New bathroom

[Peerzy]

We're just finishing up our en-suite which is about 2.5m * 2m. We've had each trade come in and it needed a lot of prep work (plastering, floors sorting etc....) We've gone for middle of the range stuff, a lot from Victorian Plumbing and a local plumber, electrician, plasterer etc....

Total cost is coming in at around £8.5k but a big part of that (about £2.5k) was the tiling which was very labour intensive due to herringbone tiles and niches. It's also included updating some very old pipework that could have been left and a new large pump to cover all the bathrooms rather than just the en-suite.

 

[norm]

I did a bathroom and shower room recently in our new 50's house. Did all the work myself, only done minor work prior to these. I figured, if I'm saving a load of money on the work - I may as well splash out on more expensive fittings. Seeing as this is our 'forever' home and I don't fancy having to re-do anything soon.

I got most things from places like Victoria Plumb, Heat & Plumb - the rest from B&Q. I went for metro style tiling, which were cheap to buy and I think look nice and shouldn't date quickly.

Overall, spent about £3000.

£400 on the shower screen.
£120 on the shower tray
£350 on the thermostatic shower
£600 on the sink
£150 on the tap
£100 on the rails / shelves
£60 on the mirror / light
£300 on the tiles
£90 on the pre-mixed glitter grout.
£350 on the toilet
+ fittings, pipe work, cable, fillers etc.

Excellent job, all the pieces you bought go nicely together. I'm currently working through redoing my ensuite, got most the parts just at the plumbing stage under the floor.

 

[mdaw]

Agreed Norm, Bug One has done a very nice job of it.
Can you come and do mine Bug One?

 

[LeeUK]

All the local "living the dream" bathroom installers will charge £10K for a bathroom that costs less than half that in materials. Pure money making gig.

 

[{SAS}TB]

We did our two bathrooms and ensuite out from Victoria Plumb / Tile Giant and local tiling shops

VP stuff is ok if you don't go bargain bucket end and it's easy enough to get a trade account to get some decent discount too

 

[200sols]

Pure money making gig.

That is generally the aim. I assume you have a job?

 

[LeeUK]

That is generally the aim. I assume you have a job?

Yes but I don't earn a pure £3K profit for a weeks work.

 

[Slam62]

We're going through the process of getting quotes for an ensuite and a bathroom, I think its easy to get carried away when asking for quotes so you end up with a load more on the list than if you were doing it yourself.
The customer base must vary a huge amount as well, more money than sense comes to mind. I think we need to focus on the basics first.

There are a lot of overheads for an honest trader, as well as times of reduced income.

 

[Ron-ski]

Best advice I can give is learn to do it yourself, you can then afford better fittings and fixtures and you know exactly what's been done, and you won't get let down by tradespeople. My mother in law just had her bathroom converted to a shower room, it was done through a grant so she had to use the recognised installer, basically this was one company that then employed another to do the work, which was absolutely appalling, and had to be stopped - a new diyer could have done better. Luckily the main company found another that was willing to work extra hours over and above their already booked in work to put it right - he ripped everything out and did a good job. I've also been let down by trades people when I've employed them over the years, they not all bad, but finding a good one is extremely hard.

I've pretty much always done all my own work, renovating each house we've bought. When I install baths I get rid of the supplied mounts, most are weak and feeble, I build a wooden frame to support the bath, it is solid and not going anywhere. My daughters bathroom I applied extra fibre glass to the bath panel, these tend to be leant against and break easily, mine would probably survive a truck driving in to it.

Our en-suite





Daughters bathroom

Bath support frame





Re-enforced bath panel



PS. I do tend to over engineer things, but at least they last.

 

[bigfoot4616]

All the local "living the dream" bathroom installers will charge £10K for a bathroom that costs less than half that in materials. Pure money making gig.

did my own bathroom last year( i'm a tiler) and mates did the plumbing/electrics, its nothing to fancy but the materials came to £5k at trade price and if i had been charging labour and paying my mates full rates labour cost would be about £5k. £10k is about average for a decent bathroom done properly, mine inculded stripping back to block and new/ straightened studwork on the other walls.
if a bathroom is done in a week there has been some shortcuts taken somewhere

 

[LeeUK]

did my own bathroom last year( i'm a tiler) and mates did the plumbing/electrics, its nothing to fancy but the materials came to £5k at trade price and if i had been charging labour and paying my mates full rates labour cost would be about £5k. £10k is about average for a decent bathroom done properly, mine inculded stripping back to block and new/ straightened studwork on the other walls.
if a bathroom is done in a week there has been some shortcuts taken somewhere

I'm talking that price just changing the suite in a new build property.

 

[bigfoot4616]

any new builds i've seen the bathroom would need completely gutting to make it decent anyway

 

[LeeUK]

any new builds i've seen the bathroom would need completely gutting to make it decent anyway

Hence why I said "living the dream" because that how they are sold when the new build bathroom was still perfectly serviceable as a basic bathroom.

 

[BallistixOnZ490]

I'm considering redoing my bathroom next, but it would be in 1-2 years time.

I have just 1.9m2 and wanted to get at least a wider walk in L shape tub of 85-90cm fitted in but it would need the toilet and sink repositioning too. An all integrated design like Ron-ski's would be brilliant but I would want to keep it under £5000.

New build 70cm tubs are complete crap for showering in, and I don't even use the bath. I had no choice to upgrade anything while it was building either.

 

[daz]

In terms of taps etc. I have seen grohe and hansgrohe mentioned a lot. They seem to be the go to premium brand for that kind of thing along with shower valves and heads. In the bath we will looking to fit a shower above it. So Grohe is definitely on the cards if I find one in the style my wife likes. Aquiliser were once considered very good, is that still the case? Also I'm open to other recommendations for brands on showers and taps etc. As the shower will be going over the bath I don't need a shower tray.

The main thing with Grohe etc is you'll be able to get spare parts forever. E.g. if part of your concealed cistern breaks or you need a new thermostatic valve. Whereas generic makes will be made for a year or two and might be impossible to find after that.

 

[Ron-ski]

You'll find a lot of taps used standard cartridge valves, my 10 year old no name eBay bath tap started leaking recently, took it apart, measured the cartridge and ordered one off Amazon, fitted and works perfectly.

 

[BallistixOnZ490]

Gosh its £2100 just for such a tub that I would want:



And I would need the toilet that's next to the current tub moving at least which means re plumbing, ideally a new sink and toilet too.

More realistically £6000 at least in total I need to save for this.

£259 for a non walk in, £2100 for a walk in, like what???

Might be cheaper to forget about a tub and just get an open shower area instead.

 

[Ron-ski]

You see the walk in tubs are for the elderly, and disabled, so for some reason they charge a fortune for them.

 

[mdaw]

I'm considering redoing my bathroom next, but it would be in 1-2 years time.

I have just 1.9m2 and wanted to get at least a wider walk in L shape tub of 85-90cm fitted in but it would need the toilet and sink repositioning too. An all integrated design like Ron-ski's would be brilliant but I would want to keep it under £5000.

New build 70cm tubs are complete crap for showering in, and I don't even use the bath. I had no choice to upgrade anything while it was building either.

I have similar dimensions where I'm going to, I think. Looking at a previous listing of the property it measures 1.78x1.78m. so very small. So I'm hoping that will reduce the cost a little. I'm hoping it will fit a 75cm width bath where the shower unit is now rather than just a 70cm which is what I have in my current bathroom. Unfortunately it is just too small to fit a 180cm length rather than a 170cm.