AIBU to expect to get a new bathroom for under £10k?

[getmeoutofhear]

We are getting our old bathroom renovated, or we need to, as it's leaking and moldy and the sink is broken... but I can't believe the quotes coming back. We are not even looking at fancy fixtures and fittings, pretty ordinary, and it's a tiny bathroom with just room for a sink, a loo and a shower. I got one today which is £14k plus tiles and paint to be supplied. Last week I was told £9k for labour and £3-4k or more for materials.
We are in the Southeast - but is this normal? e

This is what we did too, we bought sink, toilet, bath, shower etc from a company (we love bathrooms I think it was called) and used a local fitter to install. With tiling, moving/replacing a radiator and replacing bits of damp walls/floor too the fitting was 3.2k. the whole thing was just over 5k. We're in Scotland. When I went through b and q the quote was around 9k and didn't include the radiator or damp work

@District66 the difference there is you agreeing to buy the things that the plumber told you he'd need. That works as they don't have to store it. Buying your own because you think your plumber is going to overcharge you doesn't tend to go down well. The fittings are rarely the high cost aspect of a bathroom anyway, its the labour , especially if there are any major changes like moving items around, or needing to go back to brick.

Agreed but I also say to people have a go at doing yourself because you can get it wrong three times before it’s costing you the same as bringing in the so-called professionals and some of the jobs I’ve seen on in people’s house is mind blowing
If you are going to pay 10 K asked to physically see their work I would have no issue with a potential customer coming to my house to see the work my Electrician did for example because it was so neat and tidy and perfect
I wouldn’t mind them taking photographs either if it helped them secure new customers because I’m so pleased
If your tradesmen can’t offer you that as reassurance keep looking

Based in the SW. We're getting ours done in a few weeks and it's a full rip-out-and-replace job because the previous owners decided to try their hand at DIY plumbing in a 400 year old property...🙄
Ours is coming in at £10k total for freestanding bath, new toilet, vanity units, separate shower enclosure, new walls/ceiling/floors and all plumbing and electrics etc. - that is broken down by around £6k labour, £1.5k new window, and £2.5k for fixtures/fittings, tiles, flooring etc.

Rather than go through Wickes or similar, we have designed and/or sourced all of the elements ourselves from various places, and are using a trusted contractor to bring it to life.

I'm a designer so it's second nature to me, but would highly recommend approaching it this way, as you'll save money, and have a bathroom that it designed to your perfect specifications. Have a look on Drench.co.uk for some inspiration, and try BetterBathrooms instead of just getting it all from Victorian Plumbing! Or DM me if you'd like any other recommendations/floor plan making guide 😊

If it's replacing like for like then it shouldn't cost that much or anything close to it. If it's gutting the entire bathroom and putting a new one in then it's probably on the high side but not out of the ordinary. We did the floor and tiling ourselves (which is a lot easier than you imagine and plenty of online tutorials from B&Q etc), sourced everything ourselves and our neighbour is a plumber and he fitted them. We had very little new pipes and his work was about a day. That was our entire labour cost.

If you can refresh the tiles/grout and do most yourselves beyond the plumber installation you'll save a lot. If not then unfortunately you'll be paying a huge amount for labour. The majority of the cost of a new bathroom will be labour so the only way to really reduce the cost significantly is to take on some of the labour yourselves.

We did ours ourselves (well, DH did!) and it cost:

Tiles (walls and floor) - £1,200
Walk-in shower screen, tray and fittings - £500
Sink / vanity unit - £300
Toilet - £150
Mirror - £250
Towel radiator - £300
Other fixtures (toilet roll holder, towel hook, floating shelves) - £250
Lighting - £500 (but could have been cheaper if I wasn't being fussy!)
Materials (sealant, grout etc) - around £150 - £200.

So probably slightly less than £4k overall.

I know not everybody is able to do it themselves and I'm very lucky that DH is in the trades but the cost compared to getting bathroom fitters in is ridiculous really. We just wouldn't have had the money to spend £10k plus on it.

Sorry should have said, ours is a large-ish bathroom too (would have been space for a bath and a shower if we didn't want a wet room / walk in shower setup).

Im in South East Kent, but cant find a decent bathroom fitter/ plumber at all.
Id rather not bother than use someone rubbish.

Where in the south east are you? I’ve done three bathrooms in the last year, and a couple in London within the last five years. Have never paid more than £10k per master bathroom, and got the labour for an en-suite by using a plumber plus tiler for £3.5k. As others have said, you can source all of your own pieces (also check out Lusso and QS supplies) and get it done relatively affordably. I would recommend the builder who did our last two bathrooms

We had our en-suite bathroom done just before Christmas. Also in the south east (Surrey).
Husband was very keen that we did it for less than £10k. In fact I overspent the budget but only by a few pence (less than £1).

We replaced the old bath with a new walk-in shower, the old radiator with a heated towel rail and the old loo and basin. All the tiles were replaced (walls floor to ceiling plus floor).

We kept the old shower, light and bathroom cabinet, which were fine. We intended to keep the old extractor fan but it stopped working so that is being replaced next week so will cost a bit extra.

