How does this bathroom quote sound to you?

[Russianred]

I just wanted to get some perspective on our quote - it is from the plumber who has re-fitted our central heating system and done all the plumbing in our extension and is very reliable/trustworthy/conscientious/skillled.

We are having everything ripped out and removed (tiling and old suite) and the walls bonded, boarded and re-plastered, a new suite and shower fitted, all plumbing done and all tiling done (metro tiles so time consuming) and have been quoted £3400 for materials and labour. This excludes flooring, painting, skirting boards and electrical work and the cost of those materials.

How does this sound to you?

depends a bit on the quality of the new bathroom suite and shower, but I think that probably is reasonable.

It depends what bathroom suite,shower and the taps you have chosen, the cost of the materials vary so much its hard to say if the quote is fair. Ask for a breakdown of the quote so you can see how much he's put on the trade price of the materials.

We had one fitted two years ago. I checked the council website and found accredited plumber. He was fab. We bought the suite. He ripped out the old one, replastered two walls, put the new suit in. He had a tiler do the walls and an electician put a shower in(wasn't one in before.). We bought the tiles too. Whole lot cost £1500. But my bathroom is literally the length of a bath....it's teeny.

We are getting the suite/shower/taps etc delivered directly here with no extra added on by him - the cost of that is included in his quote though. Suite is a traditional looking one for £499 and the shower is a big exposed pipe, large head for £300. Taps and waste are about £300 I think.

Does that include the tiles and suite and shower?

We bought the tiles ourselves. He quoted us, but I knew I could get them at trade price. We also got a bargain of a shower from someone at DPs work who bought the wrong one, so we got it at a fraction of the cost. We had v little money at the time and stuck to a bog standard bathroom suite(think it was £300 including taps). Tiles cost about £150 I think. Shame he moved away(the plumber) as we now want a shower room and toilet put in downstairs.

Right, this should answer questions! Thank you for all your advice.

Please find below a breakdown of the works to be carried out on your bathroom.

The total charge will be £3378.94 including VAT.

The breakdown is as follows.

New Bathroom

Labour

? Strip out old bathroom and dispose of materials;
? Remove all old tiles;
? Bond, plasterboard and plaster all walls;
? Tile selected area;
? Install waste and pipe work for bathroom;
? Install bathroom suite and connect up all pipe work.
?

Total Labour - £1600 ? for 1 plasterer and 1 plumber for a total of 10 days.

Materials

? Tiles and sundries - £300.
? Bathroom suite - £499.
? Bath Taps - £64.97.
? Basin Taps - £22.97.
? Towel radiator ? 500 x 750 straight chrome - £70.
? Chrome radiator valves - £19.
? Shower screen - £101.
? Shower ? Trend dual control exposed valve and rigid riser (page118 ? 1A) - £302.
? Plumbing sundries ? waste, copper and plastic piping, clips, silicone, tap connectors - £200
? Plastering sundries ? bonding, plasterboard, plaster - £200.

Total materials - £1778.94

Total cost of bathroom - £3378.94.

Please note that this does not include any decorating of the walls or the supply and laying of the floor. It also does not include the skirting boards. It is understood that the electrics will be done by a qualified electrician, at extra cost.

Seems reasonable, although not sure why it's taking 10 days?..mine took 3. I had an entire heating system put in my whole house in about 4 days(which cost £3200). ...I guess it depends where you are too. I am in Scotland and not central, so I guess that lowers cost alone.

Ps worth shopping around and getting more than one quote. We got some ranging from the cheap to 3.5k for our bathroom. We took the middle quote.

Labour costs seem very reasonable to me. Are you moving stuff around or is bath etc staying in the same place?

Water supply being moved to the other end of the bath and radiator being moved to another wall, but everything staying where it is otherwise. I thought labour was fairly reasonable too - he's very good this guy, MrsCB.

I'm waiting on a quote for ours so now I have something to compare when we get it!

All parts are fair price.
I would also query 10 days.
Ask how long a day is!

I've had a straight like for like 2nd fix quote to rip out old suite and tiling (walls and floors come to 22 m2 and install new suite - labour cost only including tiling the wall and floor for £1300 over 4/5 days and that's assuming the walls doesn't need replastering. It's probably a day's work to replaster if required so add £150-£200 plus a few days to dry so I think that your labour price is good since my quote assumes there is no replumbing - just 2nd fix. I've been quoted £26 per m2 for tiling. Rather agree a day rate but running out of steam this week and it's only Tues! I need to supply the sanitaryware and tiles (unless they can source it at a better price than I can). And, the budget is tight since it'll include a separate shower as well as a bath, taps, etc. Even with Roca/Ideal Standard/Bristan products and plain white tiles - £1.5K for materials doesn't seem to stretch far. Definite no to a MATKI shower then! What have I decided? That's it's cheaper to let the plumber/subbie doing the 1st fix for my builder to do it since I'm obviously not going to save money by arranging the 2nd fix works myself - especially when I have 2 more bathrooms and downstairs loo and utility to do.

