How long to fit a bathroom? & dealing with builders

[guiltynetter]

We are having a new bathroom fitted, it’s the first ‘big’ piece of decorating we’ve had done since we bought a house so I’ve never dealt with builders or tradesmen before.

We got a builder highly recommended to us from a friend he had done work for. The work he’s doing is ‘rip out suite, rip out tiles, rip out cupboard, make good walls, change plumbing, re tile, fit new ceiling’ on a small bathroom.

It’s been 2 weeks now and it looks nowhere near finished. He originally said it would be finished today but he’s left at 1.30 (i assumed to get materials) and not returned! i think most days he’s been coming at 9, leaving at about 2. we’ve been having to go to my in laws for a shower for 2 weeks now and it’s getting me down!

anyway, what’s the deal? should i be ringing and asking what’s going on? i’m aware i probably sound a bit wimpy but i’m a bit worried about annoying him and don’t know if i’m being unreasonable or if this is how long bathrooms take, or unreasonable to expect him to do full days. is this normal builder behaviour?!

any advice appreciated :)

Ours took 6 working days but the toilet and sink were usable on day 2 sand the shower was usable by day 4 or 5. Day 6 was really just for snagging any problems.

He's probably finishing other jobs, picking up stuff from the wholesaler and quoting for other work. Some tradespeople do this - our bathroom fitter certainly did and it took two weeks instead of 10 days to do the bulk of the work then over the next fortnight he had to deal with snags. And he wondered why I wasn't prepared to pay more than he'd quoted for his alleged extra work.

Ring and ask him when it'll be finished as you need it sorting.

We're having ours done at the moment. It's a small bathroom but quite a big job as the house is quite wonky and there had also been an undiscovered leak causing rot. Anyway, we're a week in today and our plumber is hoping to have it done by the end of next week.

We’ve had a working toilet the whole time, no shower for 2 weeks and no sink for a week. It’s the half days that are annoying me! and communication...

Ours took two weeks; but that was builder working 8 to 5, and 8 to 3 on Saturdays. It's a long messy job...

5 days for ours - from stripping off a fully tiled room which made half the wall come down, to replastering all of that, fully re-tiling, bath, shower, loo, flooring, moving a radiator.

Got a bit like the final minutes of 60 minute makeover by the end with people flooring around people tiling - but it was started Monday and finished by Friday knocking off time.

If completion date was estimated to be today next time he comes in ask him how long because he originally quoted x day to be finished and it looks nowhere near

Ours was meant to take 2 weeks, ended up taking 4 because there were unexpected issues. Our builder was great though, kept us informed and worked crazy hours one weekend to try and get it finished before he was away.

I think it’s ok to just politely ask for a time frame and say it’s getting you down a bit and could he give a realistic update on what’s taken longer than usual and how much more is expected.

Ours was done by a bathroom company and took three weeks

It's tiny too

Ours took 4.5 days , no idea how someone spends 3/4 weeks doing a bathroom unless those 3/4 weeks isn't time spent on the job but time from start to finish.

Our builder took 7 days to do a bathroom and kitchen, including knocking a wall down. 2 weeks seem excessive. You're perfectly within your rights to ask for a timeframe for completion. The lack of shower for that long would get me down.

Not had experience of doing a bathroom but I will do soon!

You're not being wimpy. You are paying him money at the end of the day, you have the right to ask questions. Maybe make a list of things you want to ask so you're not continually questioning him. But to ask for a timeframe is absolutely reasonable. They are quite used to being asked!

thanks very much for the response! i messaged him today basically saying i understand everything doesn’t always go to plan but, if i’m in, if he could give me a quick update when he’s leaving so i know what we’re up to etc. i told him in a nice way i wasn’t too impressed with him leaving at dinner today without saying anything.

he’s a man of few words so didn’t expect much back so i was surprised to get quite a long apologetic message saying he will try his best to be finished by next weekend and that we could use the bath for the time being (we hadn’t realised) so i’m so glad i asked now.

Well done! Not only do you have a useful bath update but you also now have his estimated timescales in writing. I really really don't enjoy dealing with tradespeople that I haven't used before, it's all learning I suppose.

Our (small) bathroom was a complete re-fit. It took two men 3 weeks, and no 'slacking' plus an extra visit from electrician and plumber for some complicated bits.

A week maximum