Change of layout & replacement kitchen - excessive costs?

[WhySoMuch]

Name changed for this as I've moaned about it IRL...

I have a 1970s detached villa, in a UK city (not London). Currently it has a separate kitchen and dining room, with an archway connecting the dining room and the lounge. I'm looking to block up the archway so that the lounge is a separate room, and take down the stud partition wall between the kitchen and dining room to create an open plan kitchen-diner. I want to replace the existing old kitchen units and worktops and erect a new stud partition wall at the far end of the kitchen diner, behind which will be a very small utility room and very small downstairs loo.

I'm being quoted nearly £50k. Kitchen costs (new units, appliances and installation) are approx £13k (2 different quotes) but the remainder of the work is costing around £35k. Does this seem right? I know that costs are high at the moment due to Brexit and covid but this seems ridiculous!

Have you got a breakdown? Does that include any steels as they are very pricey from what I know.

Thanks Fusion. The breakdown is in units as opposed to £ which makes it a bit more difficult to pinpoint specific costs, but from what I can work out, labour is one of the biggest ones. No mention of steels, any wall or construction references refer to timber and plasterboard. Estimated time for the job is 3 weeks.

I’m in a northern city and currently having building work. Reroof flat roof (21st m), raise floor, insert large skylight and new steel as the doorway needs raising. Build small partition wall and insert soil pipe for new toilet = £17k plus VAT. I appreciate if your down south then your costs will be more but double seems a lot!

I’m as firmly in the SE as you can get and GBP35K for that is insane. I had a small half brick (hard wood top) extension converted to a full brick extension, new flat roof and four panel French doors, two large windows either side, and fully tiled in terracotta for GBP20K.

Are you absolutely certain it’s stud and/or they’re quoting for load bearing? Also, have you got only one quote for the GBP35K bit?

It does seem steep and it’s hard to see where it’s all going (13k seems average for a decent sized kitchen with appliances). Did you get 2 quotes? Are you able to get another one? If they’re all coming in at a similar cost then it’s likely that’s just what it will cost unfortunately.

How much is the utility sanitaryware costing?
Do you need waste and water pipes moving?
What about tiling? Flooring?

I wonder if the two builders you've contacted are very busy and your job is not big enough for them to really want to do it? Trades often quote high if it's not a job they really want to do.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not down south, and none of the walls are load bearing. The rep from the building company confirmed that when he came round so I would have thought the quote would reflect that, and certainly all the references are to timber frame etc.

I'm actually ok with the £13k for the kitchen because that's approximately what I thought it would be. I sought another quote from a different builder for the other building work but they won't even do an estimate without me providing full architects' drawings and completed building warrants. I think paying for architects' drawings when I'm essentially just making changes to internal walls sounds ridiculous - but maybe that's normal? I'll approach more builders and see if they will quote - I just wanted to get an idea of whether the price mentioned so far is normal.

Re waste and water pipes, yes, they will need moving. No tiling, we decided just to paint to cut costs there. And yes, new flooring but it won't be high end.