Is this (building work) quote realistic?

[TonyHetherington]

Hi all

My girlfriend's had a quote from a builder familiy friend of hers for some work on her ground floor. Oooo er. Anyway, supposedly excellent "mate's rates" have come back over double what she was expecting (and had told the guy how much money she had) and we're genuinely surprised - so wanted to run by you lot to see if his quote is normal builder type pricing, very excellent, or something different?

Please excuse the shoddy drawings; you're looking at half of the ground floor - lounge on left, dining room on right. The kitchen goes off to the bottom right and currently has a door from kitchen to garden.

Before;


After;


The work is....

Knock down wall in centre of lounge/dining room. Leave floor unfinished. Create wide archway where wall once was.

Put wall alongside stairs (currently open)

Knock through window (top right of picture) and put in patio doors.

Block up kitchen door (kitchen is to bottom right of picture with door going outside, so that's getting blocked up and more worktop space added).

Walls created will be plastered over, but not decorated.

So, that work (which doesn't seem like much to me, especially as there's no supporting walls) comes in at

Patio door where window is; £856
Kitchen door blocked up; £500
Knock down lounge wall £1500
Extend lower wall to run along side stairs; £900

So nearly £4k seems an awful lot for what (in my totally uneducated head) seems relatively simple and not time consuming?

Just after a second opinion really...next step is to get a different builder in to price up the work!

[TonyHetherington]

Actually I should have mentioned the £850 for patio door I thought was ok (no idea on cost of door out of that, but he will be making good around outside), it was the other bits - particularly the wall along side stairs and knocking down in lounge.

Thinking about it now - he did say he would need to put a (very wide) arch in - i imagined it was to hide something, but thinking further that could be to support the floor above which could explain why it's more than I imagined.

[TonyHetherington]

Alas no - the "family friend" nature of it means her dad got the quote over the phone and scribbled it on a piece of paper for her.

It doesn't seem mega bad, but it certainly doesn't seem mega good either, which is what I really wanted to check.

[TonyHetherington]

Ah that will explain the cost for that - thanks!

Made me laugh about the TV - planning on putting a flatscreen on the wall somewhere I think (or rather planned) - the cost is so much more than anticipated that might not do the knock-through and just have the patio door put in I think.

[TonyHetherington]

Ah, sound words I think Ben. Thanks, I'll pass that on to her it may give her an entirely different out look (for the good!)

Thanks