How much should a new bathroom cost?

Doozergirl

Gavin83 said:

Doozergirl said:

Gavin83 said:

Doozergirl said:

esksbanker said:

Doozergirl said:

MikeJXE said:

Doozergirl said:

The Federation of Master Builders, design fee included in build cost, mid to higher end of pay rates for our region, not enough.  

There's a range of product costs in these photos, but the same people build them. All from scratch - either newly created rooms or back to brick for a proper finish that will stand the test of time.   All designed and PMd by me, apart from the last one PMd by my husband.   

Very nice in fact beautiful but thats a whole different world to the OP and their 3 meter square bathroom

Those bathrooms are for the mega rich and the design free included would never be noticed.

If I had a few million and live in a property that justified on of your bathrooms I wouldn't hesitate 

You have vast experience in mega projects but unfortunately none in what the OP is looking for 

Two of those projects cost less than £10k at the time with purchases from the local plumbers merchant and Topps Tiles.  

Two are in the very affluent range. The others sit in between.  The difference is mainly in cost of product.  

One is mine and much of it was sourced from ex-display and ebay.   

For the third time, you don't know what the OP is getting so you can't decide how long it needs to take or how much it costs.  A proper strip out and put back together doesn't take a few days. 

What does this £7-8k bathroom that you're describing look like?  

Which two pics are of the bathrooms in the very affluent range?

Wanna guess? 🤭

Ohh this is a fun game!

I'll go 5 & 6. I'm pretty confident on 6, less so on 5. It was a toss up between 5 and 7 for me.

It is quite interesting how hard it was to spot the difference though. Are you allowed to tell us how expensive they were?

Edit: The more I look at it the more I think it's 6 and 7. The fittings don't look at all cheap on 7 and I doubt the textured tiles were cheap either.

You're right on 6.   I was told it's the same bathroom that Michelle Obama picked for the Whitehouse.   There's semi-precious stone in the tiling, amongst other things.   The tiles & fittings were £70k 😱, and there was as much building work as you can imagine on top, even the joists were wrecked.  It took a month to tile - the ones in the floor were individual and effectively dumped in bag like a jigsaw.  I had to get everything around the edges cut and polished by a stonemason. 

The other one is 9!   You can't see the tiles very well but they were insanely expensive too, like £1,000 a metre... 

Yes, the Crosswater stuff is mine. 😁   

That’s extortionate! I’m all for buying quality but you’d have to have money to burn to be buying £1k a meter tiles. It’s probably the size of the photo but I actually thought it was those wall panels….

Based on what you’re saying I assume the majority of the cost for truly expensive bathrooms is in the tiles. I did see a bath that cost £12k though so there are certainly expensive fixtures out there too.

My en-suite cost around £4k all in which included replacing the subfloor, adding extra joists and all the plumbing. I did do all the work myself though. I expect had I got someone in to do it I’d have been stumping up something in the region of £10k.

Yes, the majority of cost is in the fittings you choose.  Some of it depends in how much you uncover to straighten and strengthen it up, but there's a similar limit on how much building work you do to most rooms.  

What I have learned with fittings is that if you drew a graph, there is a point at which you hit a peak of quality vs cost and there can be a slippery slope at both sides, not just the cheaper side.  

pinkteapot

My brother is a plumber and tiler, so does full bathroom refits. He subs in plasterer/electrician if needed. Based in the south-east. He's busy enough that he employs a young lad to help. What I'd describe as bathroom refurbs in average houses (not high-end) with reasonable quality but not luxury stuff - his going rate these days seems to be £11-16k ish. 

I was shocked as I haven't done a bathroom for about 10 years and it was a lot less then! 

His price can't be bad as he doesn't advertise (all word of mouth) and is always booked up at least six months in advance. 

What does make my cry as an environmentalist and MSEer is the number of jobs where people get him in to a new-build they've just moved into, to rip out and replace unused bathrooms. Craziness! New-builds in his area still sell so easily that some builders don't bother offering many choices for the bathrooms, so people don't like them. 

