samo

iTrader: (6)

My girlfriend and i are pondering buying a 2 bed semi that's in need of 'modernisation'..however as funds are tight we would have to live there while we carry out the work..

One job that needs doing before we would be able to move in is replacing the existing 3 piece bath suite. We have found a really cheap suite but would need this fitting by a pro. My dad said to be prepared to pay upto £3000 for this but i cant see it costing that much..overall we would have a budget of £1000 for buying the sweet and fitting..is this realistic?

Cheers

Ant

The best thing to do is just get a plumber in to quote . Some jobs will be easier than others.

Are you going to tile it yourself?

Do you have a power shower? That'll need a sparky

Hysteria1983

It wouldn't need to cost £3000, but if you had that to spend, great!

If you have a budget, then stick to it. When buying a new property, sticking to your budget is very important, £200 here and £400 there doesn't seem like much, but it all adds up. Before you know it, your £10k you gave yourself to spruce the place up turns into £15k and spending 5 grand you cannot afford makes a huge difference.



Have a look here http://www.bathstore.com/

samo

iTrader: (6)

Yeah plan on tiling myself..there is a power shower already fitted from what i can recall.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

If it's a like for like swop, I'd not expect a plumber to take more than a day if you do some of the prep work first, (removing tiles etc) so with materials I'd not pay more than £250 labour.

samo

iTrader: (6)

Yeah thats pretty much it cookstar..we would be removing the tiles and crap ourselves

stilover

The usual rate is about £1000.

Hammie82

iTrader: (1)

Take out all the tiling and so on yourself first! If it's a wooden floor, check the wood for rot / water damage!
If you need a plumber to remove and replace I'd say don't pay more than 500 quid, however if you want to move the sink bath or toilet it will cost more including all re piping works!!!
Now is a good time to change the layout if you are not happy with it!
I have changed the suite myself in the past! Without having any previous experience before I went at it! It's just knowing where stop ***** etc are and being confident in what your doing!

mamoon2

If its a straight swap, just do it yourself. There are plenty of guides on the web to show you how.

But i'd not pay more than £320 or 2 days labour at £160 per day for a plumber (north west prices - not London)

samo

iTrader: (6)

Im pretty happy with the layout as is, so in theory its just a straight swap and obviously checking for the obvious as mentioned above. Im taking my dad there for a look this weekend, hopefully he will be able to judge the situation/work needed better instead of throwing random £0000's everywhere lol.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Been having a think about this, and I'd say to avoid the really cheap suites as some of them are shocking. Spend that bit extra on the suite and have a go yourself, unless you are really against it.

With the flexi connectors and plastic pipe and fittings, you probably wont need to solder anything. Just need to know how to hold a couple of spanners.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

This man is talking sense.

Do it yourself, it isn't as diffiuclt as it sounds. Take it slowly and you will save plenty of cash and have the satisfacton of knowing you did it.... and you may just do a better job (simply because you will take more time over it).

samo

iTrader: (6)

hmmm i assumed it would be a difficult job which is why i was going to get someone in to do it.

Thanks again for the advice guys

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

£3k??!!! No chance!!

I did our bathroom from start to finish and it was less than £1k. You can learn a lot on the job and if you do have to slightly alter things then push-fit's are your friend

I did the pulling back of all the existing plaster as it was crumbling etc, dot and dab new plaster boards - re-tiled, added a few shelves and also created a frame for a cupboard.

Give it a try - the worst you'll end up doing is taking more time and it's a lot more rewarding afterwards

g7prs

iTrader: (5)

Sorry for the hijack but i am about to do the same thing Can anyone recommend a good supplier of travertine bathroom tiles? There are loads of internet sites and the prices seem to vary quite a bit?

samo

iTrader: (6)

Thanks again for the positive words guys..and @ g7prs have you tried homebase? they have some decent offers on at the moment

Luan Pra bang

Personally I would stay a million miles away from www.bathstore.com they are crap, their products are crap, and their customer service is crap.

g7prs

iTrader: (5)

I havent but i will have a look there thanks!

