Labour costs

[namechangedtemporarily123]

Ok, I'm prepared to be told I'm unreasonable, but is 10-12k unreasonable for labour costs to completely refit a small bathroom? I'm in London. I'm balking at the cost but I've had 2 quotes, now, at that price.

Hard to tell without knowing the extent of the work. Can you get some further quotes for comparison? The fact that two are coming in around the same mark does seem to suggest that it’s not unreasonable though.

Our en-suite was just over 5.5k for a shower, sink, tiling etc but we reused toilet and didn’t have a bath. That included the labour and bits in 2021 so I’d say it’s on the high end but not crazy for 2024. I’m in Somerset.

I would say it is at the very high end. I am in the E.Midlands and having a new kitchen fitted, lighting, all ceilings replastered, internal doorway created, 3 bathrooms for £18k labour costs. If you can find sanitary ware you like in showrooms, you will most likely find it cheaper online as long as youre happy to spend some time on it.

I also had some dubious quotes when i was at that stage.

That’s what we paid to redo our en-suite about 2 years ago. (South East) I thought it was expensive at the time, but that was the going rate apparently.

Does this include labour for tiling and flooring? If so, in addition to fitting loo, sink, bath, plus removal of existing tiles and fitting, I'd say it is reasonable (but the high end of reasonable)

My friend and I have both had our bathrooms redone in the last 5 years. Just before covid and we were both quoted between 3.5k amd 6k.

I went for the 3.5k price slightly discounted as i knew the owner and love our bathroom. No way would I spend what youve been quoted for a bathroom.

We're in the south, not London area though. We're (hopefully) having a new bathroom soon. So far quote includes toilet, sink, shower over bath (all close to current location), shower screen, radiator, applying tiling around third of bathroom, flooring (include flooring our toilet downstairs) and fixing toilet roll holder, cabinet, new radiator. So far it's coming out at £5700, but we're supplying tiles, grout etc and flooring. Our fittings are a bit above the basic.

We had a medium sized bathroom done last year in Yorkshire and our labour costs were about £6500 but we got a guy who works slowly and still needs to finish a few bits off. It was about the same again for the materials or maybe a bit more.

Not in London but I'm about to get my bathroom refitted. Had a few quotes ranging from 5.5-9k
What work are you having done in the bathroom?
Are the quotes broken down?
Are you paying for the job or a day rate?

One quote was broken down a little, the other wasn't. It's a small bathroom, windowless, bath replaced with shower, new sink, toilet, tiles, floor. The whole shebang. I also want a bespoke internal window but I haven't included that in my outrage as I knew that would be pricy. The prices quoted were purely labour, the fittings seem positively cheap in comparison.

Seems it's on the high side. I knew it was going to be expensive, so have budged/ scrimped/ saved accordingly but just was t expecting it to be THAT expensive.

They also quoted for the refurbishment of a utility cupboard into a proper (small) room and the price was similar for labour. I despair 😩

I don't think £10,000 is unreasonable especially in London. I think you will be lucky to find a decent tradesperson who will do it cheaper.

We’ve been quoted just over £8k in Warwickshire - but that includes everything; labour, rip out everything to the brick, re plaster etc etc.

I’d keep looking. I recently had a bathroom completely refitted - it took about 10 days and cost about £3000 for labour. This was SE not London but I think if you break it down into day rates mine makes sense as my builder charges £250-300 a day. The time taken will be around the same (mine also included building out into the hallway to be able to create a new larger wall in shower space) so unless all London builders charge £1k a day I’d look elsewhere. Have you tried new building companies like Beams? I haven’t used them but am interested in their concept!

Only tile in shower. You don’t need it all over. That should save a lot. Have a mirror behind the sink. Use a bathroom paint. I would expect around £8500 if you reduce tiling. Use large format tiles. Take less time. If you are tiling the floor - this really costs! Is there a cheaper option?

I live in London. I had two quotes 6 months ago - one from Wickes and one from an independent contractor. They both said circa £5.5k. The work included stripping the bathroom back to its shell and starting again, so replastering the ceilings too, etc.

We were quoted 10k by Wickes for a very small bathroom (bath over shower) for a complete refurb and likely needing new plaster on bits and skimming the artex ceiling. An independent quoted 8k. We're in Essex. So probably not far off? We will be paying more for someone to do everything, I don't want to have to do any of the work myself.

ETA - mid-range suite and fittings, so not the cheapest but not super high end. Just decent quality.