Work Quote sense check - concrete floor

[smithyithy]

Just need some opinions on this really, I know it's one of those 'every job is different' situations, but would appreciate some unbiased opinions nonetheless..

For context - old mid-terraced cottage, front (living room) floor, c. 14.5m².

Builder's quote (summarised):

• Take up existing hearth, set aside for re-use, polythene protection to fire surround, front door, frame, threshold
• Break up existing quarry tiled / concrete floor, excavate sub-base ~450mm depth, dispose of excavated material to front garden for Grab & Go collection
• Lay, level, compact 150mm Type 1 with sand blinding
• Cut and lay DPM, returned up perimeter walls
• Lay 150mm PIR insulation to floor with 25mm PIR upstand to perimeter walls, taped joints
• Lay sacrificial DPM or similar, prior to ~120mm C25 ready-mix concrete pour, tamped w/ floated finish

Price is a shade under £3k, this is in Shropshire for reference.

I've used the builder before and I'm happy with his work and the bloke in general (punctual, polite, tidy etc), so I'm not too inclined to go shopping around for quotes, but this is obviously a big spend / investment, and although I think the work is warranted, I just want some neutral eyes to glance over the quote....

Edited by smithyithy on Thursday 7th August 09:08

[ferret50]

If that includes VaT I would suggest that you take his hand off!

[smithyithy]

Yes includes VAT, works out to around £200/m², although admittedly that's not the best metric to work out value

[mick987]

I must admit I am surprised at that price thought it was going to be a lot more.

[wolfracesonic]

Get him booked in! You can price up the materials yourself if you want some peace of mind but that seems a very good price to me: not sure of your house layout but it sounds like everything will have to hand balled in and out, even a barrow may not be feasible, 450mm deep is a lot muck!

[caziques]

And the underfloor heating?

[smithyithy]

wolfracesonic said:

Get him booked in! You can price up the materials yourself if you want some peace of mind but that seems a very good price to me: not sure of your house layout but it sounds like everything will have to hand balled in and out, even a barrow may not be feasible, 450mm deep is a lot muck!

Yep, it's the middle terrace of 3 old cottages, it has a front garden and path, but it's down a couple of steps, and there's no road parking or footpath in front, so we've worked out that a skip isn't possible.

So part of the front garden (it's not exactly landscaped currently so no great loss) will be used for the removed material, then a G&G will remove it from the road side..

caziques said:

And the underfloor heating?

In a bigger / newer house probably but I don't think it's worthwhile here.. Too small and old, possibly require other upgrades like a newer boiler and an electrical system that isn't 50+ years old

Edited by smithyithy on Thursday 7th August 10:10

[OutInTheShed]

I had an old terraced house once.

If you excavated the floor by 450mm, you would probably be below what passed for 'foundations'.

[PhilboSE]

ferret50 said:

If that includes VaT I would suggest that you take his hand off!

I had only read the OP when I was going to say exactly the same thing! Even without the VAT, that’s a bargain. Really nice detailed quote as well. That guy is a diamond - keep his details or future reference!

[JoshSm]

OutInTheShed said:

I had an old terraced house once.

If you excavated the floor by 450mm, you would probably be below what passed for 'foundations'.

I was thinking that. Probably worth doing a test excavation or two before getting too enthusiastic, it's quite possible the existing foundation is minimal and a 450mm deep hole might end up with the walls trying to drop into it.

[dmsims]

Is it solid wall construction?

[smithyithy]

Yes solid wall construction. I asked a few clarifying questions based on a couple of things mentioned here, and a couple of things I thought about..

Wall footings - expected to be 'corbelled' brick footing, if exposed it won't be disturbed.

Asked about the surface finish just for the sake of the flooring to go down, expects it to be finished smooth but the flooring co. could apply a thin final screed themselves if they wanted 100% silky smooth, he's allowing ~30mm below the current floor level so we have no issues with space for the new floor, underlay, and front door threshold height (which is a current issue, being only a few mm below the threshold due to door supply issues)..

Curing time, reckons a couple of weeks max, so not too bad. House will be unoccupied so it won't cause much issue. Also asked about the staircase which is just in the room itself, whether that would be affected by the floor excavation but he doesn't expect any problems as they're fixed to the party wall, it might just require a bit of new wood and the bottom to join to the new floor level..

[LooneyTunes]

smithyithy said:

• Break up existing quarry tiled / concrete floor, excavate sub-base ~450mm depth, dispose of excavated material to front garden for Grab & Go collection

Is the grab wagon included? You're looking at (very) approx £300 a load if not.

Aside from that ambiguity, doesn't look like a bad quote.

[OutInTheShed]

I think I'd be looking into UFH.

Given there will be insulation under a thick concrete slab, the extra cost of incorporating some heating pipes must be quite small?

I'm not the worlds greatest fan of UFH, but it seems like a bit of future-proofing or 'keeping options open'?

[smithyithy]

LooneyTunes said:

Is the grab wagon included? You're looking at (very) approx £300 a load if not.

Aside from that ambiguity, doesn't look like a bad quote.

The quote is a bit longer than the above, I just shortened the lines a bit for quicker reading. But yeah it includes the grab hire..

Before quoting we discussed this over Whatsapp, as he knows the house / location, he raised the issue of skip location, then asked if we could effectively used the front garden area for rubble and have it collected by grabber.

OutInTheShed said:

I think I'd be looking into UFH.

Given there will be insulation under a thick concrete slab, the extra cost of incorporating some heating pipes must be quite small?

I'm not the worlds greatest fan of UFH, but it seems like a bit of future-proofing or 'keeping options open'?

I get what you're saying and it does make sense from a future-proofing point.. Trouble is I'm already pushing the budget on this, I mean there's not necessarily a 'budget' as such, but this a first house 'refinish and move in' that's slowly getting longer and more expensive..

The flooring company I'm using quoted around £1k if I wanted them to do prep work to get the floor suitable for wood flooring, which included liquid DPM, another layer of screed to try to remove the 'crown' from the floor, but there's still the issue of the front door threshold being too low so they'd need to cut out a section there otherwise no flooring would fit (other than something very thin).

And even with the above, because there's still a potential issue of moisture coming up through the remaining quarry tile floor, they wouldn't be able to warranty the work as it's more of a 'sticking plaster' than a full fix.

So I'm at close to 3 x that price now to dig it all out and replace it properly. So I could add on UFH but ultimately need to draw a line somewhere and reserve some money for actually decorating and furnishing the house

Edit: as an aside, I'm not not really a huge fan of it either. In a cold bathroom maybe, and I know some things add 'value' to a property, but personally I'd probably rarely use it, I don't even mind a cool floor as long as it's not damp cold. I find that the house manages temperature really well, I guess being small and sandwiched / insulated at either side.. When we were working there over the winter, I'd flick the central heating on and the rooms would be toasty in no time at all, and recently in the hot weather when I've been in, it stays relatively cool inside, compared to my parent's newer semi at least.

Edited by smithyithy on Thursday 7th August 16:28

[OutInTheShed]

If you want to save money, prepping a floor and laying engineered wood is not ever so hard to DIY.

[TA14]

I'd reduce the MoT to 130mm and ancrease the slab to 140mm and use a C35 concrete. Maybe a single layer of mesh.