Rough cost to have a new bathroom done.
Discussion
I've never lived in a property long enough for significant cosmetic changes to take place, but we have decided to go for a new bathroom.
It's a reasonable sized bathroom in a 2 bedroom house. We don't plan to spend too much as we intend to move on next year.
We are looking to have a shower over the bath, with splash panels rather than tiling. The only tiling planed was just a few between the sink and the mirror.
We've approached a few local companies and quotes for the new bathroom suite and furniture adds up to the best part of £5000 plus fitting. The estimate is around £7500-8000. I Googled and found that Victoria Plumbing think £4500 is the total cost of an average bathroom, with £2500 possible. I don't anticipate getting near £2500, but I'm not sure how we are so far away from £4500.
I can see one local company who offer a complete refit for £5500. They don't have a showroom and I can't see any feedback about them. It doesn't install me with enough confidence to give them a go. They do say that they won't ask for a penny until the job is complete.
Anyone got any advice or recommendations for the Aberdeen area?
It's a reasonable sized bathroom in a 2 bedroom house. We don't plan to spend too much as we intend to move on next year.
We are looking to have a shower over the bath, with splash panels rather than tiling. The only tiling planed was just a few between the sink and the mirror.
We've approached a few local companies and quotes for the new bathroom suite and furniture adds up to the best part of £5000 plus fitting. The estimate is around £7500-8000. I Googled and found that Victoria Plumbing think £4500 is the total cost of an average bathroom, with £2500 possible. I don't anticipate getting near £2500, but I'm not sure how we are so far away from £4500.
I can see one local company who offer a complete refit for £5500. They don't have a showroom and I can't see any feedback about them. It doesn't install me with enough confidence to give them a go. They do say that they won't ask for a penny until the job is complete.
Anyone got any advice or recommendations for the Aberdeen area?
SonicHedgeHog said:
Just a thought. If you were buying your house (I know nothing about your house) and you walked into the bathroom and it looks great would you be more or less likely to buy than if it was merely refitted?
What I'm getting at is, unless you fit it yourself the labour cost will be much the same whether you fit cheap or expensive components. A cheap bathroom sourced from eBay et al may be a grand. A good quality bathroom would be 3 grand. It's going to cost you £4000 to have someone fit it 'properly'. So the choice is £5k for 'just' a new bathroom or £7k for one that makes buyers go "WOW!". It does of course depend on what the rest of your house is like.
It's a nice house. I'm just looking for value for money and a bathroom that fits in with the rest of the house. I'm not looking for bargain basement stuff, but willing to pay a fair price for a good job. What I'm getting at is, unless you fit it yourself the labour cost will be much the same whether you fit cheap or expensive components. A cheap bathroom sourced from eBay et al may be a grand. A good quality bathroom would be 3 grand. It's going to cost you £4000 to have someone fit it 'properly'. So the choice is £5k for 'just' a new bathroom or £7k for one that makes buyers go "WOW!". It does of course depend on what the rest of your house is like.
Having visited a few showrooms I'm left with the feeling that bathroom stuff is overpriced. Simple cabinets cost hundreds of pounds each. The price of mirrors is also steep.
I'm just trying to gauge the real cost and understand why some people can a manage to have lovely bathrooms for a few grand, Yet I'm getting told a lot more for something not so flash.
I'm getting nowhere with this. Companies don't respond, or aren't interested in doing the job.
I approached the company that had a fixed price of £5500. Without even seeing the place the guy quoted £8400.
Then I thought maybe Rated People was worth a try. It was only two Poles that approached me. One came to the house and came across as a really genuine guy. The issue was he wanted us to buy all the stuff and he'd do the work. That isn't what I asked for in the job description. His hourly rate was only £30 per hour, but he said it was a two man job for two weeks and labour would be £5000.
The other guy has zero feedback. I politely declined his offer and said that zero feedback was too much of an issue.
I've just read up on Rated People and didn't realise that companies had to pay that much to get my details to contact me.
I approached the company that had a fixed price of £5500. Without even seeing the place the guy quoted £8400.
Then I thought maybe Rated People was worth a try. It was only two Poles that approached me. One came to the house and came across as a really genuine guy. The issue was he wanted us to buy all the stuff and he'd do the work. That isn't what I asked for in the job description. His hourly rate was only £30 per hour, but he said it was a two man job for two weeks and labour would be £5000.
The other guy has zero feedback. I politely declined his offer and said that zero feedback was too much of an issue.
I've just read up on Rated People and didn't realise that companies had to pay that much to get my details to contact me.
Edited by Driver101 on Monday 13th March 21:32
We went along to the Bathstore just to see what they had. We choose splash panels rather than tiles to reduce labour costs. We picked out laminate flooring and panels for the roof on top of bathroom stuff. The quote for the goods was £3300.
The estimate for labour came the following day. They subcontract the work out to local tradesmen and guarantee their work. Two of the guys they use are Polish and the other she said was a young lad. None of them have a business I could look up to see their work. Their quote for labour was £4500 with an 8 week wait.
I don't think the £4500 even covers the painting of the other walls and doors.
Bathstore's own online guide says the average bathroom costs between £3000-4500 fitted, yet my labour alone is at the top figure of their total average.
The estimate for labour came the following day. They subcontract the work out to local tradesmen and guarantee their work. Two of the guys they use are Polish and the other she said was a young lad. None of them have a business I could look up to see their work. Their quote for labour was £4500 with an 8 week wait.
I don't think the £4500 even covers the painting of the other walls and doors.
Bathstore's own online guide says the average bathroom costs between £3000-4500 fitted, yet my labour alone is at the top figure of their total average.
After a few months of getting messed around we finally went ahead with the bathroom. I genuinely wished I hadn't as I'm very pissed off about it all.
