Small bathroom refurb - are my quotes reasonable?

[BlairWaldorfLovesShopping]

Hi,

We are about to redo our main bathroom, which is only about 1650 x 1950mm. The layout is currently loo/vanity/bath with shower over, and we will be keeping the layout and getting a P shaped showerbath.

We've had 2 quotes:

• Local independent bathroom shop £6,940+VAT for labour & materials, £2,500+VAT for tiles and fittings (WC, vanity, bath, shower and heated towel rail plus the usual hardware) total £11,328
• Sole trader plumber (who came recommended and we have used before) £5,870 (VAT not mentioned) and the tiles and fittings would be whatever we choose. He gave us a couple of trade catalogues where he gets 25% off. If we spend £2,500 on fittings the total would be £8,370.

We have a friend who is a property developer (not where we live, but in the SE like us) who originally told us he thought it could be done for £5k! I'm reluctant to get another quote because we know this plumber and I think that counts for a lot even if someone else was cheaper. But is a tiny bathroom refurb really £8k?! Is the £2,500 reasonable for all fittings and tiles (we'll only tile around the bath and behind the loo and vanity, plus the floor)?

Also, does anyone have any tips on how to fit out a small bathroom specifically? My thoughts so far are:

• Large, pale travertine-type tiles, and non-tiled walls painted white
• Wall-hung vanity to maximise floor space (not sure about a hung WC)
• Would a white vanity or walnut vanity be better - I think a dark one might provide a focal point and look classier but would it make the room look smaller?
• Spotlights in ceiling - or is there a better option?
• I want a large vanity (currently 65cm, thinking up to 80?) or would this look bad in such a small room?

Thanks in advance, I feel so clueless as never done any big house renovations before.

We're in the East Midlands (so not sure about price difference) but we're about to have our bathroom completely stripped out and redone. It's 3x3.5m (ish) which we're splitting into family bathroom and cloakroom, as well as being completely rearranged. We've been quoted just over £6k for the work (by an independent bathroom guy) and then we're spending about £2.5k on toilets, vanity units, shower enclosure, bath, taps and tiles (although not tiling the entire room).

Your first quote especially therefore sounds ridiculously high!

We're in the London commuter belt, and I think that the first two prices are fine, and the 5k one is way too low. We have recently had new bathrooms fitted, so do have some experience of the costs involved.

I'm presuming that your first quote has the prices around the wrong way, and the fittings is the 7k part, not the labour?

The sole trader plumber that you have used before - how long does it take for him to fit a bathroom? Is the £5,870 just for labour? If it's only a week or so, then his labour costs are too high.

If the £5,870 is labour only that's insane, even for SE.

If nothing is moving location and you're not installing high end products I would expect to get it done for £5k.

Nearly 6k for labour is very high!
We are just about to start our similar sized bathroom, materials, tiles and fittings including under floor heating came to under 2k and we've just had a labour quote of 4.5k in zone 3 London. This includes taking down the ceiling and replacing it as it's asbestos, plastering, a new fitted blind etc so we're definitely getting more done than the bare minimum.

We're in the SE and have just had a complete bathroom refurb. Large-ish bathroom and we chose quality fittings and tiles. We used a plumber who we know is excellent and ordered via his trade supplier where he gets a discount. All in it came to 10.5k and there was some minor structural work to be undertaken too.

I should add that our 6k quote is all in, so includes all materials, joinery, skip hire, plastering, electrics, basically everything other than Wcs, vanity units, shower enclosure, bath, taps and tiles (and is 4 weeks labour too!)

Wow thanks for the quick replies. It seems there's no right answer!

I wish I'd got my figures the wrong way round! Ha, sadly not. I didn't want to sound wanky, but we are in a very expensive part of Surrey. I don't know if this makes that much of a difference. The first quote is very detailed and has a 5 page breakdown of all the works costs and yup, they are £6,940

Sedona the plumber has said 3 weeks for the job.

3 weeks for a bathroom less than 2 by 2?!

What on earth are you having done?

Bloody hell!! I also live in a very expensive area, but there's still no way that I would spend that much on labour when it looks like you're spending £2500 on the actual fittings.

For comparison, we spent close to £10,000 on the fittings plus almost as much on labour. It did take almost 6 weeks to fit though, and involved completely replumbing all the way up to the water tank, upgrading the water pressure, replacing and levelling the floor, rewiring, installing underfloor heating, and completely tiling the whole bathroom.

If you're not moving any of the fittings and not having a lot of tiling done then three weeks sounds a bit much.

I got my bathroom done in London a couple of years ago for £4.5k all in. I did go for fairly basic fittings though.

I'm a bit worried now as I really don't want to get ripped off. Is 3 weeks a long time even if it's just 1 person doing it all?

