2022 lead times for bathroom refit, kitchen, carpets etc

Kievlover · 2022-01-11T12:41:46+00:00

Hello all. We're looking buying a 4 bed house in NE England that needs gutting and everything doing: fitted kitchen, new bathrooms, new carpets throughout. It's priced to sell because it's very old-fashioned (albeit only 15 years old) but I'm worried that we just won't be able to get tradesmen for for a really long time. I've used checkatrade for all the above, messaging the business just to ask approximate lead times at present, and it bounced back 'we were unable to find any trades that match your criteria' for two of the trades, and it was meant to send emails to three of each specialist business. Unsure if this is possibly suggesting those three businesses are not operating for two of the trades, so six businesses? it's not exactly a tiny village! Can you help give me an idea of what sort of times we might be waiting for at present, given covid and a massive lack of both materials and tradesmen at the moment? We heard an ad on the radio for a kitchen specialist yesterday that said 'we'll work with your builder' which has me worried. If kitchen specialists don't have fitters, who does?! Many thanks.

bravotango · 11/01/2022 14:14

Round here it's not the lead times that are the problem, it's the cost! Cost of everything has gone up so much. We're doing our kitchen at the moment - the window and door company found a builder to do the associated building work, we already had an electrician contact and he found a kitchen fitter. Trades know each other usually so once you've found one, try to get recommendations (e.g. our electrician introduced us to the kitchen fitter so they could work around each others schedules, wait time was about 6 weeks)

honeybeesknees · 11/01/2022 14:21

We have been trying for over a year, and can’t get a tradesman in to do our bathroom or kitchen. They all quite happily arrange an appointment, some even turn up at the house, but we have not had a single quote back!

Original poster

Kievlover · 11/01/2022 14:51

@bravotango

Round here it's not the lead times that are the problem, it's the cost! Cost of everything has gone up so much. We're doing our kitchen at the moment - the window and door company found a builder to do the associated building work, we already had an electrician contact and he found a kitchen fitter. Trades know each other usually so once you've found one, try to get recommendations (e.g. our electrician introduced us to the kitchen fitter so they could work around each others schedules, wait time was about 6 weeks)

How much do you think things have gone up by in the last year or two? Thanks for the advice re: one tradesman finding another, that's really useful.

OP posts:

Original poster

Kievlover · 11/01/2022 14:53

@honeybeesknees

We have been trying for over a year, and can’t get a tradesman in to do our bathroom or kitchen. They all quite happily arrange an appointment, some even turn up at the house, but we have not had a single quote back!

That's exactly what I didn't want to hear! I told the OH I could cope for up to a year but honestly that's stretching my patience as I like nice things.

Do you live somewhere that not many people want to go, i.e. down the end of a 2 mile long muddy country lane, in a remote village with not many big towns around? Or is it just a normal house in a normal town?

Have you tried going to these kitchen and bathroom companies who are meant to fit them for you? I wonder if that's a better option at the moment.

Sorry for multiple questions, trying to guage level of seriousness and other options that might be open to us.

OP posts:

neatlittlerows · 11/01/2022 14:58

We were struggling to find someone reasonable to fit a bathroom last year until we had to ring an emergency plumber. He came back two weeks later with two tilers and an electrician to do the whole thing. As tempting as it is, try to avoid the big sheds for bathrooms and kitchens - even B&Q said to me I’d be better off buying from them and paying an independent to fit it. In the end the quote from B&Q was almost £10000 all in. Through the plumber I paid just over £5000. Good luck! It’s so hard to get anyone to do anything at the moment.

Rainbowbrite2022 · 11/01/2022 15:02

Last year our bathroom was booked in a good 5 months beforehand. The fitter was very busy and booked up for months afterwards. And like others materials have gone e up so the job was more expensive.

We booked a known tradesman in advance for a job around 5 months in advance for this year as he is always busy so we need to plan ahead.

Basically book as soon as you can, also prepare for things to cost more!

CMOTDibbler · 11/01/2022 15:11

I booked a decorator last June, and he's starting on Thursday. The kitchen and extension we booked in October and will start late June/early July. Our patio doors were ordered 4 months ago and no sign of them yet...

Original poster

Kievlover · 11/01/2022 15:13

@neatlittlerows

We were struggling to find someone reasonable to fit a bathroom last year until we had to ring an emergency plumber. He came back two weeks later with two tilers and an electrician to do the whole thing. As tempting as it is, try to avoid the big sheds for bathrooms and kitchens - even B&Q said to me I’d be better off buying from them and paying an independent to fit it. In the end the quote from B&Q was almost £10000 all in. Through the plumber I paid just over £5000. Good luck! It’s so hard to get anyone to do anything at the moment.

If it's not too rude to ask (I'm a newb, forgive my ignorance), how much of that 10K that B&Q quoted you was kitchen, and how much was labour?

Did they give you a lead time estimate for fitting?

OP posts:

honeybeesknees · 11/01/2022 15:51

No, just a normal house, easy access, plenty of driveway parking, fairly near a trading estate with plenty of suppliers.
We haven’t tried one of those companies yet, but that is next on our list, even if we have to pay more. I don’t even mind if we’re out on a waiting list for a year, I just want somebody to commit to it, and we have told them all that!

YoungA98 · 11/01/2022 16:25

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

neatlittlerows · 11/01/2022 16:25

@Kievlover ooh now you’re testing me! I ~think~ it was £4k fixtures and £5.5 fitting (😮) AND I’d have had to book in June for November. Getting it done in two weeks was pure luck because we happened to call an emergency plumber (although the water pouring down the walls from the upstairs bathroom wasn’t exactly lucky). Also meant we were able to use the plumber’s trade account for fixtures which also helped to keep the price down.

My in-laws are starting their kitchen refit tomorrow. They’re on the Isle of Wight and booked in July for a January start. They went with an independent company who sell AND fit. No idea how much they’ve paid though.