What I would say in plumbers' defence is: Don't underestimate their costs. His costs have sky-rocketed in the last couple of years - mostly the parts (the suites, tiles and everything else he has to buy). Then fuel. Paying the lad who helps him (wages are going up). Vehicle (have you seen how much vans cost?). Replacement tools... And he works often 6 long days a week, and spends evenings out quoting or doing paperwork. No holiday/sick pay or pension. Don't get me wrong - makes decent money now, but it took 2-3 years to build up the business initially where he had a lot of outlay. 

esksbanker

Deleted_User said:

esksbanker said:

My bathroom, completed 5 months ago. Just under £14K. Everything was removed to the bare bones. > new stud wall and all other walls re-boarded, underfloor heating and all new electrics, VitrA sanitaryware and fixtures Hansgrohe shower with circular shower heads rather than those cheese grater shower heads, porcelain floor and wall tiles. I was taken aback when I noticed that the basin tap was £500+ though. Fitted precisely by a self employed neighbour. I can't fault his work for want of trying. Four weeks from start to finish.

Lol, my bathroom is a fraction of the size of yours and I got quoted more

I'd say from your OP that you're being shafted sideways on labour costs, my labour costs were, £4K plumbing/tiling, £800 electric, £260 plastering.

jennifernil

Nothing beats employing a tradesman who has been recommended and done lots of work for neighbours, friends, and family.

The guys we had had already done a re-organisation of our son's upstairs (3 bedrooms into 2 larger bedrooms plus shower room, including 2 new dormer windows), a refit  of their en suite, and a refit  of their downstairs shower room.  They live in an old farmhouse.

In our daughter's house  they have done a refit of a bedroom and en-suite bathroom, new shower and toilet in another en-suite, refit of small bedroom into a study, and a re-roof of an extension to include 4 Velux windows to add more light.    So we knew they would do a good job, and were reasonably priced.  They are always very busy.

When we were discussing bathrooms with them, they also commented that one of the first things many people do when buying a house is replace perfectly good and often very new bathrooms, so we decided just to do one of our 3 bathrooms to start with.   All were perfectly functional and in good condition, just a bit dated.   But mainly we wanted to replace the over bath shower in our en-suite with an easy to access shower.

While that was going on, we moved to another bedroom with adjacent bathroom, so the following year we decided to also do that bathroom as that bedroom and bathroom are on the same level as our living room and kitchen, should we ever need to live on one level.

The third bathroom still has a bath with shower over, and is rarely used, so we will leave that for the next owners to refit to their taste.

[Deleted User]

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. 

danrv

Postik said:

Last time I did my bathroom I bought the toilet, sink, bath and bath panel from B&Q.  

That’s what I’m doing. It’s decent enough quality unless you want the really swish stuff.
DIY fitting keeps the costs down too.

Gabriela67

My bathroom is about 3.2m x 1.7m. Bathroom and toilet used to be separate. I had my bathroom redone a month ago. 
Initial quotes (including removing the wall separating the bathroom from the toilet room) were:
Wickes - some £9.5k labour, some £1k for materials (pipes, plasterboards, etc) + some £2K for the units low/ mid range stuff
Victoria plum - some £12.5K for the labours plus similar for the rest 
Good local company - £11.5k for the labour (negotiable) + similar for the rest
The tradesman I chose: £5.8K labour, £700 for the materials + units...
In the end I paid £6k labour, £700 materials, £3,200 units + taps, tiles etc. + £300 to another plumber to fix something the first plumber didn't get right. I still feel £5,800 for the labour is a lot, but I guess it;s cheap comparing to other quotes. I was lucky that the tilers, plasterers and electrician were excellent and cheap (I had the breakdown).

In the end i paid a total of £10,000. Some units were cheap, others were more expensive. 

Chemistry777

Just had our bathroom done (2.8m x 2.8m)

Bathroom suite (units, shower, taps, etc) - 4k
Tiles - £800
Building materials - timber. plasterboard, sealant, plaster ceiling, down lighters, piping, extractor fan,  etc - £2k
Labour - 4k (mates rates)

This was for complete reconfiguration of bathroom and plumbing, knocking through to increase size of bathroom, full tile, additional electric cabling, plastci ceiling with downlighters