Is £300 to lay kitchen wall tiles covering an area of 2sqm reasonable?

[Smallgoon]

I've been quoted this by a carpenter who can also tile. He's a friend of a friend so I don't think he'd try to overcharge, but at the same time, I didn't imagine it would cost that much? The tiles are 20cm x 20cm and porcelain - I've already purchased these.

He also said it would take two days to complete, which again I find surprising. Guessing by two days he means 12-16 hours.

Can anyone advise if this is a reasonable price? I'm in London (SE).

The price per sq metre is extortionate but equally I can where he’s coming from. It won’t take two days but he’ll need to pop in twice, probably a couple of hours one day and a couple of hours the next. He’s probably charging you for the faff as it’s a small job. Is there any other tiling that needs doing in the house? It’d probably be a fair bit cheaper as an add on to a bigger job.

Sounds reasonable to me. It depends on the surface he's laying the tiles on. Floorboards will need ply on top. It's not the size of the job, it's cutting the tiles around the edge that takes time. Plus coming back the next day to grout. You might get it cheaper, but what price using someone you have some connection with? Tradesmen/women chosen at random leave you open to the usual problems of them not turning up to quote, not turning up to do the job, leaving the job half way through, making a mess of it, coming home to find them sitting in the kitchen with their feet on the table having a fag, mixing the cement on the sanded floor boards etc etc

We paid £20 per square meter. I'd expect to pay for a full or half day for a small job, so perhaps £80 for your 3 hour job..

I've seen 3 square meters take a full day but that was irregular shaped split faced tiles, joined flush, around a window and with awkward access.

You might double my prices for London, but I can't see it ever being £300.

He's based in Braintree which I suppose is an inconvenience if he has to travel to London for a second day. Perhaps I'm better off finding somebody local, for whom it won't be too much of an issue to return for the second day to grout.

Thanks for the replies.

We have been quoted 350 for 4m2...but then as part of kitchen refurb.

I paid £350 for about 5sqm last December.
Part of a kitchen refurb but separate trade organised myself.
3 separate areas (3.5m run with cooker in the middle and wall returns at each end / approx 1.9m x 1.6m corner / 2.7m run with windowsill, boxing in and 1 wall return) plus a couple of other small rectangular bits.
Cambridge area.

Do you know how easy it is to put up those wall tiles. Assuming you mean wall and not floor? I watched YouTube and did mine and saved the money. Didn't take long. Put ready made tile adhesive on, put tiles on with spacers. Next day put ready made grout on. Bought a really cheap 10 pound tile cutter, job done!

@Morechocmorechoc Karen at OnePlan suggested I could do them myself too! I guess I was just worried about ruining my not so cheap tiles with the cutter. I suggested to my brother that I do them myself, and he scoffed at the idea, saying I really should bring a professional in.

They are wall tiles, and just a standard square shape, so I guess pretty straight forward.

YouTube is your friend here

You can do it! If you waste one tile practicing cutting then its still cheaper! But if you measure there's no need. Don't let someone tell you that you can't do DIY, how rude!

I paid £250 for 4m2 recently - the tiler I chose charges £50 per square meter with a minimum of 5 square meters for a job, if that makes sense?

Maybe the tiler has a minimum charge rate?

He's based in Braintree which I suppose is an inconvenience if he has to travel to London for a second day.

That'll be it. It's actually quite a good price to go so far for such as small job.

Do you know how easy it is to put up those wall tiles.

I second this. A year ago I had to ask for help to drill something and had never done anything more adventurous than put a nail in a wall. Doing up our house I've chopped down big trees with an axe, painted, built shelves, designed a kitchen repaied tool and quite a lot more.

DiY is a hell of a lot easier than you think. Even if it takes you 10 hours (it won't) you are paying yourself £30 per hour tax free.

We paid 250 to essentially lay 20 tiles in our kitchen. The bloke was slow but meticulous and whilst the money seemed 😲 I'm glad we didn't let a non professional tiler do it. already learnt that lesson

Do it yourself! Tiling is very, very easy. Id suggest getting yourself some cheap tiles from a tile shop (the sort that are a couple of quid for a sample) and practice cutting tiles on them. Seriously, those prices are nuts for a tiny bit of tiling. Get all the stuff that's ready mixed and make sure you use the tile spacers.

Man from Braintree is taking the piss, and your brother is an asshole.

@Chitlin You seem nice.

I would have said do it yourself but I see you have picked porcelain tiles. So a regular tile cutter won't cut them. You would likely need a power tool to cut them. Porcelain is very very hard. So if I where you I would pick out some ceramic tiles and do it myself. If your heart is set on the porcelain then get in a pro. Tilers always charge more for laying porcelain so it will cost you a lot.

@ShesMadeATwatOfMePam When I watched the guys tiling my bathroom, use their cutter to cut my expensive, hexagonal tiles to size, they cracked several of them! Not sure if they used a shit cutter, but considering they're the professionals, I can't imagine I'd be any good. And then will need to be a fair bit of cutting for the sockets etc.

@LetItGoHome Ahh, this makes sense as the bathroom tiles were porcelain too! I've gone quite high-end on the tiles, so no chance of me switching to ceramic now, since the tiles have already arrived - and I've been quite particular about which ones I wanted.

So based on your post, I think it will be wise to get a pro in.

Building sheriff website is a really good guide at pricing jobs.

www.buildingsheriff.com/tile-splashbacks-costs.php

Tiling can seem easy but you will have to work out your tile cuts before you start. So that would be between the worktop and the cupboards, the wall to wall cuts and then your sockets.

Learning to cut tiles is not something you do on expensive tiles, you learn on cheap tiles. Or you make several different cuts on one of your expensive tiles already having worked out what you will be cutting for sockets etc. I have tiled kitchens, floors and bathrooms. But we are very competent DIYers ie plumb in entire bathrooms etc.