I've found a pic of a similar layout/size - it's basically a mirror image of this, but with a straight bath.

Bear it's just a like for like replacement of everything, so loo, vanity, bath, radiator and shower over bath, plus tiling of floor, around bath, and probably 2 and a half walls. Also replacing single light with spotlights.

Sedona I don't know how much we'll spend on fittings, it's just the bathroom shop estimated £2.5k. We don't want it to be cheap though, more mid range, this isn't our forever home.

Should I get another quote? It seems to take forever to get someone round, and then they take about 3 weeks to get back to you.

I know what you mean about it being a nightmare to get quotes.

Trouble is there plenty of work in SE so builders do not need to put themselves out.

3 weeks to replace a small bathroom like for like is taking the piss though.

Even working at a snails pace I can't get to more than 8 days work

1day - Stripping out
1 day - Making good where required
2 days- fitting new suite
2 days- tiling
1 day- painting
1 day- snagging

I really can't see how anyone could get to double that

We are just doing our bathroom. I bought our Ideal Standard shower bath, shower screen and the taps from bso website and the loo, a hanging wash basin with two drawers underneath and mirror cabinat (also Ideal Standard) from the Ideal Standard clearance website (www.idealstandard-sales.co.uk). I’m very pleased with the quality of it all.

Oh and it’s taken three weeks and it’s not finished yet. Mainly the plumbers fault as he only sometimes turns up for a couple of hours and disappears again. The builder was really reliable though not that quick. We have had all the walls reboarded (with concrete boards around the bath/shower area) and everything replastered but kept the old ceiling. Also tiles around the bath area. Not sure of final bills yet!

we had a total bathroom refurb about 5 years ago - plastering, skirting, floors, extractor, new sanitary ware, tiling, pretty much everything.

we spent about £2.5k on stuff, and about another 2k on labour. Took 4 or 5 days. we painted though.

Those quotes are quite high! We’ve just had 3 bathrooms done and paid under 4K for labour per Bathroom then fittings were about 1.5k including tiles, per Bathroom. So the 5k quote is about right to what we paid, and we’re in London.

I'm sorting my bathroom refit just now, and my fitter is charging me £1.5k for pretty much the same as you've mentioned and including subbing the fitting of underfloor heating to an electrician, false ceiling and soot lights and relocating the shower to the opposite end of the bath. A colleague recommended him and her bathroom is spot on. Fixtures and fitting so far has been £970, using his trade discount. All I need to get is extract fan, shower and shelves, so maybe another £300 max.

In Yorkshire
£2000 for the suite (40% off in the sale)
£1500 for fitting

I found it much cheaper to buy our own fittings and tiles etc-our plumber seemed completely unaware of tilehq etc online. We got baths and sinks from bathroom stores, nice waterfall taps on eBay I think (new and loads cheaper than shops) and tiles online. Got shower tray and shower door online, too. Spent about £1500 on all that and labour about £3000 including tiling.

Actually, the cost of furniture etc was about £750-we got three lots of bathrooms done.

Just done one - knocked down wall, boarded and tiles all walls, completely new sanitary ware, lights, some painting, taking out and filling in unused door, moving boiler pipework, bath, eparate shower, loo, sink, towel rail - £10k all in. Sanitary ware/tiles were £2.5.

I checked this with a relative in the trade and she said the price was right. Does look rather fab now...sadly makes rest of house look shabby!

I do agree with the timings given above. I know they said it would take 3 weeks but that's more to mean they would do it over 3 weeks or perhaps to make it look like a decent price. I think 8 man-days quoted above is a more likely amount of labour.
You could have a look on notice boards in local shops, ask around or even try the phone book - you're likely to find someone local, not necessarily vat registered and working on their own. That way, you could bring the labour cost to 2-3k tops.

2.5k would be a good budget for decent materials. There are many websites offering good value stuff (i.e. discounted quality products not low-quality rubbish).
Design-wise, you could go either with light or wood imitation. Have you had a look on Houzz to see what designs appeal?

3 weeks is ridiculous. In a previous house had bathroom stripped out and new one installed (fully tiled) and it took 8 days whilst we are on holiday. Don't know if he worked every day, sole trader. Can't remember cost

Prices similar to our recent bathroom refurb. Ours took 3 weeks in total. Problem with small bathroom is you can only do one thing at a time. So rip out. cut holes for lights cut hole foe extractor. fit shaver socket in wall. then electrician for a day to connect. Make good walls, if not full tiling then plaster. Board floor for tiling. then day for drying. Fit bath etc. Tile walls & floor then grout next day. following day can fit shower screen bath panel etc. Plumber back to fit towel rail. Paint ceiling and walls then next day paint skirting architrave & door. There is more too it than you think