Finding a Bathroom Fitter

diystarter7

Morning

Btw - look out for the call centre number that pretends to be local IE when you search the net and type in your village/town etc they come up mentioning your village/town but just a call centre that has various builders on their books and gets them to call you.

In the past we've found old school builders that do almost everything themselves and get someone to check the electrics etc


NB: When posting on various sites/forums be aware of builders pulling you up on prices EG if you say does it cost xxx they will say you will be luck try xxxx to xxxxxx.  So do your research take in what is posted, digest it, check it, search the forums and go for a price in about the middle or lower.

The other day, one of our kids had syphones replaced on two toilets, none were boxed in - one stopped working nd the other was not as easy to flush - the plumber, young man got the parts as requested by our kid from screfix and tola price for both was 75 quid and our kid gave 5 in tip.  = 80.  Even I was pleasantly surprised and the guy lived 20 miles away from our kids london proerty but the plumber said he often worked in that area.  I would have thought 100 quid was a good deal for both and more than 110 inc syphon too much - so you can get plumbers/builders for a fair price but the whole bathroom is luck of the draw as you could pay a lot of money for a rubbish job

redundantmortgage

There's nothing wrong with advertising your business. 

It's a local family run business that's been around long before the internet. They claim to retain customers for many years who in turn recommend them to friends and family. 

If that's the case then why does he need to advertise to that extent? and why was he free to come round the day after I gave him a call?

Maybe he's good at his job but it sounds like if you get him to do the job you're also paying towards his extensive PR budget and the time he spends going to many prospective customers who call him up for a quote but then decide there's no way they're paying that price. I would never use Pimlico Plumbers because whilst they're known to do a good job they're also known to charge extortionate prices. It strikes me as the same sort of thing here.

Doozergirl

redundantmortgage said:

There's nothing wrong with advertising your business. 

It's a local family run business that's been around long before the internet. They claim to retain customers for many years who in turn recommend them to friends and family. 

If that's the case then why does he need to advertise to that extent? and why was he free to come round the day after I gave him a call?

Maybe he's good at his job but it sounds like if you get him to do the job you're also paying towards his extensive PR budget and the time he spends going to many prospective customers who call him up for a quote but then decide there's no way they're paying that price. I would never use Pimlico Plumbers because whilst they're known to do a good job they're also known to charge extortionate prices. It strikes me as the same sort of thing here.

You seem to want the moon on a stick. 

Whether they're too professional or not professional enough, I wonder where the middle ground is.  

redundantmortgage

I want someone who will do a decent job without charging an arm and a leg. I accept that for a decent job I may have to pay a little bit more than what I could get it for but not the over the top price I've been quoted.

I have had a plumber previously who is a friend of my Dad. He's not an option because he lives so far away. You can find his details on the internet but he never put any of it there himself because he's barely ever used a computer. That's the sort of person I'm looking for.

Doozergirl

I'm still none the wiser. 

In your first post you wanted landlines, Companies House records and years' worth of online reviews.

Now you want them to be unable to use a computer.  

jusferbrowsing

Don't completely discount the protection of a big established company.

We had a fantastic job done on our by Wickes bathroom a couple of years ago. It still looks perfect and I'm thrilled with the job a professional team of fitters made of the job. However, the MIL had her bathroom fitted around the same time by Wickes but this time it was a single fitter and a horrible job with over 90 photos taken as evidence of faults resulting in a complaint and the whole bathroom gutted again and fitted all from new once more .

Yes. it shouldn't have happened and it was a ton of hassle to get it put right but Wickes did re do the bathroom (using the team we had fit ours as we 100% trusted them) at zero cost to put things as they should have been in first place.

Conversely the BIL has had 2 bathrooms fitted in that same time. cheaper, by local tradesmen and both have been disasters and he had no comeback. 

Sometimes paying a bit extra is worthwhile. 

redundantmortgage

Landlines and companies house records have been around long before the internet and you don't need to use the internet to have either. I would use someone without an online review, but even then it only requires a customer to use the internet to have an online review. For the plumber I mentioned I could leave an online review for him.

I agree that sometimes paying a bit extra is worthwhile. However Checkatrade tells me that on average installing a new bathroom including materials costs £4k - £6k, I've been quoted £12.2k for labour only. That's hardly a bit extra.

benson1980

redundantmortgage said:

Landlines and companies house records have been around long before the internet and you don't need to use the internet to have either. I would use someone without an online review, but even then it only requires a customer to use the internet to have an online review. For the plumber I mentioned I could leave an online review for him.

I agree that sometimes paying a bit extra is worthwhile. However Checkatrade tells me that on average installing a new bathroom including materials costs £4k - £6k, I've been quoted £12.2k for labour only. That's hardly a bit extra.

You’ll be spending 4-6k on materials these days for the decent bathroom refit, let alone materials and labour. That checkatrade estimate is way out of date.

Risteard

redundantmortgage said:

companies house records have been around long before the internet

Not every business trades as a limited company however.

Gavin83

I recently did a bathroom from scratch DIY and I'm currently in the middle of doing another. They're not particularly big bathrooms (around 2.7m x 1.8m) and I'd say we went for decent products but each one has cost us around £4k in materials/fixtures. Had we used tradespeople to do the work I'd have expected to easily pay double that.

Unless you're going very cheap on the materials and using less experienced trades I think you'll struggle to get it done for anywhere close to £6k.