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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think £7k is steep for a new bathroom?

57 replies

Zara85 · 04/01/2019 14:20

I may very well be the unreasonable one here, but I've had 2 quotes now for between £6000 - £6300 for a new bathroom. This involves all new stuff and tiling but excludes tiles, so we were told to add an extra £800 ish on top too taking it to £7000
It also excludes electrics as my husband can do the lights etc.
The bathroom is not huge- 6"x8" and we don't want anything spectacular.
We have £4500 in the bank and really thought / hoped this would be enough. We told them our budget too and that we can't go over in hopes that they would work to our budget. We now basically have to save another 3k which will take forever as we have 2 under 2 in full time childcare!

Does anyone have any tips on how to save cost on this? We looked at the wall panels instead of tiles but just couldn't warm to them. Help!

OP posts:
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5
PoohBearsHole · 04/01/2019 14:27

Does this include the goods or just fitting them? Can they quote to just fit?
And yes tiles are unfortunately pricey and so is tiling x

PoohBearsHole · 04/01/2019 14:29

Tiling - how many sq ft for wall ATS you covering and what about floor?

Housingcraze · 04/01/2019 14:32

My bathroom 17msq cost £5600 with tiles! Extras like mirror toilet holder were around £200!

So £5800 but my bathroom is small area!

Housingcraze · 04/01/2019 14:33

Vinyl for floor was 90.00 so looking realistically around £5900/6000

thisismeusernameything · 04/01/2019 14:34

About right. Can you do some of the work yourself to reduce costs?

LadyWithLapdog · 04/01/2019 14:35

It adds up. We used B&Q but still came up to that kind of sum.

SushiMonster · 04/01/2019 14:35

Yeah about right

4.5k would get you a super basic bathroom with no complicated fitting and not fully tiled.

Babdoc · 04/01/2019 14:36

I have a similar quote for my small bathroom too, OP. That’s using a bathroom company that do the whole thing. Have you tried asking a few local plumbers if they could do it cheaper? A small tradesman doesn’t have the cost of maintaining and staffing a showroom etc, and often has contacts with the local tilers, electricians and decorators, so can recommend the cheapest.
My lovely plumber retired, so I went for the simple (if pricey) option of getting a firm in.

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 04/01/2019 14:36

Work out the cost of buying everything yourself and then get some quotes on my builder.com for just fitting.
I did mine a couple of years ago and it all came in at just under £5k. Went with plain white tiles with a boarder around from wickes to cut costs and bought bath, loo, shower, shower screen, pump and sink from a local bathroom shop who gave us a good deal for buying the lot from him. My loo and bathroom are separate so the £5k covered both rooms.

WhereDoesThisToiletGo · 04/01/2019 14:37

God!
I've just been quoted £6k for labour alone, ripping out everything and starting again.
I'm buying the big items which so far come to £3k exlcuding tiles

(lies down in a darkened room)

AmyDowdensLeftLeftShoe · 04/01/2019 14:38

Get a quote for fitting and then source your own bathroom. That way you can ensure things like taps aren't the cheapest.

I deliberately chose mostly white tiles for my bathroom and kitchen walls. The bathroom is tiled from floor to ceiling on all walls. The reason being is they are easier to replace if you break a tile, are cheaper and while it can look stark if you have issues with natural light, like my bathroom does, it makes the room lighter.

Fairylea · 04/01/2019 14:40

Ours cost £7k including tiles - we paid about £400 for tiles from topps tiles.

burritofan · 04/01/2019 14:42

That seems steep if you're keeping the same layout & doing your own electrical work.

My (tiny) bathroom is currently being done for £7k + VAT, they're doing all the work but this includes total gut, brand-new layout with built-in laundry cupboard & storage, dampproofing and other bells and whistles. Only extra is 15sq m of tiles which was around £250 from Walls and Floors online.

I did get cheaper quotes for labour & could have sourced fittings more cheaply myself but didn't have the mental energy for bargain hunting!

TinkerSpy · 04/01/2019 14:44

Remove the tiles and old suite yourself, get a plaster in if needed to make good the walls, source the bathroom suite yourself and hire someone to install the bath, sink and toilet and hire someone to tile - I did it this way and had a fantastic new bathroom the same size as yours for £1200.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 04/01/2019 14:44

I paid £1000 for the "furniture" (loo/bath/sink unit/taps and shower unit etc), another £1000 for the tiles (floor to ceiling all four walls - worth every penny) and about £1200 for the work.

I found this site very useful when our kitchen fitters (different people from the lovely lovely bathroom man) were trying to rip us off for something: www.whatprice.co.uk

Original poster
Zara85 · 04/01/2019 14:51

Thanks everyone. The only change to the layout is moving the toilet down about 1ft to allow for a bigger shower tray.
We had a quote from a local showroom and also a regular plumber who said he would gives his trade discount so we could pay for the goods yourself and see he was making nothing on it. Just seems so much money. I'm gutted! Saved so hard for this now no feel like we are still years away :-(

We could source it all ourselves we were a little reluctant in case we order the wrong parts and then cause a huge delay.

We haven't measured fully but we were told for tiling purposes we have around 24sqm to cover (high ceilings)

OP posts:
Original poster
Zara85 · 04/01/2019 14:53

Thanks that's really useful! And @tinkerspy actually I can see that dies sound a lot cheaper than the way we were thinking.
Just was hoping to get someone in and out within the week as can't imagine being without a bath /shower with 2 very young kids!
We have a downstairs wc thankfully

OP posts:
Original poster
Zara85 · 04/01/2019 14:55

To clarify, my bathroom size is not 6×8 inches - Just reread my OP and realised my error Grin

OP posts:
Doobigetta · 04/01/2019 14:56

It seems a bit steep. We had a small bathroom and a tiny ensuite shower room done together for about that much a couple of years ago.

Dermymc · 04/01/2019 15:00

High ceilings, can you tile so far and paint the rest?

It doesnt seem an outrageous price.

whymewhynow · 04/01/2019 15:03

I think that does sound steep and would, as others have recommended, try and buy fittings etc yourself and just pay labour. Sadly, having the old suite removed, new fittings installed and everything retiled within a week is unlikely no matter what price you pay.

ChristmasRaven · 04/01/2019 15:04

DontCallMeCharlotte has good advice. Break it down and it is much cheaper. Use websites like rated people and my builder (as suggested by a pp) to get quotes for the labour. If you do that, you can get it done within your budget.

RebeccaWrongDaily · 04/01/2019 15:07

i might be wrong but i think moving the loo is the cost, you'd need to move the soil stack or something IIRC?

Fairylea · 04/01/2019 15:10

Yep I think moving the toilet makes it more costly. The whole soil pipe will need extending or moving.

Butchyrestingface · 04/01/2019 15:10

I had my long but narrow bathroom completely redone about 4 years ago and think it was between £7-8k.

It's not cheap. Sad

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