We started off with a plumber known to her family. He said he'd take on the job and had a few tradesmen he knew.
First day we had the bathroom stripped out by lunchtime and I was doing the majority of the work. On subsequent days I was at home and shocked by the lack of activity and the extended breaks and chats with anybody that came near my house.
Nothing ever went to plan and required additional work. Some of the work I agreed was needed like new parts of the wall and parts of the floor were required.
Some days I came home from work and struggled to see where 8 hours had been wasted. The plumber lost an entire day as the previous waste pipe from the old toilet was too short. I was angry and he knew it as it was an easy decision and fix.
The work has been fragmented as the tradesmen are all too busy. Days here and there and everything put on hold to fit in other business.
The electrician struggled with basic work. He took ages to fit a heated mirror as nobody was here to help him lift it. It was already wired.He couldn't work out how to wire the LED light strip on the basin drawers. It took a second visit. We have still been charged £540+VAT plus material.
With the lack of tradesmen to do things like painting we took that job on. We have still have the flooring to go.
The labour bill is already £4500. We've paid some but I'm going to dispute other bills.
Their poor workmanship isn't top grade and they've been far too slow.
We started off with a plumber known to her family. He said he'd take on the job and had a few tradesmen he knew.
First day we had the bathroom stripped out by lunchtime and I was doing the majority of the work. On subsequent days I was at home and shocked by the lack of activity and the extended breaks and chats with anybody that came near my house.
Nothing ever went to plan and required additional work. Some of the work I agreed was needed like new parts of the wall and parts of the floor were required.
Some days I came home from work and struggled to see where 8 hours had been wasted. The plumber lost an entire day as the previous waste pipe from the old toilet was too short. I was angry and he knew it as it was an easy decision and fix.
The work has been fragmented as the tradesmen are all too busy. Days here and there and everything put on hold to fit in other business.
The electrician struggled with basic work. He took ages to fit a heated mirror as nobody was here to help him lift it. It was already wired.He couldn't work out how to wire the LED light strip on the basin drawers. It took a second visit. We have still been charged £540+VAT plus material.
With the lack of tradesmen to do things like painting we took that job on. We have still have the flooring to go.
The labour bill is already £4500. We've paid some but I'm going to dispute other bills.
Their poor workmanship isn't top grade and they've been far too slow.
Edited by Driver101 on Friday 15th September 23:10
Edited by Driver101 on Friday 15th September 23:11
Edited by Driver101 on Friday 15th September 23:21
I should also add the plumber didn't want to take all the waste to the dump as he would have to pay. We hired a van and loaded all the stuff ourselves.
Once finished I don't think we will have much change out of £10k.
The company that is due to fit the flooring are very slow to respond. It was 10 days ago they came out to the house and took 4 days to give a quote. I accepted the quote within 10 minutes and the guy hasn't got back to me yet.
I was warned they were booked up for a few weeks. A response and a firm date would be a start.
It's just very clear that tradesmen have more than enough work. They can cherry pick the work they want, provide a terrible service and charge whatever they want.
Once finished I don't think we will have much change out of £10k.
The company that is due to fit the flooring are very slow to respond. It was 10 days ago they came out to the house and took 4 days to give a quote. I accepted the quote within 10 minutes and the guy hasn't got back to me yet.
I was warned they were booked up for a few weeks. A response and a firm date would be a start.
It's just very clear that tradesmen have more than enough work. They can cherry pick the work they want, provide a terrible service and charge whatever they want.
The plumber sent her the bill through email and it doesn't look right. He ordered some the bath stuff through his trade account to get a discount. He asked us to settle that bill when the goods arrived at the house. The bill at that time was £3000 which was paid.
His final bill includes the extra materials used, the radiator, his labour, the £3000 already paid and then adds VAT. He then deducts the £3000 already paid.
He's basically charged us VAT on a bill we had already settled. The stuff we ordered from the shop was about £3000 so either he's made a daft mistake, or he's at it.
His final bill includes the extra materials used, the radiator, his labour, the £3000 already paid and then adds VAT. He then deducts the £3000 already paid.
He's basically charged us VAT on a bill we had already settled. The stuff we ordered from the shop was about £3000 so either he's made a daft mistake, or he's at it.
Pheo said:
Sorry to hear that. I wasn't overly happy with my experience on last bathroom refurb so opted to do it myself this time.
One thing I will say is it's a hell of a lot of work. We are three weeks in and not fully functional. I underestimated how long full wall tiling would take!!
We didn't go for tiles. We opted for splash panels. The joiner bemoaned how hard they were to line up and this added to his workload.One thing I will say is it's a hell of a lot of work. We are three weeks in and not fully functional. I underestimated how long full wall tiling would take!!
They do look good finished though. Both him and the plumber took leftover bits at samples as they were impressed with the finished product.
The electrician has responded. He is claiming 18 hours labour. That's for fitting 5 downlights, hanging a mirror with a simple bracket and plugging it in, changing 3 switches and wiring the LED light on the drawer.
There was already wiring in place for the downlights and mirror from the previously fitted items.
The young lad was here for 12 hours in total and admitted he took far too long as he didn't understand how to wire the LED strip on the drawers. He also said he struggled with the mirror on his own. They did remove the other lights earlier and put a temporary light in. I wasn't here and unaware how long he was here that day.
Nearly half a week's work for that? I'm not expecting too much am I?
There was already wiring in place for the downlights and mirror from the previously fitted items.
The young lad was here for 12 hours in total and admitted he took far too long as he didn't understand how to wire the LED strip on the drawers. He also said he struggled with the mirror on his own. They did remove the other lights earlier and put a temporary light in. I wasn't here and unaware how long he was here that day.
Nearly half a week's work for that? I'm not expecting too much am I?
Edited by Driver101 on Saturday 16th September 18:06
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