To add to my earlier post, the way I kept costs down was...
- Do as much prep as possible ourselves (removing old tiles, stripping walls)
- Shop around for parts (e.g. taps were cheaper from Screwfix)
- Get big tiles (cheaper to fit) on offer from a tile specialist (not B&Q)
- Consider decorating yourself once it's fitted, or get a painter in
To further Cha****ng's suggestion ^^^^, also look for ex-display stuff at Bathroom Showrooms (and on Ebay). We got a lovely Villeroy and Boch unit for next to nothing as it was ex-display and had a huge mark on one side, but it was the side that butts up to a wall with our bathroom layout so it didn't matter one bit to us.
Cheshire? I'm going for 12K.
...does the winner get the ceremonial first dump in the new lav!?
Consider decorating yourself once it’s fitted, or get a painter in
If I were you I'd seriously consider fully tiling the en-suite as, being quite small, will soon fill with steam and even the best paints don't like too much damp.
If I were you I’d seriously consider fully tiling the en-suite as, being quite small, will soon fill with steam and even the best paints don’t like too much damp.
Fair comment if there's no window.
I still wouldn't tile the ceiling though 😉
I still wouldn’t tile the ceiling though
Hah no - we didn't do that, but it does need repainting again (I use Johnstone's professional stuff but I still find it only lasts about five years, but my wife is semi-amphibian).
Ohh, and OP - you need to get a Manrose inline extractor fan.
also look for ex-display stuff at Bathroom Showrooms
Yes this is a good shout, I spent a while looking at different options from online suppliers but the plumber suggested I meet him at a local independent showroom so I could look at stuff and discuss options. Worked out well in the end as I managed to get bath, screen & sink/pedestal unit cheap as ex-display.
We're getting quotes to convert a downstairs loo and sink changing into a loo, sink and shower. It's only 80cm wide, lots of pipes, including the gas inlet. It will be a squeeze. Company came last week - not had a quote yet but expecting £5k. If that much, I'll just replace the small sink with a new larger one and a 'waterfall' tap.
I did our bathroom, kept the fittings, but rotated the bath, new shower, completely new tiles and probably ran to £2k in tiles and other 'bits'.
Thanks all
Firstly, no the sweepstake winner will not be dumping in my toilet, ceremonial or otherwise...
Quote was £10k, which having read all of these posts, seems less outrageous than I thought, still 2-3k over the mark though IMO.
We will be tiling all round and using mid-range parts, I'll keep an eye on ex-display. I'm not convinced of the DIY prep bit, false economy perhaps. Should take more than a day to rip the existing stuff out surely? Could take me a week with just a couple of hours per evening available.
Oh, and three weeks to complete the job!
Could take me a week with just a couple of hours per evening available.
I would say well inside a day, even quicker with the right tools. A rotary hammer drill with a chisel bit if the tiles are a bit stubborn, for example, and a decent pry bar/hammer combo.
I would say well inside a day, even quicker with the right tools. A rotary hammer drill with a chisel bit if the tiles are a bit stubborn, for example, and a decent pry bar/hammer combo.
Yeah I think it took me a weekend (including tip-runs) and that was just with a cold-chisel and lump hammer to lift off the tiles – a surprisingly satisfying job.
My assumption was that chipping the tiles off in that fashion will inevitably take half the plasterboard with it? Is'nt it easier and quicker just to rip the plasterboard off with the tiles still on it? Even if tiles come off relatively cleanly, surelay there's some wall prep to do before applying new tiles?
We were quoted £6.5k a few years okay for similar.
We couldn't afford it so instead we thought about alternatives. Ending up putting on a two bedroom extension, doubling the size of our house, replacing heating, windows, three bathrooms, flooring, most electrics and new landscaping all around.
Still not quite sure how that happened, but we did replace the original bathroom.
a surprisingly satisfying job.
Very satisfying, and incredibly dusty 😀
Even if tiles come off relatively cleanly, surelay there’s some wall prep to do before applying new tiles?
We went back to brick and then got the room dab and dot plasterboarded and skimmed.
My assumption was that chipping the tiles off in that fashion will inevitably take half the plasterboard with it? Is’nt it easier and quicker just to rip the plasterboard off with the tiles still on it? Even if tiles come off relatively cleanly, surelay there’s some wall prep to do before applying new tiles?
In my case, the tiled walls were external. Any subsequent refit may be a different proposition as I have now tiled the stud walls too.
We were quoted £6.5k a few years okay for similar.
We couldn’t afford it so instead we thought about alternatives. Ending up putting on a two bedroom extension, doubling the size of our house, replacing heating, windows, three bathrooms, flooring, most electrics and new landscaping all around.
Fair play, you did well to get all that done for less than £6K
I’m not convinced of the DIY prep bit, false economy perhaps. Should take more than a day to rip the existing stuff out surely? Could take me a week with just a couple of hours per evening available
My rate is £250 to strip out and £12/m2 for tile removal (including all the adhesive if you’re doing it yourself!). Generally done in a day for average size bathroom.
sometimes you get lucky and walls remain intact, sometimes, not so much, making good bit included in above prices. Sometime a good slam of the door and pick the tiles off the floor is all that’s needed, sometimes it’s a ball aching process, some you win, some you loose, but there’s always some making good for retile, here’s todays surprise…
Cheers old plumber/builder/DIY’er!
