How to go about fitting new bathroom

[QueenOfSandcastles]

Have brought a new house and needs a new bathroom. I was thinking £10k seemed a reasonable budget, but have been quoted £18k and most bathroom fitters aren’t even replying to me. Just don’t know where to go next really.

Bathroom isn’t massive and has a bath, shower cubicle, vanity and toilet, plus towel rail. Tiling is only on wall behind bath (to midway height and room is 1.9m in width) and in shower cubicle. Bath is freestanding but not fancy, so no bath panel. Would have liked underfloor heating but excluded that to keep cost down.

Literally have contacted 10 fitters, that is the only one to even quote. We ideally want it done this year rather than next but are flexible on time.

Have asked friends who they would recommend but most say it’s a nightmare and the few recommendations we had haven’t replied other than to say not taking on work right now.

What sort of price seems right (South East - Dover) and how do you find people?!

Have you tried Houzz?
But I would say the quote is about right these days. Perhaps you can bring it down to £15k.

And this is why we learned to fit our own bathroom years ago. We have done 5 now (2 houses) because push fit pipes are incredibly easy to fit. Before anyone is horrified at plastic piping, the whole house is plastic pipe, it was built this way.

We have tiled (bathrooms, kitchens, walls and floors) but in our ensuite we used acrylic wall panels as you can get any design you want printed on it, centered and cut to size. No crappy grout to deal with, it is a breeze to clean too.

However, we have time to do this, ie no young children although we have renovated a whole house with young children. We also had more than one bathroom so when one is being done, the other is in use. YouTube is where we learned everything from, there are professional people on there walking you through it all.

As for recommended professionals, local facebook is where I see a lot of things like this come up.

Have you tried contacting local plumbers. Much cheaper than "bathroom fitters" IME.

We recently paid 12k but no bath just shower sink and toilet. We opted for panelling rather than tiles as it was a day less labour and the tiles I wanted were extortionate.

If you're thinking that 10K was a reasonable budget and the people you are talking to are suggesting 20K then your thinking is not grounded in reality.

The cost of projects is not what you think they should be, but what you can get someone in to do the actual work for.

The fact that someone on here could get the work done for 5K, 10K or 30K isn't really relevant to your problem. What is is the price you can actually get someone in to do the work for.

If you are worried about overcharging, then you have to get more quotes in, but you say you are finding this difficult. Trades can be in short supply, but sometimes the attitude of the person asking for the quote can influence whether a trade will bother or want to quote for a job. Trades have noses that are capable of sniffing out problem customers at 100 paces and this will influence their willingness to quote if they are in an environment where there is a lot of work available. It's possible you are giving off the wrong vibes. For example, stuff like telling the trader "its only a small job" before trying to get them in for a quote will give them the impression you think the job should be cheap and therefore they are not interested in bothering quoting for someone who is going to be trying to lowball them from the outset. It's for the trader to decide whether its a small job or not, and what it should cost.

This all may sound a bit harsh. But the TLDR of all this is that if your interaction with the rest of the world isn't working then you have to ask yourself whether it's your interaction that's wrong, or the rest of the world.

Try asking for a bathroom fitter in a local bathroom supplies place, not a big chain, a small independent one. They will know who the good fitters are.

"stuff like telling the trader "its only a small job" before trying to get them in for a quote will give them the impression you think the job should be cheap and therefore they are not interested in bothering quoting for someone who is going to be trying to lowball them from the outset."

This poster is absolutely right

The way we did it was opposite if you like. We went to a couple of local bathroom independent show rooms to price what we wanted. Then we asked them who to use to fit it and they made 4 suggestions 2 of which came to quote. The showroom also helped us design and choose according to measurements and a diagram of the existing we took with us. The fitter was booked up 3 months in advance but we didn't mind waiting.

We went to a local independent kitchen and bathroom supply and fitting company. They did the whole project, design, supply and install, including tiles and flooring. Came to 10k which I thought was very reasonable for a quality job. They are well known and regarded in our town, they are always busy though (good sign), so we had to wait 6 months! I went into their show room to make the first appointment for a quote.

£18k just for a bathroom is insane... I'm doing a new layout moving walls and rewire + completely reorganized kitchen refit and brand new bathroom (where there wasn't one) in the space for £15k.

Have you looked for 'package companies'? there loads round and they will usually have packages for £4-£5k, usually they have a couple of packages like 'bath to walk in shower', 'ensuite', 'normal or p shape bath', 'downstairs cloakroom' etc... They won't be expensive tile and claw foot tubs, but they are customizable decor option wise like paneling and flooring etc....

What is it you want done thats coming in at near 20k?

The struggling to get quote is true though, we all face that, I couldn't use a package company as moving walls was a much bigger job. I ask half a dozen to quote, only 3 shower up, only two quote and the first we accepted vanished of the face of the earth. So really we ended up after several months of searching with the only person who actually bothered to show up and communicate. Nice guy and spot on pricing though so we got lucky.

Price will depend on what sanitary ware , type of shower you’ve chosen, pump, shower tray, cubicle, tiles, electrics, lights, flooring, extractor fan, plastering walls, replacing floorboards, rubbish removal you have chosen. DH is a retired bathroom installer where most of his work came through a bathroom shop who only gave out names of reliable plumbers, for the last few years he priced for labour only and the clients paid the shop direct for most materials.

Have you looked on Nextdoor.co.uk? You sign up for your local area and there will be all sorts of posts on there, from what's going on in your area, things for sale, lots of recommendations for builders, plumbers and the like. It's where I get all my tradesmen from and I haven't been let down/disappointed yet.
You can search for 'new bathroom' or 'plumbers' or put your own post up. They can only reply via the site, don't get any hassle.