Labour was £5.5k and we also paid him about £800 for the material that he supplied (stuff like grout, plasterboard etc). We bought the other stuff ourselves from a bathroom studio that he recommended (he liaised with them too, to make sure that everything was right) and I also bought the tiles separately.

Your quotation does sound too much. If you’re anywhere near SW Surrey and DM me I’ll give you his details!

Mine was £8000, fully tiled, flooring new ceiling with spotlights.

When we renovated, I went online and found showers / baths / taps / toilets etc that I liked and bought them.

Same with the tiles.

Then hired a plumber and a tiler to fit it all.

The labour was about £3k, but only because we wanted tiles floor to ceiling around the entire rooms (they are smallish bathrooms and we have young children splashing about, I also just liked the look of it).

The cost of fixtures and fittings is what you make it…you can buy them second hand on ebay amd spend a fraction of what you would new, or you can buy bespoke products for thousands. For a mid range white suite (sink, toilet, bath) you can probably find all that new from somewhere like Victoria Plumbing for around £800. Taps and shower heads etc probably going to take it up to £1000.

So you can see how your £10k for a standard bathroom refit can be bought down to £4k.

My friend did her bathrooms at the same time as we did and paid about £12k plus the cost of tiles for a company to come in and do it all. They don’t look any higher quality than ours do, in fact because I found higher quality tapware I think ours look better. Look at Abi Interiors for taps, faucets etc.

i’m slightly flabbergasted it’s so much! We were talking about doing ours this year. I thought it would be half that!

I'm in the end of a back to brick bathroom replacement. It's quite a large room. The guy fitting it started it in October, said it would take a week and suggested I move out as, basically, that's the only toilet in the house.

I moved out, came back. It was back to brick, nothing replaced. He's been working on it a few hours a week since and last week I sacked him. Everything leaks. Nothing is finished. I'm heartbroken. My house is a tip and I can't cope with the mess.

The bathroom fittings cost £3k. The flooring, plastering, electrician cost another £1k. The guy cost £2k. Miscellaneous things like paint, silicone, coving, another £1k. Now I'm left with damaged units, plaster starting to fall off because of leaks and I'm looking at £3k to get it rectified and finished. I don't have £3k so it's going to take probably a year to get bits done as I save up more money.

The guy was very cheap at £2k. Other quotes were around £7k. I've learned my lesson... Its actually made me quite ill.

Also in the SE.

Yes each time we have had a bathroom done the quotes have always been double what we thought they would be.

We have lived with 2 vile bathrooms for over a decade, but have just had them done. 1 main bathroom, 1 small ensuite. Over 30K for the 2. Plumbing did not move around apart from location of shower heads, but we had walls built out for loo frames, hidden cupboards drilled into walls, new electrics, didn't invest too much in white goods, but invested a fortune in Hans Grohe showers and taps, and we had our old tank fed system replaced with pressurised cylinder, which was a huge faff. A single HIB mirror alone is 700 quid! I'll be a long time recovering financially but it's a pleasure now having a shower without wondering if it's going to electrocute me. Luckily, I genuinely enjoy tinned beans. Our old bathrooms were installed almost 30 years ago, and were just horrendous. I went with a duo plumber and tiler who work together on renovation projects. I spent years procrastinating due to the cost, but finally had to accept it was what it was to get "forever" bathrooms.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Maybe a local bathroom company would work with you and accept a payment plan if you explain what happened?

My new bathroom… was not a bathroom previously so had to bring all the plumbing in. My partner is quite hands on so went on YouTube and did quite a bit himself. We have underfloor heating and total spend has come out at £6k (£2300 in labour for the tiling) and £550 for the tiles. I’m quite proud! As know we could have paid so much more. Would post pics but not sure how!

Managed pics haha

We are in the SE and had an independent plumber/bathroom guy do ours. He came recommended.

Completely ripped out old bathroom, took it all back to bare walls, plastered ceiling, fitted wall boards, LVT floor, supplied shower tray/cubicle, sink, toilet, cupboards and vanity cupboard, changed some piperwork and fitted new fan and did some electrical work, £7,500 all in. Did a great job.

East Midlands- had ours done a year ago at around £3000. We had the bath/shower switch ends but everything else stayed the same. We went into b&q and bought everything for around £1200, got a plumber to fit for £1800 that included everything including tiling etc

Just halfway through a new bathroom right now. 2.5k for tiles, suite, shower etc, plumber 1.5k. We stripped everything out ready for him. It’s looking good!

Mine was two years ago - £7k
this included ripping out old suite, installing new bath, toilet, sink with vanity unit and shower with glass screen over bath, tiled floor and walls tiled to ceiling. It also included a mirror with ambient lighting. All fitting. I thought I paid a lot although I was very pleased with the finish.

I just had my main family bathroom and the en-suite done. We had all new fixtures, new flooring and new tiling for both, and it came to just under £8,500 in total.

We bought all the fixtures and tiles ourselves and then arranged for 3 different plumbers to come and give us quotes to do the work. We then hired a separate guy to do the flooring too.

There isn't really any such thing as a "forever" bathroom. Unless you don't use it much or are planning on dying in the next 15 years.

Scale,deposits, mould and general wear and tear will knacker most bathrooms within 15 years.

They also tend to date more quickly than other rooms in the house due to the fixed furniture (stuff like basins and shower cubicles) and tile styling.