aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgggghhhh!!

upgraditis will certainly have to wait now!

got quoted £2.5k for a tiling and bathroom fitting job last night - and thats labour only , and we aint renovating Buck Palace!

to add insult to financial injury the bloke pointed out just how bad a job the plasterer has done on one wall - its too far out to tile, fcuking amazing given he was dot and dabbing 8x4 boards - how hard can it be to get them square on and vertical

with just 6 weeks to go before we are due to move i really did not need the hassle.......

sorry, rant over. anyone know a decent tiler and plasterer in / around the west yorks area? i'm trying to get the original plasterer back but, frankly, dont know i could trust him!

 

For £500 I got my bathroom rewired, totaly refitted, the entire house replumbed and a new double glazed window in the bathroom and a solid oak windowsill. Oh we also got an extrator fan and a tap mixer/shower thrown in.

Its all about being recourseful and knowing the right people. I admit on this job I was the labourer which is why it was so cheap, I did the rewiring the rest was all done by a joiner.

My mum did the tiling though, its actually very easy although cutting can be quite difficult.

This person also did the plastering which touch would has been fine. I think the trick is in finding a good trademen is word of mouth, my dad knows a lot of landlords becuase of his business, so he often asks them if they know any good tradesmen, touch would all of them have been cheap and done a really good job.

The person who did the bathroom I should point was my mate, so I suppose some cheating was done there

Is this plasterer a sole trader or is it from a limited company? I would get him back, give him a chance to put things right, if you're still not saitified contact trading standards, you may be able to take him a small claims court and he should insurnace to cover that unless he is a complete cowboy.

 

With the change on january 1st this year, wiring work now requires certification like gas work does. Bathrooms and kitchens are subject to significantly more stringent regulations than other areas of the house for obvious reasons.

 

Yep I read them IEEE prooposals, this was done in 2001. There were no circuits added and the existing wiring was mostly used, I put spot lights in and wired an extrator fan to an old emergen(sp) heater circuit, I also fitted a fused isolater where the old switch used to be and put a lower rating fuse in the fuse box for the circuit.

I thought it was only new circuits that need to be certified, but you can add a circuit to an existing wring main, I.e add a socket. What you are not allowed to now (as I understand it) is add a new circuit to the consumer unit, you need to get this checked by qualified electrician.

You are also allowed to change lighting fittings, plug sockets etc.

 

Commiserations...

Not very helpful I know, but it's little things like this that make me not-so-bothered that at the current, and foreseeable, I'll never be able to buy a house. Rent is SO much easier...

£2.5k does sound steep though - I'm sure my folks paid a LOT less than that when they had their entire bathroom gutted and refitted...

 

We paid about £3500 three years ago to have a bathroom completely redone. It doesn't sound that excessive to me if you have it done by a reputable company, the tiles alone were about £50 a square metre, a tap cost about £100 per fitting, and those were the cheap ones! The bath we had was about £500. If you want cheap you can get one of the B+Q £200 suites, but they're crap, and you'll spend half your life resealing them as they flex too much, and the silicone will come away from the wall. You pays for what you get in this world.

 

Yep, £2.5k sounds very steep. Obvious thing is to phone around and get a few quotes. No harm in trying.

 

Its handy knowing people who modernise mansions in chehsire, which is pretty much where most of our bathroom came from, we have some mixer taps which would cost £300 new, these are extremely high quality ones, nothing wrong with them, a good clean up and new washers they are like new.

The bath came from a house in Stretford, and the sink/cystern was also from a releatives house. It wasn't that were ac heap stakes, its the old bathroom hadn't really been touched since 1906 apart from the added radiator, and a bit of paint, so it needed work on it desperatly. We still have the original 1906 Royal Dualton toilet though

 

folks, thanks for the comments and commiserations. feeling a bit stressed as time ticks down to moving in date and, having put so much time, labour (and money!) into this project for the last 5 months it just really hacked me off

have calmed down a little bit now though. finally got hold of the plasterer, he was almost apologetic, he's due to come back this weekend, and i actaully believe he will. Like all other tradesfolk on our renovation he came via word of mouth, hence my evident disappoinment with workmanship.

