Astonished by quotes

[MeMeMeow85]

I’ve been gathering quotes for work on our new house. Really basic stuff, nothing fancy/elaborate and I’m really astonished by the quotes I’ve been sent!!

The decorating quote is £11.5k excluding paint!!! The curtain quote is £14.5k. Carpets for just stairs/landing/bedrooms are £6.5k (and that’s not even a wool carpet).

Our new house is in Surrey (we moved to UK recently). Are these quotes normal??! I haven’t chosen luxury suppliers/designers. Just smaller companies and people recommended and well regarded on local networks.

Do contractors look at a house and charge more if it is bigger/nicer area? Is it subjective based on what they think you can afford?

I don’t mean charge more because you need more materials (like more carpet/material), I mean are their actual labour charges higher.

2 builders quoted to replace a bathroom. The labour costs and plumber supplies (not the sanitary ware or tiles which I’ve have to buy separately) are between £5-7.5k!! Just for the work in a medium size shower room (estimated 10-14 days work).

Starting to think that my DC should skip uni and learn a trade instead!

Any thoughts please?

P.s. this isn’t intended as a “stealth boast” or whatever the mumsnet term is. Interested in how to get reasonable quotes. If labour is really so expensive here, fine, but I don’t want to be taken for a ride, because I’m not familiar with what the normal rates are. Thanks

It sounds pricey tbh. That's what complete refurb of my downstairs costed including taking down walls, new kitchen and toilet

Decorating is generally about £500-£600 for an average sized room here (circa 4mx4m).

I think your bathroom quote is about right.
Curtains will entirely depend on fabric choices and how elaborate they are.

Your carpet quote sounds very expensive.

We are also in an area which gets a premium whacked on top its very frustrating but I would second the suggestion of looking at larger providers who don't change their charges dependent on your postcode.

Yes mine is a largish room but has painted cupboards with diamond shaped panes of glass with wooden glazing bars, a fireplace surround and two large segmented windows. Curtain poles to come down and everything else re handles and switches/sockets removed, not painted around. Also fresh dust sheets were supplied and the decorator moved furniture around. 5 days at £200 isn’t unusual for a complex room, decent prep and a good final finish. Surrey prices would be similar.

What you can do depends what time you have, what type of job it is and how much you earn! If you would rather spend several weekends decorating or going out, the going out wins for us. However we decorated a room in DDs flat. Took a day and it was easy.

Definitely look at John Lewis - they do a consultation service that works out free if you buy bits from them - but also gives you a base comparison rate.
Also check carpet shops in cheaper areas of you want to use local people (2 miles away, one was half the price of the more expensive one). Things like Bathroom, get quotes from local bathroom shops for fittings and installation. Our bathroom was 6k all in, but the person the place hired has become our go-to for tiling etc.

Agree about getting quotes for carpets from John Lewis. Their carpets are made by Cormar and we got 3 double bedrooms done in a really plush polypropylene carpet with a recycled crumb underlay for about £1400 in total. Labour costs were only about 1/5 of the total. That bit may vary with location, mind.

Its crazy! I swear as soon as they see a Surrey or London postcode they automatically assume you're rich & double the price. We have Welsh relatives that had a loft conversion done a few years back for 15k, whereas we were quoted 45k for similar in Surrey. Would be cheaper to ship the men over from Wales & put them up in a Travelodge for a few months than pay local prices! We didn't bother in the end!

Surrey is expensive and decorator quotes vary. Our basic painter is £150 per day, for high end it's more like £250 per day (spray paints for a better finish) but is quicker. It depends on what you need. John Lewis curtains and try not to shop in esher or Cobham for anything. English and oriental carpets were more reasonable as were Ashley carpets.

Just almost at the end of a massive house remodel (only two rooms as before and big two story side and front extension). My carpet costs for two big bedrooms, large hall and stairs with pure wool carpet and top underlay was £1200. All the decorating came to £7000 and there was tons: whole new extension, existing living room, new hall and stairs, old kitchen, bathroom and ensuite with colours of choice. Every single bit of the house has been painted apart from two bedrooms. All my curtains have come from IKEA as we've reached the end of our budget! Nice though - particularly happy with the pale teal velvet bedroom curtains.

I think the quotes sound crazy... They are looking at your house and seeing £££££££££££

I'm in Herts by the way so not a particularly cheap area but cheaper than London (and Surrey possibly)

Hi @Brickswithstones yes just PM me !! I have a spreadsheet

DailyMaui: what size were your rooms, stairs and hall? Two big bedrooms must be 15m2 each, stairs 5m2 and hall 15m2 so it must be around 50m2 total ( and no landing?) and you have a 100% wool carpet, underway and fitting for £1200? So everything for £24 per m2? That’s not pricing I have seen anywhere? Was it legit? It must be very thin wool.