I am in agreement that materials is all good. labour excessive imho. I would think tewn days split between them would suffice. Or five days with both there at once but that might not work. You will need them both to be in and out doing things around each other so I suppose 10 days each gives a lot of leeway but do ask that if it takes less time you will not be charged for ten days each.

Our plumber replaced the suite in stages, coming in here and there as I did other jobs around him...total probably about 3 full days.
Similar mats cost here (without the shower), but labour was £500 for the plumber and I tiled which would have taken a pro about 3 days so around £300 or less. (not inc tiles - I include them in mats like you).

I'd be knocking around a grand off at any rate. Unless he is VERY good.

To break it down:

1. Old suite removed, isolation valves put in etc. Approx 1 hour.

1. Tiles taking off: two hours, maybe three. Loud and messy but not hard (I did this myself anyway).

1. Walls bonding, boarding, plastering less than a day, then about a day or two to go off and probably at least a week before you can tile over (check this out, I can't remember - didn't reboard most of ours and deffo didn't skim it as aquapanel takes far more tile weight/m2 than plaster. You would put in the skirting before the tiles, too. But it don't take long, half a day perhaps depending on size of room.

1. Put in bath - two hours max.

1. Tile as much as poss - a couple of days including the cuts and corners and so on.

This is the point at which you bung in the floor - having rerouted any pipework you want changing. Make sure you have got your suite already to test it fits where you want it.

Obviously if you are having a freestanding bath you would not put that in till the floor was done.

1. Plumb in new loo and sink. Probably allow about 3 hours but it may be quicker.

1. Have a cuppa and a bath.

Hope this helps give you an idea of when you will need each of them to be there. They will likely have other jobs to dash off to in between.

Basically the tiling will take longest out of all of it.....are you having the floor tiled? that took half a day for us, I didn't do it as by the time I'd bought the diamond wheel cutter etc it'd have cost near enough what the chap was charging.

I did our kitchen floor though and that took a few days but I'd never done it before and had to screed it twice as well.

Oh and if your floor is floorboards, it'll want 12mm marine or at least WBT ply all over it, screwed down every four inches everywhere. That took me a couple of days too.

I think I will phone to clarify exactly how many days they will each be working - obviously the plasterer/tiler won't be here all the time and neither will the plumber. We are going away for two weeks and they are here in that time. It may be that he's charged for that already but hasn't broken it down - ie he anticipates being here for 5 days in total, but spaced over 10. in which case, that is quite £££.

I'm not sure Russian. Have a chat with him. Our bathroom is pretty small, but very tricky as it has nine corners. (!) and is a funny shape.

A larger room with no awkward bits would have been far quicker!

See what he says. I would not be happy going away while having major work done though, that's up to you. If you trust him then it should be fine but I am a nosy bugger and like to peer over their shoulder all the time.

I'm wrong...12 corners.

ha ha ha ha

never again

I read the labour as being a total of ten man-days at £160 per man-day

Thay can't be doing 20 man-days of work, and they can't be working for £80/day

I'm not sure there is really 10 m/d of work in it, but he's got to live.

Hi,

I'm being quoted £2.5K labour for removal of old bathroom suite; replaced with new suite in same place, currently no tiles on walls, so am adding tiles on walls and floors. £2500 sounds a lot, is it?
Oh thats does not include any materials.

thanks!

I think it sounds fair

Rex I'd do it for a darn sight less! Look at my summing up below - plumbing shouldn't be more than 500, nor should the tiling. Well unless it's got any alterations to be done. These things vary massively between builders etc so get several quotes, not just the one. Then choose someone you've seen examples of work by or had a personal recommendation for. Good if they have a website with a gallery of work. Or have worked for a friend or family.

John, I read it as 80/man/day, well I know some work for that sort of money, it depends how good they are really and what it's like demand wise at the moment. DP always has work on but he's contract, ex struggles to fill the weeks in the winter. Get a few quotes is what I'd say.

depending on location, popularity of workman and location it sounds reasonable to me. But I would always get at least three quotes to be sure as this is my procurement policy!