AIBU to think that plumber is overcharging?

He's given you a price for the job. That's what he charges and he is not obliged to give you a day rate. If you are not happy with it, you are absolutely free to go elsewhere.
DIL is a bathroom designer and her fitters charge at least £4-5k for a basic rip out and refit (Cheshire). They don't give day rates, they just give a price for the job.

he gives you the cost of the job and any normal client would ask how long it will take.

It's not that hard to work out! But you are not at risk to pay more for contingencies, last minute problem or god knows what.

If he's that unreasonable.. just employ someone else? You don't like him and you don't trust him, why do you want to carry on anyway.

PS… they do hold you to ransom a bit. I’d get 3-5 quotes and make sure you have those from plumbers who have been recommended. The local community page on Facebook is a good place, or the school/class whatsapp if you have school age children, and asking neighbours for recommendations (my street has a whatsapp and we have a community trades list of people we have used and rate, everything from boiler repairmen, plasterers, gardeners etc).

Don’t hire anyone blind.

of course you are entitled to know, he told you!
£3k for your bathroom.

Have you even bothered getting other quotes? or are you just some very strange vendetta against that poor plumber?😂

I can't believe you haven't even asked him how long it will take? You can work it out yourself if he estimates 2 days (unlikely) or 2 months (unlikely too. Sounds like a week-ish job.

Why would anyone want to pay a daily rate which can drag on and on, instead of a clear, fair and no argument job price.

We had our en-suite bathroom redone a few months ago. The labour was £4,700 and he took two weeks.

He replaced our old bath with a walk-in shower, replaced the old radiator with a heated towel rail, fitted a new loo and basin, both of which moved location slightly, ripped out all the existing floor and wall tiles and put new ones up (wall tiles are floor - ceiling), and disconnected the old shower over the bath, and reconnected it.

We are in South East England.

No problem - so much more involved than just swapping one unit with another if there has been a decade or more interval since last done. I hate the bloody ventilation fans… have to switch them off at night but they are required due to new building regs 😭

Is he tiling etc? There’s no reason that he can’t / won’t give you his hourly / daily rate, other than trying to rip you off.

I think 3k to replace en-suite in SE is ok but get another quote to compare.

We always ask for a detailed quotation whatever the job, and make it clear any unforeseen extras should be discussed with us before the work is carried out. That way, it doesn't matter how long it takes to complete (within reason) and you aren't concerned about an unknown final bill.

Most trades are honest, but if you don't know the first thing about the job, asking them to work on a daily rate is akin to handing out a virtual blank cheque.

Depends where you are - but £15k all-in is kind what we and others pay locally in my part of the South East (for wall and floor tiles, shower units, taps, shower screen, toilet basin and cistern and connected plumbing/sewerage, bath, basin, replacing old plumbing if more than 20 years old, installation of extractor fan and external light switches/rewiring of light fittings, skim/plastering as needed - all due to building reg requirements having changed - and labour). I’d estimate at least £5k is labour.

For what reason is he not telling you his daily rate? Have you asked him for ab estimated timeframe?

It's standard for trades to charge for the result, not per hour. Would you prefer he turns up, finds 'problems', takes longer and then charges you more because he's added a few days on?

The fact that you think people on the internet who haven't seen your bathroom and presumably aren't qualified can give you a view on a quote, better than the tradesmen, suggests you'd be a bit of a nightmare customer tbh. Maybe he's quoted to put you off if he doesn't need the work!

Why? Why should he tell you his hourly rate? What happens if the job takes more hours than expected are you going
to offer him more money? Or at that point it becomes price per job or should have worked faster.

You still won’t answer if it included tilling, but I reckon he worked out you are going to be a difficult customer and decided he didn’t want the work.

How would that help? You would argue the hours he would need to do the job anyway.

You sound like a nightmare client, he'll probably regret not quoting you more

what's so funny?

How do you pay your hairdresser?

Why would you even want to pay by the hour? He might take forever, how would you know how many hours he will need?

He's employed for a job, he delivers the job and you pay the amount agreed. What's wrong with that?

why do you insist on thinking anyone is "ripping someone off" here?

As long as he's honest about the price of the material that will be added to the quote,
charging you for the job , not delivering half of what is in the quote

He's not ripping you off. He estimates his value at £3k for doing an ensuite. Sounds reasonable to me?
He's giving you a quote, take it or leave it.

He's not a charity. You are paying for his skills and experience. £3k for what is a fair amount of work is very reasonable as it happens.

The size of your bathroom is rather irrelevant anyway, the job is the same in a bigger bathroom, and probably easier.

It’s still reasonable to know what the hourly rate is so you can decide if you think you’re getting value for money. Especially as lots of tradesmen do a shit job and can’t be trusted.

That's possible too. I don't know why some tradies do this.

I got someone to give me a quote to supply and fit 3 fence panels and 4 fence posts last month. He wanted to charge me £2000. Clearly thought the job was too small, and couldn't be arsed, so gave me a laughable quote.

I didn't use him, and ended up using someone who charged me £550.

Obviously, whatever the plumber values it at.

You as the client can take or leave it.