Quote to refurb small bathroom

[u/magic-turtle-2625]

This is my current bathroom, in need of complete refurb, change electric shower to combi shower and adding a radiator. All of the quotes in my area (South Wales) have been £8-10K minimum! I can’t afford that amount even on finance, so just wondering if that seems expensive or whether DIY might be a better route. It’s the only bathroom in the house so might complicate things.

[u/purplechemist]

Our bathroom was almost identical to this (seriously; I did a double-take with that yellow/white random patchwork!).

Anyway; to do ours (2.3M x 1.4m), (including ripping up and replacing floorboards, ripping down and replacing ceiling, re plastering, tiling walls, vinyl floor, but shower off a mixer tap, not electric like yours), cost us I reckon £4000 as a DIY job. We didn’t go high-end on anything; the suite cost about £800 (vanity unit was most expensive single part). The rest was materials and a tile-saw.

So; add on probably another £2k of labour (five days of two people)

[u/Grifter1983 → u/purplechemist]

2k labour a bit light there I’d say, maybe a few years ago…be closer to 4 for skilled guys, running a business, not just wages

[u/purplechemist → u/Grifter1983]

Good point

[u/Logical_Monk_4506 → u/purplechemist]

You also need to add building control fees and any improvements required by them to bring the bathroom up to standards (whether actually needed or not)

I know technically you did that, but wink wink cough

[u/Grifter1983]

Hi, I install lots of bathrooms, and that price doesn’t seem unreasonable. When I supply and install they can range from roughly 8k up to 25k depending on the quality of items getting installed.

[u/Lj8892 → u/Grifter1983]

Follow up question if you don't mind. Where do you usually buy the fittings from, or anywhere to avoid?

Thanks

[u/Grifter1983 → u/Lj8892]

Main sanitary ware I usually get from my local merchants, city plumbing, bbs. I avoid online companies like Victorian plumbing as I find they entice you in with price but the quality isn’t there. I also avoid the likes of b&q and wickes, especially for tiles!

[u/Lj8892 → u/Grifter1983]

Cheers

[u/JobLegitimate3882 → u/Lj8892]

Never ever buy stuff from Victoria plumb, eveytime I've attempted to fir their stuff bits are always missing and its shoddy quality, then you have to wait a week for the replacement bits to turn up.

[u/Swimming_Bass_9606]

i payed 8k for full bathroom refit, tiles, floor and suite. The prices sounds about rigth tbh.

[u/Ho_Lee_Fuk_20]

Seemingly similar sized bathroom - 3.5K for the fixtures and 4.5K to install. Probably about right!

[u/lamichi]

Same quote I had.

Never done this scale of diy before but gave it a shot.

Costa £2.4k

[u/Infections95]

Just had my bathroom finished. Complete refurb, electrics etc and looks to be a similar size. 5k for the job and spent 4k~ on tiles, furnishings.

[u/geesusdb]

I had to do the same thing this spring with an tiny bathroom that had a weird layout. Luckily I didn’t have to re-tile, but I relocated the toilet seat, replaced and relocated the sink, replaced the shower cabin with an L-shaped bath and switched from an electric shower to a combi one. Total cost: a little over £1200, and I didn’t have to take the bathroom offline for more than 6 hours at the time. Also while having a full time job. It’s doable, but you have to plan and plan and plan again.

[u/FuckedUp4Life]

Up north that would be around 3k to 4k labour.

[u/DesperateTangerine17]

Similar size. £10k total cost in the East Midlands 2 years ago. We had some fancy fixtures and tiles and needed a stud wall moving.

[u/PerformerLogical4672]

We had our bathroom refurbished 20 years ago, new Bath, sink and loo, shower, towel rail etc, and i did the tiling. Fitted a full width mirror, oak surround, cupboard under the end of the bath, light sensors and ceiling speakers. That lot came in around 6k

[u/SlaveToNoTrend]

Its about right. One thing I have learnt in wales is you have to be really careful with trades people.

I dont know what it is but there's more cowboys than actual decent tradesmen.

[u/Natarlee]

Just had a bathroom completely refurbed (as in everything ripped out from top to bottom, layout changed, electrics etc) and it cost just short of £14k in total - the labour cost was £7.5k. I would say our bathroom was slightly bigger so your quite seems pretty reasonable. Bathroom's are very expensive!

[u/Long_Welder_6289]

These quotes are insane for 1 weeks labour for 1 guy

[u/bitofsomething]

Seems like a perfectly reasonable quote. Bear in mind, DIY bathrooms are not like DIY kitchens. Particularly where showers and wet areas are concerned, one thing a lot of DIYers skip is backer board and tanking. I’ve had to deal with a lot of shower leaks, where tiles have gone straight on plasterboard without tanking. Always a costly nightmare to sort out. Also tiling is not easy, I mean sticking a tile on a wall is easy but good tiling and layout isn’t simple. It’s also not cheap to get setup with decent kit. Perhaps break down the cost and plan it for sometime in the future, start buying in materials and the suite, then agree milestone payments with the fitter. As others have said, consider where you source the suite and tiles, Victoria Plumb looks cheap but it’s a mixed bag when you buy a bundle, some items are good, others are cheap. Also tiles from places like Homebase and B&Q tend to be, well, a bit shit.

[u/discoverydivision]

Currently planning a DIY full bathroom refurb to start in Jan. Keeping the existing bath but everything else is getting replaced. Costed supplies and looking at £2k max inc tiles. Doing all work ourselves but best advice is really spend time shopping around for materials. Had great success at the moment with clearance at Homebase! Tiles for £15/sqm!