AIBU to think that plumber is overcharging?

[Sam9769]

Plumber not prepared to give me his daily rate but is prepared to give me a quote for the job.
Cost to remove existing bath, wash hand basin and toilet in ensuite and replace with shower, wash hand basin and toilet.
LABOUR ONLY - £3,000.

AIBU - This quote is fine.
AINBU - He is over charging.

Thank you for this.

I think 3k to replace en-suite in SE is ok but get another quote to compare.

Is he tiling etc? There’s no reason that he can’t / won’t give you his hourly / daily rate, other than trying to rip you off.

A nightmare client who has the audacity to want to know a plumber's daily rate which he's not telling because he knows it's unreasonable! Yeah right!

No problem - so much more involved than just swapping one unit with another if there has been a decade or more interval since last done. I hate the bloody ventilation fans… have to switch them off at night but they are required due to new building regs 😭

We had our en-suite bathroom redone a few months ago. The labour was £4,700 and he took two weeks.

He replaced our old bath with a walk-in shower, replaced the old radiator with a heated towel rail, fitted a new loo and basin, both of which moved location slightly, ripped out all the existing floor and wall tiles and put new ones up (wall tiles are floor - ceiling), and disconnected the old shower over the bath, and reconnected it.

We are in South East England.

of course you are entitled to know, he told you!
£3k for your bathroom.

Have you even bothered getting other quotes? or are you just some very strange vendetta against that poor plumber?😂

I can't believe you haven't even asked him how long it will take? You can work it out yourself if he estimates 2 days (unlikely) or 2 months (unlikely too. Sounds like a week-ish job.

Why would anyone want to pay a daily rate which can drag on and on, instead of a clear, fair and no argument job price.

PS… they do hold you to ransom a bit. I’d get 3-5 quotes and make sure you have those from plumbers who have been recommended. The local community page on Facebook is a good place, or the school/class whatsapp if you have school age children, and asking neighbours for recommendations (my street has a whatsapp and we have a community trades list of people we have used and rate, everything from boiler repairmen, plasterers, gardeners etc).

Don’t hire anyone blind.

he gives you the cost of the job and any normal client would ask how long it will take.

It's not that hard to work out! But you are not at risk to pay more for contingencies, last minute problem or god knows what.

If he's that unreasonable.. just employ someone else? You don't like him and you don't trust him, why do you want to carry on anyway.

He's given you a price for the job. That's what he charges and he is not obliged to give you a day rate. If you are not happy with it, you are absolutely free to go elsewhere.
DIL is a bathroom designer and her fitters charge at least £4-5k for a basic rip out and refit (Cheshire). They don't give day rates, they just give a price for the job.

Thank you. Some good advice there.

We are doing up a very broken house at the moment. We have had quotes from many tradesmen these last 6 months, the ones we could get to actually come out that is or turned up when they said they would but they all quoted for the job, not by the hour. All of them expensive.

Yes, without knowing how many days it will take, £3k sounds a lot if not doing any tiling and you making good of all the decorating needed after. But, if he is a good plumber, you know of him then yeah, I'd probably accept this but I'd expect a first class job. Finding someone to trust is really hard now, so many people get ripped off, including us already with a roofer.. I read the other day that about 30% of Brits are let down by dodgy tradesmen, the whole industry needs regulating.

Just whatever you do, don't pay him all the money until you're happy. Take it from me, my partner learned the hard way.

So you're supplying the new sink shower toilet. I dont think the quote is too bad at all. What about tiling and flooring. I think you 'd expect to pay 8- 12k for a decent new bathroom. Everything included. Could be a a lot more if you want luxury.

There too many variables of what’s involved to know if it’s a fair price or not

No flooring or tiling.

Thank you and good luck with your refurb!

Definitely get more quotes. It may be he doesn’t really want the job so has quoted on the high side. £300 a day is a very reasonable rate - and so I expect he’s quoted so as not to be out of pocket if there are complications. Removing stuff and finding how the last person did all the plumbing could go well - and he could find issues….

I was quoted, about 20 years ago, £10k to replace a shower (including retiling). Just the shower - it was in its own little room (like a converted closet) almost the exact dimensions. This did not include the cost of the tiles! Why? My postcode. I smiled and said no thanks.
I recently paid something close to that but it included completely replacing and moving the toilet, shower and bath around, adding a radiator, moving the door one foot over, retiling with imported Spanish tiles which needed sealing. It did take a couple weeks. I live in SW London (not quite as nice as the address I had before but my house now is worth what that house was then)!

To him its worth £3k. If it isn't worth £3k to you then find someone else.

Utlimately looking at time taken is only part of the picture. Should someone who takes 6 days to do a job get paid double someone who takes 3 days to do the job? Many would pay more for the person who can do it in 3.

Even stuff like how long are you prepared to wait for them to be available - do they need to bump other jobs to do it in the next month or can you wait until they have availability in 3 months time will effect the pricing.

Just get some more quotes.

Get another couple of quotes

The only way to know what’s reasonable is to get multiple quotes. Only getting one is madness.

I’m married to a self employed plumbing and heating engineer. If he senses that a potential customer will be an absolute bell end he gives them a stupidly high quote on purpose. It’s called the Arsehole Tax.

I'm in the SE and the plumber I use charges £280 per day.

Sam's right - you are paying for the result. There's risk ( time) , quality etc. embedded in the quote not just time. Think its high? Get another quote. How do you pay your hairdresser, by the hour?

Surely the cost of a job depends on how long it will take to complete not on how it looks in the end. Time is money.

He can't be sure how long it will take. He doesn't know what problems he might find when he takes out the old fittings. So he quotes for the job, not an hourly rate.