand would easily cover it. If you want posh tiles and bath suite etc.. then the skies the limit.

Personally I would never spend loads on a bathroom that small as it doesnt really add any value to the house more than putting in some nice looking and functional. It's quite funny that people spend loads on a bathroom when it's probably the room we spend the least time in !

You have never had teenage daughters have you?

MikeJXE

It is way too much but not when you go through companies like B&Q

You seem to have the knowledge to price up the materials and thats a good start

I'm a retired ex builder and my advice would be to split the work with professionals 


Plumber Tile fixer 

Look for local adverts, get prices, ask to see their work. Go onto your local building site and ask the site manager for numbers to his best people 

If the materials cost 4K then I can't see where another 10k would go

Ripping out the bath etc would take a maybe 1 day, If you have tiles on the wall they need to come off and if they are on a stud wall its quicker to take off the plaster board too and replace with waterproof. 

Refitting might be 2 days

Tiling no more than 2 

So assuming thats a week double that so 10 x 300 = 3k say another 1K on what extra your girls want 

Plenty of scope there for I never thought about that 

Don't forget a skip 

onomatopoeia99

mi-key said:

Personally I would never spend loads on a bathroom that small as it doesnt really add any value to the house more than putting in some nice looking and functional. It's quite funny that people spend loads on a bathroom when it's probably the room we spend the least time in !

Whereas I would as adding value to the house is irrelevant.  I have a house to live in, and I do things to make my house a nicer place to live in, irrespective of what they do to its value.

Doozergirl

MikeJXE said:

It is way too much but not when you go through companies like B&Q

You seem to have the knowledge to price up the materials and thats a good start

I'm a retired ex builder and my advice would be to split the work with professionals 


Plumber Tile fixer 

Look for local adverts, get prices, ask to see their work. Go onto your local building site and ask the site manager for numbers to his best people 

If the materials cost 4K then I can't see where another 10k would go

Ripping out the bath etc would take a maybe 1 day, If you have tiles on the wall they need to come off and if they are on a stud wall its quicker to take off the plaster board too and replace with waterproof. 

Refitting might be 2 days

Tiling no more than 2 

So assuming thats a week double that so 10 x 300 = 3k say another 1K on what extra your girls want 

Plenty of scope there for I never thought about that 

Don't forget a skip 

Some bathrooms need three fixes, especially if you have wall hung toilets, recessed fittings, wet rooms etc.  You can't possibly say how long the OPs bathroom would take but when we do a bathroom it usually takes about two weeks, especially if you employ qualified trades for each job.  If you're spending £4k on fittings, it's not going to be a  bog standard suite that you roll out of the shop on a trolley and plonk in. 

If you tile the whole thing it's definitely more than two days in tiling alone.  Average for us is around three days tiling in a smallish room and that's with a hugely experienced, top quality tiler.  I had one job that took him nearly a month to tile!   

There's so many jobs that might need to be done.  Electrics, plastering, decorating, carpentry, tanking... 

MikeJXE

I have worked in the building trade for many years, done my own bathroom conversion, I know how long it take to fit a wall hung toilet and a walk-in shower I have done them myself but

You have to employ tradesmen who are willing to work and not sit down for a tea break as soon as they get there so I doubled the time for dossers 

Doozergirl

MikeJXE said:

I have worked in the building trade for many years, done my own bathroom conversion, I know how long it take to fit a wall hung toilet and a walk-in shower I have done them myself but

You have to employ tradesmen who are willing to work and not sit down for a tea break as soon as they get there so I doubled the time for dossers 

I've run a building company for over a decade and a development company for a decade before that.  People hire me specifically to design and build bathrooms, amongst everything else and I also have two national awards for our bathrooms.  I've overseen probably a hundred bathrooms.  

Have designed and built my own house and sit on the board of directors of a large trade body. 

I know all about proper process and employing proper staff.  That okay?    We don't know what has been designed for the OP and we're certainly not in a position to say how long it takes, but a proper building project of a bathroom doesn't take five days including excessive tea breaks and a £10k profit.  

Postik

£14k for a small bathroom seems absolutely ridicilous to me, but then I am tight fisted.

Last time I did my bathroom I bought the toilet, sink, bath and bath panel from B&Q.  The plumbers supplied the shower screen and I can't remember where I got the shower and tiles from.  I paid a tiler separately from the suite fitting and plumbing.

I think it cost me about £2,500 in total including materials and labour.  This was about 12 years ago though so obviously things have changed significantly since then.

If it costs much more than that these days, then next time around it will be a stand up wash at the kitchen sink for me from now on.

plumb1_2

Up north, a middle of the road bathroom that size imo about £8k. Depends on cost of materials ie tiles £25 p/m or £80 and up p/m. Etc etc.
I was talking to a builder friend a few weeks ago and he was working on 3 bathrooms in one house. The sanitary/taps ware for each bathroom was £10k

Its relative to one’s own budget. Don’t use the likes of Victoria plumb etc. use your local bathroom merchants