Are we being ripped off?

[Christening]

We currently have a builder and his team working on our new 4 bed, 2 floor house while we are in rental. The house has been gutted, then rewired by a separate electrician firm.

The builder is doing the following:

1. Flashings and mortar on the extension roof
2. Making good after electrical re-wiring (all rooms)
3. Plastering, painting and laying flooring on ground and first floor
4. Place simple panel to extension attic hatch
5. Removing old kitchen + removing ground-floor kitchen wall, installing a steel beam
6. Garage - repair lintel
7. Re-fitting ground-floor shower (install shower cubicle, re-tile rest of bathroom)
8. Alter garden wall for driveway, allowing access from existing dropped curb.
9. Re doing skirting-boards and architraves.

10. Re plumbing and fitting new radiators.

None of these jobs include second materials, e.g. radiators, flooring, showers, tiles

He wants £52k for this work. My uncle thinks this work amounts to 10k. He has started already and we have paid him £20k. Are we being ripped off or is this a fair price? Please help. I tried to get other quotes for months and only 2 of 5 builders came and this builder was the only one to bother to quote.

If your uncle can organise that work for 10k, tell him to crack on & get it done.

I paid 2k just to have a bit of cladding replaced, now that was being ripped off.

It costs £5-7k just for the shower room. The wall removal and new beam will cost £2500 or more, and so on. Labour is £100-250/day per person, more for a plumber. You figure it out.

Im as tight as fuck when it comes to refurbs. Your builders costs sound pretty good...

.... your uncle on the other hand...

Your uncle is very very wrong.
Absolutely not a chance in hell you'd get even a quarter of the materials for £10k - prices are ridiculous and continuing to rise.

That's a fair price you've been quoted for the work I think.
All depends on the quality though..

That sounds like a lot of work. Materials have all gone up too. £10k sounds unrealistic to me, but get some other quotes to be sure.

10k 😂😂😂

Honestly £52k sounds cheap if anything.

My first reaction was that it was a lot but then i looked at your list of work again.

It’s hard to know the full scope of the work without knowing how big your house is. But for example ‘plastering, painting and laying flooring to ground and first floor’ could in itself be a lot of work if that means plaster all the rooms on both floors, paint them all, then re-floor two floors. That could possibly be £20k work.
I don’t think it’s probably £50k work, however it is quite alot of work and handy that one person is doing all of it. I don’t think you’re being massively ripped off but it’s hard to know without knowing the full scope of the work.

What qualifications does your Uncle have? If he is a builder then perhaps he would like to do the work for you?

Prices are crazy at the moment. If your uncle is basing his estimate on experience from even a relatively short time ago, he’ll be completely out of kilter on current costs. £52k doesn’t sound that bad to me for that work, depending on the size of the house and the finish you are after. (We were quoted over £200k for a side return extension recently - about double the architect’s estimate from drawings done just one year before).

Sounds a bit toppy but still in the ballpark (my husband’s in the building trade)

@SunnyUpNorth here is the layout to show the size. Any help would be much appreciated.

Ask for a breakdown with each individual item on your list priced tell him your on a budget and might not do everything .Are they suppling flooring and paint .

Seems a lot for quite a small house?

@rwalker they will supply white paint for free but any other colour is £100 extra per room.
They are not supplying the flooring.

Btw we are in a very expensive town in the South East

Your uncle is living in dreamland.

Wow your uncle is really out of touch.

I don't think that's bad, based on a recent quote we had (in December). And were in the North East so on the cheaper end of the market.

Your uncle is crazy 😂 tell him to do the work
All trades are super expensive these days - material prices are through the roof and they have so much work that they can afford to be picky. Just be thankful that you've actually got someone in to do the work

If it’s the only quote you have then it’s what it is costing nothing else to think about. Don’t start getting picky or you’ll have no one to do the work.

The wall work alone is probably 10k-15k! It sounds about right to me.

Are we being ripped off or is this a fair price?
That's not the question, though. If he quoted and you accepted the quotation then that's the price.
You can't agree to a job and then change your mind part-way through.

Your uncle is a fool and a dreamer, thank your lucky stars you've found a builder, that's a very fair price for that work.

Has your uncle just woken from a 30 year coma? My jaw actually dropped at his utter very very wide of the mark advice. Stop listening to him immediately and whatever you do, don't let him anywhere near your builders with those opinions, he'll piss them right off and rightly so.
Seriously if you're getting an that for 52k you've done well! I say that as someone currently in the thick of similar myself so I know what I'm talking about