Bathroom install quotes

[Sgt Bilko]

Just in the planning stages of getting the bathroom redone and before i start getting some folks in the price things up, it would be nice to get a ball park quote so we can budget for other items. The work that needs doing (that i can see is)

Remove old floor/wall tiles (other than the shower wall, we can do this to save some money in the run-up)
Remove sink/WC/Bath
Remove and make safe old electric shower
Plaster/skim any walls following tile removal
On shower wall prep for thermostatic shower taps (pipe work)
Tile walls/floor
Install new light(s)
Install suite & shower fittings
Replace ventilation fan (duct work already in)

Any ideas for the Manchester area?

Cheers in advance.

Edited by Sgt Bilko on Friday 11th September 19:22

[Si 330]

I had a quote for something similar only difference been the bath was a spar bath, £3100 this included fully tiling the room.
No materials.
The new suite sat in my garage for some time.

[Sgt Bilko]

Jahesus!

Might have to consider just getting a plasterer & sparky in and doing the rest myself

[Iain328]

Sgt Bilko said:

Jahesus!

Might have to consider just getting a plasterer & sparky in and doing the rest myself

Depends on what you spend on the kit but you can do 5K on simple bathroom easily. Go and look at what you get in B&Q & then go to a high end bathroom shop if you can find one & you'll see (at least to some extent) why the costs can vary so much.

I.

[Sgt Bilko]

Hold on a sec, i have the kit already (bath, WC, sink with furniture, tiles, grout). All i need to get is the shower and some taps.

I'm purely looking at time, and some possible accessories the fitter may need (plaster??)

[Sgt Bilko]

Si 330 said:

I had a quote for something similar only difference been the bath was a spar bath, £3100 this included fully tiling the room.
No materials.
The new suite sat in my garage for some time.

Out of interest, how many days work was the estimate for?

[Si 330]

I think he said about 8 or 9 days.

[Sgt Bilko]

Si 330 said:

I think he said about 8 or 9 days.

£340 a day. Bloody heck!

[M400 NBL]

Plastering is expensive and perhaps pontless.

I've removed tiles from both my homes and retiled floor to ceiling. Although it would be nice to tile a perfectly flat wall with 90 degree corners, it isn't critical.

[northwest monkey]

M400 NBL said:

Plastering is expensive and perhaps pontless.

I've removed tiles from both my homes and retiled floor to ceiling. Although it would be nice to tile a perfectly flat wall with 90 degree corners, it isn't critical.

Definitely pointless plastering if you're tiling floor to ceiling. Not only will you have to wait for the plaster to fully go off before you can tile (can be 4 weeks), you'll be paying for something you'll never see. Not only that, you're better off sticking tiles directly to a plasterboard rather than plaster as you'll get a stronger bond & can therefore use larger/heavier tiles if you wish. Best bet is to dryline the room (easy DIY) & then tile it.

People who tell you to plaster will no doubt also tell you to paint the walls with PVA as this will waterproof it.

It wont.

[Sgt Bilko]

Luckily the tiles we are looking at are 600x300mm so they will cope with any contours.

Still worried about the fitting costs though.

[ragjoy]

Sgt Bilko said:

Luckily the tiles we are looking at are 600x300mm so they will cope with any contours.

Still worried about the fitting costs though.

600X300 tiles need very flat walls or the tiling will look crap,even if done by a tiler,brickbond is the hardest way to lay them on uneven walls,even when the walls are flat you will still have problems with brickbond as 90% of long tiles are slightly concave so you will get lipping.
a nice way to lay them is landscape as opposed to the traditional portrait,landscape makes the room look bigger as opposed to portrait making the room look higher hence making it look narrow.
one other thing 600x300 tiles should be put up with powdered adhesive only as bucket gear will not dry this even more critical if the tiles are porcelain.
when using powder on plaster you must use a sealer NOT PVA EVER apd will be fine no need to bother on plaster board or wedi,hardy etc board.
you must also check the powdered adhesive for what thickness you can go to MOST will only will not allow bedding out,so if you need to pack out you will need an adhesive that allows this.
PM me if you need any advice on tiling ive been tiling for 30+ years.