How soon do you want it?
I’ve just finished an interim contract at a bathroom company supplying to the retailers. They are seeing a drop in demand- showrooms quoting its due to cost of living & getting hold of trades to do the work.
They have pushed loads of incentives to retailers to shift stock but it’s not happening, so discounts were increasing (not sure how much was getting to the customer tho).
They foresee the usual drop in sales in Dec being worse than usual so you could get a deal if you wait.
FB-ATB - was looking at end September
Blazin, thanks for the info re stripping out. So that's around £450 that you would charge to strip a room like mine, with all walls currently tiled. Maybe I should get busy! I know that there will be no nasty surprises behind the tiles as the guy that did it 13/14 years ago was a stickler for doing stuff properly (also the reason I'm expecting the tiles to be holding on to the plasterboard for grim death, rather than chipping off easily!).
My assumption was that chipping the tiles off in that fashion will inevitably take half the plasterboard with it? Is’nt it easier and quicker just to rip the plasterboard off with the tiles still on it? Even if tiles come off relatively cleanly, surelay there’s some wall prep to do before applying new tiles?
When we had our en suite done, the rip out took about 2 hours including the temporary capping of pipes. They took the tiles off with the plasterboard in 3 x4 ft pieces.
Ripping out an old bathroom isn’t too bad. I did it for our en-suite a few years back - although that had very small tiles on all walls - so took a while. When I do our current main bathroom it has much bigger tiles so hoping they’ll come out a bit quicker / without smashing into so many tiny pieces. Will try a cold chisel and lump hammer first but have an sds drill with a chisel bit if I need to bring the violence.
I have to say that ripping out old tiles wantonly is much more satisfying than carefully trying to cut out and lift several loose tiles without breaking them (or any of the surrounding tiles or underfloor heating) like I just had to do. It recently took me three bloody days to cut and lift five tiles, carefully hack away old adhesive, re-lay, grout and silicon seal the edges.
I'm expecting the porcelain floor tiles on ply to be the most annoying part of my upcoming bathroom stripping-out.
I think we paid ~£4k per bathroom, one was a complete bathroom refit, the other was a new ensuite (so simpler, but all new).
Wren and another retail park bathroom shop quoted silly amounts.
Don't get a plumber to do it, if doing it again I'd get the individual trades in directly otherwise you end up with a plumber bodging the carpentry, the tiler tiling everything as-is without thinking which bits are/aren't visible, or if flat surfaces need to slope etc. Having said that, maybe that's where Wren would have earnt their extra ££££.
Getting the ply up will probably be worse than the tiles off the ply, the screw heads get filled with adhesive and can be a real bear sometimes. Worst by far is trying to get mosaic off anything remotely porous, like the proverbial on a blanket.
Don’t get a plumber to do it, if doing it again I’d get the individual trades in directly otherwise you end up with a plumber bodging the carpentry, the tiler tiling everything as-is without thinking which bits are/aren’t visible, or if flat surfaces need to slope etc. Having said that, maybe that’s where Wren would have earnt their extra ££££.
nah, Wren just sub the lot out and add on 25% for the privilege.
Good bathroom fitters can be multi-trade and do everything well, or have other trade contacts for the bits they can’t/won’t do. I’m a Tiler 1st trade and can assure you I consider which bits are and aren’t visible, and know how to set a fall, but more importantly, I also can set the bathroom products and tiles out at the same time to make everything look spot on as opposed to the plumber lashing his bits in then the Tiler having to ‘get round’ what they’ve left, I can also build the stud walls and niches to take in account of the tile set out rather than leave silly tile cuts everywhere.
Seriously, I’d be looking at £1500 for me, £1500 for parts.
By me that's all I'd be looking to pay. You could obviously pay 10X but for me it's somewhere to get clean. I'd rather spend my money on bikes and holidays.
Good bathroom fitters can be multi-trade and do everything well, or have other trade contacts for the bits they can’t/won’t do.
Yeah, i'd second this, we had a tiler/general contractor/plumber do both here. Including the stripping out. He wanted to do that (and didn't charge much for it) as he can then see what was there before and what needed doing.
He got a mate in to connect up the electrics (legal requirement).
They cost about 10k each (well, 100-110k swedish) but are both tanked, underfloor heating and mid-range hansgrohe fittings. (That we managed to get through a friend at a nice, but not earth shattering discount.)
Downstairs the original tanking had failed so needed a bit of remedial work on the walls and a month to dry out properly. Upstairs needed some new floor boards and some work doing on a couple of the walls before the tank/tiles went up.
our ensuite is approx 2m x 2m. it was fully tiled I'm 600x300 tiles. for a full strip, including removing 3 (yes 3) ceilings it took just over an afternoon. I wad lucky though I could just chuck the tiles out of the window onto the side garden which meant not carting waste through the house.
like I said if the walls are a bad state use tile backer board it is far superior to plasterboard if you are retiling.
honestly it's a really easy job.