Bubbles there are pure new wool available online for under £15sm and £13.99 sm from carpetright. Not thin either, just shop around.

We've just a renovation in NW, hi @puguin86 @brickswithstones
For carpets we got a offcut for daughters room as didn't want to spend much, but the carpet was fab so we got 2nof other bedrooms as offcuts, bearing in mind one of the rooms is over 5 meters by 3 and half meters. Try united carpets.
Other issue of renovation is decent trades people, usual the good ones are not available for ages. We have an amazing painter who I'd have happily paid more for, whole house about 10 rooms is coming less than 2k.

Winds me up that they price based on what they think you can pay.

They think youre stupid that you cant work out a rough day rate and see its extortionate. I ask for a breakdown by man hours and rate.

They charge more for big jobs too. Probably helps cover the cost of not turning up on time, leaving to get things, tea breaks, leaving again, knocking off early. Etc.

@Ariela in our case we get someone in because it's cheaper than doing it ourselves. My DP is self employed and if he took a week off for decorating it would lose him over £2k. We recently had our kitchen and bathroom painted. Cost £500 (mates rates) and has been done far better than if we'd done it ourselves.

Having said that my DP did paint our living room while he was out of work. I did have to repaint one wall while he was out at the weekend as it was awful!

OP, the bathroom quote doesn't seem too horrendous. We paint £7k for ours but that did include tiles and bath, shower, etc.

The curtaining I can understand if it's fabric dependant. Dunelm and John Lewis are your fallbacks here if you don't want to spend that much. Unless they're odd shaped windows you can buy ready made curtains far cheaper and get a local handy man to put up some poles for you.

I think recommendations also come more expensive. A blind fitter I know admitted to putting his prices up if it was a repeat or recommended customer as he knew he'd likely get the job so made the most of it.

*we PAID £7k, not paint. Grr.

Thanks all. I will arrange for JL to give carpet quotes etc, as at least they don’t vary wildly by postcode!

I just received a final quote for the shower room installation... £10,200!!! Just for labour. I must have “moron” written on my forehead. The same guy also quoted £816 to move 1 ceiling light fitting 1.5 metres in the same room 😂

Back to the drawing board. I think I’ll just take photos and dimensions of the jobs and send them to builders via email, rather than invite them over to quote. I don’t mind spending money to get a good finish etc, but I really resent someone taking the piss!! Thanks again for listening to my first world woes 😊

The cost of handmade curtains is a real shock to the system, though, even out here in the sticks. I understand why Scarlett O'Hara turned hers into a ballgown. I'm going to be taking mine to every single house I own and then be buried wrapped in them like a Norse warrior.

I have also been astonished at the cost of 'house jobs'! We're also in Surrey.

We've just had our little front fence repainted and a small section of woodwork on the front of our house... one company quoted £2k!!! I found a local handyman who did it for £500 and did a perfectly good job!

A window cleaner quoted us £130 each month ...our local guy dies it for £35!

It's so hard to know who is trying it on and what is actually a fair quote!

Get to know your neighbours and ask around for recommendations.

Good luck!

Bubbles the carpet is lovely - not thin at all and pure wool, bought from a shop in The Olde Mill, Barton Le Clay. My friend spotted how good value they were and I went and had a look. They are called Dean's Flooring. I think it was £16.99 psqm. Very happy with it.

I live in Germany and we wanted to renovate our hallway and kitchen in our row house.Basically what was planned was taking down one wall and opening it up, new wooden floors , new kitchen and appliances , new cloakroom with built ins and of course repainting.Its not a big house so the area to be done was about 25 sqm.We were quoted Euro 100, 000! I'm still in shock.

Essentially yes, theyre trying it on because of where you live.

This is the same with most things. They ask where you live and what you do so they can price accordingly.

CalonGlas ... burried and wrapped in them like a Norse warrior ...

Brilliant!

I’m convinced that people do quote higher if they think you can afford it. We stretched ourselves to buy a nice house but now we’re broke. Every time we get a quote they look at our house and think they can charge more. But we spent all our money on the house!

I’m unsurprised by the bathroom quote. We’re up north and we spent £3.5k on plumber/electrician/plasterer/tiler, and my DH did the building work on floors and walls himself. So if we’d paid a builder as well I can believe we would have spent as much as you’ve been quoted.

£500 a room? Every room is different size and that is very misleading and ignorant.