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

Too soon. 😆

I'm in the North East but in 2022 paid less than £3,000 for removal of old fittings, new bath/shower/toilet sink, full removal of old tiles, cladding all round and new flooring!

I was going to make a post like this!

We've just been quoted 11-14k for labour and 4-5k for fixtures. Christ.

NW here, we had ours done in November by a reputable local firm. It was £11,500 for everything, including new suite, fully tiled, new ceiling, floor, window. The fittings are top quality and it looks fantastic.

We had ours done in November. Wall panels, flooring, ceiling panels and new suite,power shower,spot lights and heated towel rail, vanity unit and light up anti mist mirror. Almost 11 grand in Staffordshire. They removed everything and disposed of old tiles and bathroom too. Was an 8 months wait list as they're amazing.

I had mine done last year. I paid £5000 for labour, which was organised by the plumber but included an electrician, painter, joiner and tiler as well as himself. He also included a few bits - shower pump, fan, lights and a few hidden plumbing bits. I bought the rest of the materials as cheap as possible. I paid cash for the skip which he organised. Total cost was somewhere between £7000 and £8000. I thought £5,000 was a lot but I had other quotes which came out similar or more.

Some firms don't want the job if it's labour only I found.

We were quoted £8k for the absolute most basic bathroom at the end of last year. Also SE. PLUS VAT.

We got very good quality fixtures and fittings with 10 year guarantees, nice tiles and painting / electrics, did nothing ourselves except choose and buy fittings, we paid around 11-12k but we could definitely have done it cheaper. Plumber wasn't cheap but was v trustworthy and meticulous in his work, did an excellent job and managed all elements for us. Cost for labour, waste removal, painting, electrics, lights etc was around 6k.

Agreed. Bathroom fitting and plumbing aren't quite the same thing.

You can keep costs down by sorting your own tiles, fixtures and fittings and basically paying for the labour.

I just did one for £2750. I supplied the fittings (with the plumber advising) and my local plumbing firm fitted it all for 1800. (He has people who do plumbing and tiling.) Then someone else did the floor. Other quotes came in at a similar price (East Midlands).

Ours was £7k about 2 years ago. We provided some of the stuff (shower and tray) and then the plumber ordered cabinates and everything else. South East.

My DH felt this was too much so we are doing the other one ourselves using YouTube videos. So far so good...

I was talking to a friend this morning - she is in Milton Keynes. Got quotes of £19k and £21k for a really standard bathroom!
Put me right off... was hoping to get ours done for £10 (London)...

Blame brexit. All the workers have gone.

I had mine done recently, got rid of everything, new layout, bath replaced by a glorious walking shower, waterproofing, extrator fan installed, new electrics, new plumbing, plaster etc...
9k for labour and materials, 4.5k for tiles and fixtures.

Very very happy with it. But it was a lot of work.
Edit: Im in London

Absolutely ridiculous.

I'm in the South East 30 miles from London and have had about 8 high spec bathrooms installed in different houses over recent years

Pick the fittings you want and then get a tradesman from my builder, a decent multi skill tradesman is about 250-300 a day. Shouldn't take more than 10 days ish for a toilet/shower/bath/retile, add a few days on if it's larger and you are changing lights/needs replastering in places.

Worth getting time booked in (you need to wait for a good one), explain what you want take some advice (eg don't have tiny tiles unless you are happy to pay a fortune for labour) and then be prepared to reorder and buy extra things during installation.

I'm very lucky, DP is a plumber, as i know the labour costs are the expensive part. I'm doubly lucky as he's a brilliant tiler too (although I had the messy grouting & all the painting).

I planned the look for months & hunted & hunted for what I wanted online, getting keen prices by using lots of sites. Also got floor tiles locally & found an amazing antique piece of furniture locally too.

Smallish, downstairs bathroom, but still has a shower.

I sourced for 2K:
Loo
Sink
Taps
Shower
Shower screen
Tiles
Tile trim
Towel radiator
Towel holder/loo roll holder
Adhesive
Black grout

We didn't move anything, replaced like for like, but DP says labour would have been 3k (Scotland) , so i can only imagine what it is for a large bathroom that needs plumbing moved.

Well I did assume a basically level of adult knowledge on what to buy it’s not that difficult, plumbing isn’t some dark art! And the company's you buy from advise if you don’t know anything at all.

I’d rather not have a snotty plumber work for us if they only do a good job when they margin everything up to the max and still buy shit quality!

I was quoted £14k for my en suite with Wickes. Pricing the same materials online saves about a third, and getting a plumber and tiler separately will save more.

as pp has said, is there anything you could do yourself?

We've just paid just under 18k for a very small standard bathroom. Plain fittings, back to brick including the ceiling, plus flooring. Plumbing all staying in the same place.

The installation costs were around double the cost of the actual bathroom. It does include a matt wet wall which was expensive, but the rest is quite plain. It doesn't include replacing the window so we do need to pay extra for that, and buy the light. Oddly didn't include the light.

The cost is sickening, but our bathroom is around 25 years old and was unfortunately never done very well in the first place. We should have complained more at the time!

Edited to say that one of the reasons we're paying so much is for it to be all organised and the different trades coordinated for us. We tried to do it the cheaper way the first time around, and it was so stressful coordinating the people and it wasn't completed to a very high standard. I'd be very wary of doing this way unless you know good reputable trades people, or you're good at DIY yourself. Just our experience. This way, it's a big company, and 10 year guarantee.

I bought all the materials and got a guy in labour only. The labour was £1800

material's will be whatever spec you want/ need.

he did spend around £300 on materials (I’d agreed I was happy for him to do this) - as the bathroom had a change in layout and I wanted him to get the pipework etc. but he provided a full breakdown and reciepts.

Just had a main bathroom and cloakroom done for £8.5k. We splashed out on tiles and a lovely vanity sink, but otherwise stayed fairly simple. No major building work and only moved where the shower head was by about a foot, so it wasn’t a tricky job. LVT flooring, shower over bath, mid range taps etc. East Mids.

The actual fixtures start at around £1000 but you then need to add pipework, taps, tiles, flooring, paint, lighting if changing which even if very basic options are chosen double it. The killer is actually labour, it’s about a week for a small bathroom possibly a couple more days if it’s a trickier shape and fully tiled, so how much you can get a plumber for is the sticking point. I paid £350 for a days labour last year fixing something so even a cheap person will be thousands

@Puffalicious. Always handy, I was shocked at the price as my dad is a plumber except he’s now very much retired and 100 miles away do I felt guilty dragging him here. He did install my kitchen though

All south east in need of a new bathroom and reeling at the prices! Various very ouchy quote and are going with the ones that came in at £14k, but this also includes replacing the downstairs loo and sink (not moving any plumbing or tiling in that room). I swapped out for a cheaper bath than I was originally going to go for, on the grounds pretty much only use the bath to wash the dog after muddy walks, we all use the shower now.

Kitchens similarly are a lot more expensive! In my head I could get a decent kitchen installed for £10k. Seems installation costs are the thing that takes the most money in the south east so no, that’s not a reasonable budget.

this is part of my general complaint that in the last 15-20 years, everything has got more expensive but general wages haven’t risen in line with them.

I'm getting my shower cubicle demolished (solid walls) and a new bigger walk-in shower installed. The plumbing company I'm using has quoted £2900 all included. Worth it IMO.

Edited to add I'm having shower wall panels fitted to the back not tiles as grouting always goes manky.