Did my sons bathroom last year, complete strip new floor, tiles shower, sink bath loo, some plastering and a lot of waste plumbing... took me 20 days, i am not as fast as good trades but not far behind.
That would be 4 to 5k in labour alone, not sure what they spent on suite tiles etc but it would be around 3k i guess. So it would be a 8k job (Leeds)
I have a friend in Vancouver who has just had two (I think) bathrooms completely re-done. I don't know how much he paid but when he was getting quotes, one company quoted over $100,000*!
Apparently, unknown to him, the company specialize in top end stuff and said $100,000 isn't that uncommon in Vancouver where so many properties are $2 million plus. His take was that company was simply applying a percentage of the property value** and setting expectations accordingly
*Admittedly, that's Canadian dollars so not to be confused with US dollars
** Property assessed value for taxation purposes is public record so its easy to find out a good ball-park figure...
I’m in the process of doing my main bathroom myself. A little more involved, as I had to take the (solid brick) external walls back to brick and insulate, replace the subfloor, plaster-board the old airing cupboard after having the tank relocated, and sort out ninety years of plumbing and electrical bodges under the floor.
Cost in materials for good quality but simple stuff (including around £800 for the walls and floor structural materials) is currently running at £4500.
Main bathroom, 2.5 x 2.5m. Completely gutted. Two external walls stripped to brick, replaced with 50mm celotex + plasterboard. Four walls stripped and tiled 600x300mm. Floor lifted, marine plywood and 600x600mm tiles. Corner bath, quadrant shower cubicle and tray, rainfall shower. Toilet. Mirrored vanity unit above sink balanced on a unit. all new lights and extractor fan. All materials cost £4600. A mix of B&Q, plumbase etc, decent quality. Did it all myself. I would estimate 2 guys for 2 weeks if I subbed it out. Was quoted between £8-12k. None of the quotes included the celotex insulation, two of the three wanted to tile over tile.
Very nice bathrooms there @Blazin_saddles, no wonder you're in demand!
We* are in the process of redecorating our downstairs toilet. Herself would like mosaic tiles and we have some sample tile panels in to check. 4.5square metres of tiling is £700-ish just for the tiles!! Herself has expensive tastes.
*Mrs S gets to choose colours and finishes, plus supervises and I get to do the labour/swearing.
Thanks CG!
*Mrs S gets to choose colours and finishes, plus supervises and I get to do the labour/swearing.
you’ll swear a lot. I detest doing mosaic work, always have since my apprenticeship. Takes ages and doesn’t look very good when finished IMO.
And mosaic tiles (in my experience) aren’t as deep as standard tiles so it’s a pain to use them together.
Our en suite is very similar in size and layout to the first pic from Blazin Saddles pic.
We paid about £12k in North Shropshire for nice stuff.
IMO getting a decent bog is the hardest bit. We went for one without much depth to save space. Wish we hadn’t. Means a gentleman’s sausage always touches the front of the seat, and your number 2’s tend to always hit the back of the pan, rather than falling straight in the water (these things matter when you have to clean up each time ) 😂
Bloody hell, I'm glad I did mine myself now. £500, kept the same bath and bog as there was nothing wrong with them. It looks great because we chose well on the paint (yes, paint!) and I made a lovely splashback out of mosaic tiles with a bit of colour rather than B&Q showroom beige. Other bits came from B&Q though, just not the design theme.
I firmly believe that taps and bogs are like high end road bikes or watches. They make expensive ones because people buy expensive ones.
South Derbyshire here, just had our en-suite done, smaller room than the OP but trades person was about £3700 for labour (just under 2 weeks) and consumables, we supplied tiles, fittings, etc and whole job came to around £5500 - £6000.
Went for a tiled floor upstairs in an under 20 year old property and the tiles started coming loose after the first day, trades person happy to cover replacing them but might switch to a high quality vinyl system.
Went for a tiled floor upstairs in an under 20 year old property and the tiles started coming loose after the first day, trades person happy to cover replacing them but might switch to a high quality vinyl system.
What is the subfloor and how was it prepped? There’s no reason a properly prepped floor using cement board or ditramat and fixed with S1 flexible adhesive should be letting go. Please don’t tell me they stuck them straight to the chipboard…
I firmly believe that taps and bogs are like high end road bikes or watches. They make expensive ones because people buy expensive ones.
to a point, with brassware you get what you pay for but obviously there’s a scale of diminishing returns. Same with toilets, high end ones are nicer designs generally and better made, but essentially still do the same job. Good ones are much nicer/easier to fit and will last longer generally, most of the money should be the seat and working parts as they’re the use items.
I think it might be direct to the chipboard, my hunch is that adhesive has popped off the floor, I was keen on them lift a couple of tiles up to see what had happened but they weren't.
