Is my quote to convert bathroom to 2 small en-suites is taking the p*ss

[TightWadinSurrey]

So, we have been working on our house for 18yrs (labour of love) and want to get the final bits done so DH can afford to help the DC at uni over the next 5yrs and then be in position to retire a few years early. Maybe.

Our final project involves converting a long family bathroom that only my son uses into 2 en-suites (current bathroom is 2.4x 5m). This would create 2 rooms of 2.4m squared. Not huge, but perfectly good sized for shower room/en-suites. We want them to be nice in case we have to sell in an emergency (redundancy etc) so planned on sourcing nice walk-in showers, wall hung basins and loos, smart mirrors and towel radiators. Appreciate in the CoL times that there are few bargains to be had, so allowed £5k per room for these and a visit to Topps Tiles. Obviously hoping to do this for much less if I can snag stuff in the sales.

However… the builder’s quote (we’ve used him before, his work is perfect and he’s possibly overly thorough) to remove/chip out an old chimney breast (no longer supporting anything above it), close off a door and open another one from my son’s bedroom, plus the usual gutting, plastering, tiling, redoing the plumbing (big job I accept), lighting & electrics comes to… 26.5k plus VAT.

Ie, each little en-suite will cost us £21k after I’ve bought the stuff to go in it.

For a guest en suite that my MiL uses at Christmas or a drunken mate stops over in a few times a year and another room my 16yo will use until he goes to uni?

My head is exploding as I am thinking wtf??

AIBU - this is a totally fair rate in current times, so stop being so fricking tight
IANBU - this is taking the piss and I should either bin the idea altogether or find someone else at half the price and put the money towards uni accommodation in 2 years?

It's big and dirty job if there's a chimney involved. As you say yourself, they're not going to be heavily used rooms so is it even worth doing? I wouldn't bother.

Also, he's got to build a stud wall, right??

So I saw the 26.5 k and I thought, “that sounds about right” and then I saw that’s without a bathroom and we are talking 42k. I would have probably said 25-30k I’m in SE. Are you in London by any chance? Even with today’s crazy prices that sounds too much. I’d get some more quotes. If they are the same just do up the bathroom with a decent white suite and save the cash.

Might as well be in London, I guess, as I am in a ‘desirable’ Surrey commuter town (which means, acc to a friend whose dad is ‘in the trade’, there’s an automatic £10k premium for our postcode!). Am wondering whether I should check with an estate agent whether some of that outlay would enhance the value of the house… but frankly I cannot see it making a blind bit of difference to the house.

I expected it to be £20-25k all in and, gulp, thought DS would love it and it would make the house more marketable. But 42k?

I think it sounds a fair price, given the work required and the current costs.

Well, do the obvious thing and get another quote or two.

I mean 5K per room was never going to do it when you consider removing the chimney, forming a new wall, creating new doorways, extending the plumbing and drainage, modifying the lighting circuits, modifying the ventilation for the new internal room, new towel rails etc. His quote sounds a little high but not excessively. Do you think he is too busy or maybe doesn't want the job so has gone in high?

Got someone coming tomorrow, and requests for quotes too, but we really love this builder as he’s done most of the work on our house in the last 5 years. He’s great with my dogs and kids (both on the spectrum) and his work is excellent. Our old bathroom is falling to bits so has to be replaced/upgraded whatever, but I just had no idea it could cost that much!

I know it’s not really that comparable, but we have just had a new bathroom put into a room which didn’t have a bathroom in before (so entirely new plumbing needed), including some fairly elaborate electrical work. Cost for labour (it took about 2 months) was £12,500. We are also in a Surrey commuter town.

No £5k is for the shower/sinks/loo/tiles/radiators so is on top of the work he’s doing - expected his bit to be about £15k. So £25k all in?

That's ridiculous. We were quoted £9k for ours ,it's a tiny shower room, so husband did it himself, I bought everything, it was a bit of admin and a couple of things I made mistakes with ordering wrong (small items) but it all came in under £3k.

@Moreorlessmentallystable that’s what I did previously - ordered from various bathstore and plumbers merchants (also made a booboo and had to send a granite shower tray back via courier oops) but previously sources the ‘stuff’ for £3k (Merlyn, Grohe so good brands)… but I just can’t see how labour costs come to £26.5k unless the plasterboard/pipes and subcontractors costs are through the roof now?

I’d say that was pretty comparable, I guess, given the change from 1 set of plumbing/waste etc to 2 sets and the need to rewire etc due to new safety codes electrics and stuff. In which case it sounds as though it may be a fair price… and I’ve just been very naive!

That sounds a lot to me but I'm up north.

Don't get a wall hung toilet. They are prone to problems and no one in the traded uses them if they have the choice.

@portandstiltondreams we have a couple of them already as they are easier to clean around with boys… but as my DS is now 6’3 and built like a prop forward I am thinking it might be wiser to get a floor mounted one for him! 🤣

20years of doing this sort of stuff and of course they are taking the p…
Hugely!!!

Its mainly materials that have risen in price over and above. Not the labour.
I recently had a chimney removed from two floors with no stack above for £1500 and that included making good. I did the painting after.
In Canterbury.

Well I think that's insane money

I would get someone off rated people to come round and install 2 showers/loos/sinks all in the one big room

Before then going back on rated people to get a chippy to put a stud wall up/put a door in

I think the problem is these are different jobs, which is why people get builders rather than break it down into smaller jobs

Would turning it into a Jack and Jill be an option maybe?

Thanks @BarryfromWatford been trying to persuade my DH that as much as we like the guy, his prices have crept up. £40k would build a 2 story extension in some parts of the UK! As far as I can work out the job involves: gutting a bathroom (bathtub etc, wood panels over half wall height, floor tiles) and disposing of the waste; redoing the plumbing so it serves 2 rooms, including new loo waste, which I concede may be complicated; new downlights/shaver sockets/extra fan to current codes; chipping out old chimney; erecting a partition; skimming or plastering walls/ceiling/partition; installing shower enclosure/base, loo, sink; plastering and tiling 9msq on floors and similar for walls in showers. I thought 15k was fair?

My dh, an architect as am I, just said
f…… he’ll!
is it Buckingham Palace🤣🤣

I’d say £15k is extremely fair. For that I would expect power showers, grohe etc. All top quality.

@BarryfromWatford am so glad DH had the same response as me!! An no, though it’s a bloody lovely house after all the years and sweat we’ve put in it, it’s no BuckPalace!! 🤣

I think that I would just refurb what you have, assuming that the other quotes come in fairly close. If you do go ahead I'm sure you know that the cheapest is not the same as the best.

I would ask builder to break down cost, a neighbour of ours had a chimney breast removed, the builders were there quite a while, so presume a lot of this quote is for the building works, also making 2 en-suites out of one does involve an extra soil pipe to outside and a lot of new pipework. My DH is a recently retired bathroom installer and we are in Surrey and agree prices for work recently have doubled from a few years ago.