[Silver993tt]

I put up large rectangular tiles (can't remember exact size) horizontally (as in landscape mentioned on here). I also used mosaics which are veryygood when the surface isn't 100% even.

I completely shelled an en-suite shower room including taking down a wooden framed partition wall by the shower (just had a sliding door between this wall and main wall). I installed all of the recessed shower plumbing using Hans Grohe kit including an I-box. Put the flooring down, changed 2 radiators, tiled 2 walls combining large tiles and mosaics, refurbished the ceiling (especially where the partition wall met the ceiling), put in new halogens (different positions to old ones) and then repaired the old halogen cut-outs in the plasterboard ceiling. I also installed a brand new quality shower, sink basin and solid oak units.

It's the first time I've ever attempted a shower/bathroom and it came out very well. Also I learnt what a bodge up the previous owners had done (and they told me it was done by a professional builder, so no surprise there).

When I installed all of the plumbing work for the shower, I tested EVERY joint several times over a couple of days with both hot & cold feeds including all of the waste pipes. Since I took my time with the plumbing, I didn't get a single leak or drip and that includes the radiators. Beforehand I did get couple of quotes from "professionals" and on the point of leaks I was told by both that "you can't avoid one or two on a job of this scale". Well, I managed without any and I'd never done it before. They also quoted £3-4k, a complete joke.

So, save yourself a bag load of cash and do it yourself. Take your time and you will have a much, much better job done that getting someone who is only interested in charging you the maximum possible for the least delivered. You'll also learn loads, so next time you'll be able to do a similar job noticably quicker and also save another bag load of cash.

None of the jobs require any particular skill or special tools, so easy to do yourself.

[dreamer75]

We've just had a couple of quotes which both came in very similar; replace a couple of internal walls (only half-tiled, need full tiling, made of paper), retile all walls + floor, fit a couple of shaver sockets, fit extractor fan, fit new light fittings, fit new suite + dispose of the old one, fit a shower + pump, move a radiator + fit a new one - basically rip everything out and replace it.

Quotes were both about 3.5-4k + VAT + suite/fittings

Approx 2 weeks work.

Edited by dreamer75 on Sunday 13th September 09:59

[B17NNS]

Labour only £1400.

[Sgt Bilko]

Looks like a week and a bit off work then, and learn some new skills myself.

[Geoff82]

I went through this myself a few months ago and ended up installing a totally new bathroom myself because I'm too tight fisted to pay for someone else to do it and I don't like the idea of someone else working on my house when they're not as bothered about the end result as me.

My advice to you would be to plan out in advance what needs doing and when and make sure you have the supplies in advance, otherwise pray you have a B&Q nearby.

It took me about four days in total to strip out the old bathroom, replaster the walls where I'd stripped the tiles off and fit a new toilet, sink, bathroom, shower + screen amd re-tile and paint. 4 days of sweaty misery and endless trips to various plumbing suppliers to try and source the right size waste pipe for my new sink, but worth it for saving £1500 for paying someone else.

From my experience I would say:

- use compression joints on the plumbing, very easy to use and if you do spot a drip from a joint, easy to fix.
- check and double check the sizes of all pipework otherwise you'll end up like me with a loft full of spare plastic pipes.


ETA - If you want me to elaborate further on 'lessons learned' I'm quite happy to do so. That was the first bathroom I'd installed and though I'm a competent DIYer, I'm no expert.

Edited by Geoff82 on Sunday 13th September 16:29

[Sgt Bilko]

Luckily i fit my own kitchen when we moved in, and threw a cheap temp bathroom suite in. I can handle the odd bit of plumbing work, as long as the joints are pre-soldered, and DIY trickery.

Trouble is, i will have to get a sparky in for the roof lights and shower supply make-safe.

Oh, and i really haven't got the spare time, but there's the rub. Cash Vs Time.

[Geoff82]

If you can fit a kitchen, you shouldn't have any worries fitting a bathroom. Plus if you use compression joints you don't have to worry about soldering either.

[Sgt Bilko]

Just had the first quote in

£2085

Includes fitting of UFH (supplied)
Supply and fit of downlights x 4
All RCD's/wiring for bath/UFH

Two blokes, reckons about 5/6 days