25k for a re-plumb?

[stillworkingitout]

In the process of buying an older house. It needs a fair bit of work but is not unliveable. Have managed to keep a chunk of equity to modernise and was chatting to our plumber about a re-plumb. He says £25k for a full re-plumb (water supply to bathrooms and kitchen plus new radiators and pipes). This seems like madness to me, but I’m not in the know. What do you think?

It does sound like madness unless your new place is 5000sq ft and will be kitted out with state of the art designer radiators.

How big is your house? We have a 3 bed semi and replumb for kitchen, bathroom, 8 radiators (all new) and a new combo boiler cost just under £6k in SE. Ours was a shell so access was easier but I don't imagine it affected the price that much.

It sounds very high.

Can you roughly price up the materials online; new boiler(?), radiators, approx pipe lengths (copper/plastic) plus connectors & fittings?

Your plumber should be able to provide something like this which he would then need to add labour costs to (possibly £200 per day). If there will be floors to be lifted and walls to be channelled, this will add further labour/repair costs.

Get three quotes

It is a larger house, not sure how big, haven’t calculated the square footage. At the moment it’s just a conversation between my DH and our plumber. I think the plumber may have thought of a number and added a bit just to give us a buffer. I suspect that the work will probably be done in stages over a few years, starting with the bits that need it most. We could maybe afford it (at the expense of other things) but we have to live in the house so won’t be taking it back to the shell

Does this mean putting in new pipes throughout?
We just had a new Combi, 3 rads and re-siting of boiler upstairs for £3000, up Nirth

North!

So house is approx 3000 sq. ft. I can accept that it might be double @TitusP cost but 4x seems a bit crazy.

Tell dh, to go to evening classes and learn to plumb.

It really isn't that hard. I say that as someone who has replumbed an old hotel, changing toilet blocks into shower cubicles, adding shower rooms, adding toilets, redoing the kitchen (big enough to cater for 60 (max size of the hostel ... Hotel into hostel) including dishwasher. Creating a couple of washing machine rooms on different levels.

Only thing a pro did, was fit the boiler, and a couple of pumps, the rest I did as a learn as I go.... Oh I forgot to say, I was 18 at the time.

That’s a similar size to my house. No way would that cost 25k! Get several other quotes.

Mind you, the boiler will probably cost 2-3x what most people pay as it needs to be very powerful to cope.

Doesn’t need a new boiler as it has a 2yo Vaillant system boiler large enough to cope. We are considering an unvented cylinder though. The quote (guesstimate) really only covers replacement of supply pipes to kitchen and 2x bathrooms, and new radiators and new pipework for radiators.

Not even a new boiler? Are you sure you need new pipes? Or just a power- flush (I think that's what it's called but it's basically a deep clean with chemicals). The guestimate is completely off.

New supply pipes for sure as there is an awful lot of lead. New heating pipes I’m not so sure - installation was about 1980 so there is an argument for replacement based on age I suppose. Some new rads are needed. Some are quite new. (And some rooms don’t even have rads at the moment )

Once upon a time we would have considered doing a chunk of work ourselves, but not since having kids. They’re still small and need seemingly constant attention

I don't think a plumber would want to do it on a daily rate, it would just be a price for the job. Otherwise there's no incentive to be efficient. The money is in quoting a job on what it's worth and finishing it quicker than the average time.
However 25k does sound a lot, depending what is included. To price accurately if a lot of work, and you need 3 quotes on a proper spec to compare.

It sounds like the plumber doesn't want the work so has put in a silly quote.

I can tell you this - we're in the process of having a replumb done; new boiler and vented HW system, new rads throughout (about 14 of them, IIRC), plumbing to 2x bathrooms, 2500sq ft in London. We're paying £5,800 including VAT.

Ours was over £30k. Every single pipe replaced in the house, new radiators, mega flow, fitting of several bathrooms, new central heating system has n different circuits

Applesbananaspears you were royally ripped off
Lbocs2 that sounds a very good price
OP the work you have without a new boiler should be under 5k tbh
40 years isnt that old for a copper pipe system... a power flush should suffice... and probably was done 2 years ago when the new boiler went In

If I were quoted that much I would get it broken down - how much is materials, how much labour and what is the estimated time?

Also get five quotes for that amount!

alexalee actually we weren’t. I have the full breakdown of every single thing included including the labour and parts and all were double checked back. It’s a big house and not one single pipe remained from the house as it was. It was weeks worth of work so probably not the same as the OP is asking.

Thanks everyone. Lots to think about but reassuring that £25k seems to be right at the top end of the spectrum and we should be able to get most of the necessary work done for much less.

We will agree to disagree... unless you have a mega mansion or hugely expensive fittings that price is astronomical even allowing 10k for materials which is very high that would leave 100 days at 200 a day... that's 6 months work for 1 plumber...

The thing is, I have absolutely no doubt that it is possible to spend that much in our new house. But I’m not sure whether we should or even if we need to. There is a trend round here to strip the houses right back and start afresh, removing all pipes, wires, lath and plaster and replacing with new modern stuff. I’m not sure we quite have the money or inclination to go that far, and I don’t think we need to. I wonder how much is down to opportunistic builders convincing people. It usually involves a project manager and a whole team on site for months from what I can tell