The £2.5k quote i mentioned is labour only - we have already bought tiles, bath sink etc etc etc - our man (another word of mouth recomend) reckoned 10 days to plumb it out and tile it, with 2 men on the job! - bearing in mind 90% of the pipework is in place and the room (all 12' x 8' of it) is (will be) as square as possible and freshly plastered methinks he's on a leg pull....time to cast around!
If they all come in with the same value of quote i'm dropping out of office life and retraining!

just have to remember that, once in, my modest system will reap the benefits of the 4mm2 dedicated ring main in the lounge......
which reminds me - do i need to go the whole hog and have it on a separate consumer unit or can it just be a single circuit off the 'common' consumer unit? sparky is due back for the second fix next week so i'd best decide soon...

 

So that's 160 hours labour for £2500 or just over £15 per hour. Sounds eminently reasonable to me.

 

We had our similair sized room, tiled, plumbed, and rewired in about 5 days. Seems a long time to me. That was one man as well!

 

How big is your Bathroom?

 

But should it take that long

 

I think your being had.

I used to labour for a plumber, in a country cottage in the yorkshire dales we got the job of:

Old bathroom suite out,
New suite in, (bath, shower cubicle, sink, toilet and heated towel rail),
Tiled from floor to ceiling and fitted a new carpet.

Took two of us three and a half days.

Ring round and get a few more quotes and see what comes up.

 

lordsummit is the current holder of the Zerogain "Largest Bathroom Award". I got lost in there...

chris - where are you moving to/from? All within marsden?

 

That's the new bathroom Isaac. You never saw the one that was done up. Someone else did all the hard work in my present place, we just paid an operative to change the colours to something more suitable!
Our bathroom was the same size as Chris's. Whch makes me think that someone is attempting the old take down the trousers routine, two men ten days to do a bathroom, I'd try someone else

 

It took 6 months to our bathroom but the my mate was quite unreliable and we never knew when he was coming however this is what was done:

Cold water entirely replumbed from kitchen to bathroom, hot water left alone as its only 20 years old.

A new solid wood double glazed window

Recessed spot lights and part lowered celing to conceal pipes.

Tiling above the bath about 1.5 metres high

Window wall replastered

A new bath, toilet and cystern plumbed in.

A new extrator fan.

Total cost £500 including labour, although the cost would have been £1000 if it was all new parts. Much of the bathroom was stripped ouit to the bare shell, i.e just bricks on the wall.

 

mornin all. spoke to my dad last night - he's a time served joiner, ok not a related trade but he should know the score, and he reckons the guy must be trying to price himself out of the job for whatever reason.
room is 8 x 12, 10ft high max dropping to 4ft minimum as its in the eaves. thats the only real quirk on the job. as the tiles are 12 x 8" (though there is a mosaic trim to go in at dado height) i cant really see it taking 10 days to get them on the wall, hell, i have tiled before, i'm sure i could do it myself in 10 days, its just i need the job to be spot on to make sure all is square for the corner shower unit, hence i am looking at professional help so i'm ringing round again today.

Isaac - i'm on mount road and will still be there when we move - just dropping down the hill 200yards or so. bigger house, closer to the village (ie pub!).

Moving to matters slightly less stressful - Any thoughts on my question ref the separate ring main i have had put in for audio-visual equipment - do i get sparky to fit a separate consumer unit (fuse board) ot just have it as its own circuit off the main consumer unit? And anyone any experience how much difference this can make to a system?

Cheers all
Chris

 

Just make sure the quote is for the whole job,and if it over runs they foot the bill

just add up the hours they quote and compoare to other plumbers,these tradesman can charge 200 quid a day per man,anymore than that and you are being ripped off

2 men for a weeks work is 2k,then they will have to get a sparks in if they aren't qualified,thats why is 2.5k

only way to get it cheaper is to find a plumber who can tile,sparks,plaster etc etc,they aren't easy to find

2.5k doesn't sound so bad

also,are they reputable,had a recommendation from someone else,been around for a while etc etc? If they have,they will offer more than just the fit,they will gaurantee their work and come around after the fit and do repairs without giving you grief