WTF - guess what I have been quoted (ballpark figures) for new en suite?

[Aridane]

So I have a small en suite I haven’t used for years- largely because a) I prefer baths, b) the shower has only a feeble spray, and c) it’s an avocado suite!

Went to John Lewis for their fitted bathroom service. Happy to pay a bit more for a one stop shop with ongoing guarantees on workmanship and products, design of en suite and overall convenience.

So would be looking at completely new shower room (not a wet room)as follows:

• new shower + electric pump to get water pressure up (both shower head and hose part)

• washbasin

• toilet

• cabinet with inbuilt socket

• floor and wall tiling throughout.

Work would probably take around 2 weeks.

I reckon £10-15K, considering the extortionate prices were being quoted for our renovations.

And John Lewis won't be cheap!

Btw, I don't think that's good value.

I think a realistic quote should really be around £3-6K depending on the price of the fittings you want to use, and whether or not that includes any tiling/flooring, etc.

For 2 weeks it would cost about £1.5-2K for the labour alone.

Is it still in house with JL as they seem to have out sourced a lot of things, would they still honour guarantee if it went wrong or would they say you have to go to the installers?

Could you ask around for recommendations, even knocking on peoples doors that are/just had work done?

We got our suite from Victorian Plumbing - really nice stuff and interest free for 12 months as well. The bath, shower, shower screen, loo and sink came to about £650 in total I think (and there was cashback too via Quidco). Tiles were expensive. Thankfully no labour needed as DP is a trained plumber/handyman!

But that quote definitely sounds sky high! One thing - are 'Which Trusted Traders' definitely good? I know 'rate my builder' etc can be very hit and miss and most tradespeople who are any good don't actually need to advertise very much. I'd ask around and get recommendations from friends/neighbours (or ask on your local Facebook group).

*we're

They use another company so you are paying twice . Get someone local to do it 🤷‍♀️

😱 my fully fitted en-suite cost £1800. If you’re in the NE let me know as I have an ace plumber man. And he came out and gave us a 3D pic so we could see what it would look like.

Avacado is back in fashion, dontcha know.

Avocado

Depends what fittings you are having to be honest. Seems a bit on the high side but my shower ceiling rose alone was nearly £400 so it is very easy to spend a lot on quality fittings. Also where are the tiles coming from? Our bathroom tiles before fitting were nearly £2k.

Doesn't suprise me - DParents had quote for their very small bathroom of 25K. In end they waited ages and got a plumber to do a bit of it and rest hasn't been done still.

We had quotes for 10K to 17K for our small bathroom. Local firm just round the corner did whole lot - 3 days and 2.5K with very basic fittings - we were trying to get it up to scatch to sell which they understood and helped keep all the costs down.

Freckled - I think Which Trusted Traders is OK as each trader / firm is individually interviewed, vetted and ‘approved ‘ by Which. And all carry insurance and subscribe to the relevant consumer dispute body.

Plus I think user reviews may be checked before they are published.

I recently- as in last week! - used an electrician from that site (3 days of electrical work) and he was very good.

(I’m south east London for those offering recommendations)

Freckled - will check out Victoria Plumbing.

I have no idea as to what price range the items are that I picked. Time to check- though I suspect the bulk of the cost will be heavily marked up labour

ohdear - the guarantee comes from JL

Yeah, that seems a lot, but it’s not ridiculous compared to the type of quotes we got for a standard bathroom. We avoided one-stop shops, and eventually booked an independent fitter, who organised all the tradesmen, then bought the equipment online. We got a nicer finish and spec at a fraction of what bathroom companies were charging.

I'd also be wary of handing over money to a department store with profit warnings... look at all the people who lost out with House of Fraser, and they seemed invincible for a long time! I know there's no guarantee with any business, but at least with the smaller ones you can source your own bath etc and then pay the workmen in stages.

Ouch! My fully fitted Wickes bathroom with everything you mention plus underfloor heating (bloody lovely right now!) cost me around £10k including all the tiles - and i didn't scrimp on those.

I could have done it cheaper by getting someone else to install (essentially paid Wickes around £2k for a "guarantee") but having someone else worry about sorting everything was worth it. Plus when it did go wrong, i went to Wickes and they fixed it all at their expense.

Ooh - do Wickes do a one stop bathroom installation for all the plumbing, electrics, plastering, tiling etc?

They're having a larf! 😱 I was going to say £5000. Maybe more if you're further South than us so 5-8k. 15 is taking the piss.

We used Wickes before for this and they were fine - not cheap but not crazy.

This house we found a smaller local company, did 2 bathrooms, WC, new boiler, new radiators - all for £15k ish

@Ariadne - yup!

Went in to store, made an appointment with the designer. He came round, measured up, asked what sort of thing i was after (bloody amazing shower, plenty of storage) and a few days later we went in and he showed us the design in store so we could see the parts. We booked in the Jan sales and negotiated a further 5% discount (always haggle!).

Our key learning was to request the designers preferred installer and wait for their availability. Otherwise you just get whoever is next available - Wickes get in local installers, and if they are less familiar with the Wickes products, you won't get the best finish. Their top installers will be really familiar and know the quirks eg cutting a work surface in a particular way so the basin ends up flush to the wall and not with a 1cm gap.

The only thing we bought separately was the tiles because i didn't like what Wickes had.

If you get a descent plumber that does bathrooms regularly he'll have contacts that they use to do all the bit so they work together to do the whole job. That's what my Brothers company does anyway, you contact him and he sorts the rest.

He's in London if you need a number

I had this done last year for £16k not including purchase of cabinets and bathroom fittings:
Strip out old kitchen and bathroom. Replaster and new ceilings with spots in both rooms. Fit kitchen in a different part of room, some wall studs put in for bespoke fitting, make up flat pack units, open up rear wall and fit French doors. Pipework amd drains needed moving. Fit bathroom fittings in same place as previous. Panel bathroom walls with MDF panelling. Tile kitchen diner floor (8x 5m) tile splash backs, tile shower, tile bathroom floor - quite small. Build steps from patio doors into read garden. Removal of all rubbish using several skips. All electrics, plumbing, gas completed. Boxing in of boiler, washer and dryer using kitchen cupboards.
3 weeks start to finish.
Purchase of kitchen, bathroom (loo, shower cubicle, shower, sink, wired in cabinet) purchase of all tiles, grout and cement approx £8k
So intotal approx £22.