97TURBO

We bought a bathroom suite out of B&Q for about £350 and it has done a job for 4 and a half years now and still looks great. We did fit it ourselves which cut costs.

Hammie82

iTrader: (1)

For tiles, would advise visiting a few dedicated tiling stores in your area!
I'd always avoid the likes of homebase, b&q and other such "superstores" as they normally have a fairly hefty markup on the products!

Best of luck whatever you decide to do!!!

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Remember when buying my house 6 years ago, the first thing I wanted was an upto date bathroom but on a budget. wickes saw me right with a simple modern looking 3 piece suite for about £250. That included loo, cistern, sink and bath. Bought funky taps as the standard were cheap looking public loo ones. didn;t want a cheap plastic surround so bought some wood to tile around the bath. A plumber who was an old team leaders partner priced up the swtraight swap for the suite as well as the tiling for walls and floor. Was about £550 for all the labour and any associated costs like piping on the windows. For this he fitted the suite and wall/floor tiles. Whether he paid tax on what I paid him I don't know

Wall tiles (8" x 8") were good plain white for the walls with blue mosaic (13" x 13") for around the bath and some of the wall. Those curvy effect ones not flat tiles. Floor was 12" x 12" grey slate ones (again not flat but bumpy ones). Got all my tiles and grout from a place called Al Murads in Scunny. Yes a decorating Mecca owned and ran by Asian guys but I tell you what, they were the most helpful bunch ever, especially in comparison to other "big" retailers. They did me a brilliant deal on the tiles for buying a lot in one go.

All in, £1000-£1200 and the bathroom still looks decent enough now, especially for a budget. I'd like a new one but mainly for colour scheme and the outside wall may need a damp course for having a downstairs bathroom and little ventilation.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Someone mentioned to me a while ago that clubcard vouchers can be either trebled/quadrupled in tops tiles. Might be worth a check.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

With regards to the suite, I have bought a few "p bath" suits from Wicks recently, they come with sink/taps P bath/panel/taps with shower attachment and the throne with soft close seat. £500 all in and they are lovely.

mervil

iTrader: (5)

Normally I'd charge £200 to swap a 3 piece bathroom suite, £100 for the bath and £50 each for the other two! That's it no matter how long it takes! If there's any adjusting of pipework to do then I'll just add £20 or so! It's not hard, just can be fiddly to do! I changed a suite a few years ago that was on a concrete floor in an ex council house and that was a nightmare! I only charged £300, they were quoted £800 for labour only

samo

iTrader: (6)

again thanks for all the input and advice guys..the bathroom is one of the determine factors (as well as the building being structurally sound) in us going for this house.

kj200sx

iTrader: (7)

£250-£300 for like for like suite complete job rip out,plastering,electrics,tiling etc etc you are about write with the £3000 you said for a proper job

goodfellow

We were originally going to buy a cheap bathroom suite from B&Q in Glasgow when a relative suggested a plumbing chain called plumbstore www.plumbstores.co.uk.
When we got there we started talking to a guy who was buying a shower cubicle to fit for one of his customers. To cut a long story short we ended up getting his company to supply and fit a 3 piece bathroom suite including tiling and flooring for £995. The company Aable Ltd. are based in Glasgow website is www.bathroomsayrshire.com
Another tip is to get an OAP to use their discount card at B&Q on a Wednesday www.diy.com
You should get 10% off.
Hope this helps.

PaulC72

£3000 !!!

Do it yourself it would be hard to go wrong if it is a like for like.

stiscooby

We done this nearly a year ago now (1st house).

It depends how much work needs doing really (we moved things around in ours). I was lucky in that my Dad done the work for me but it still cost around £2800 ish in total (from memory) for the suite & bits and pieces (it's the bits and pieces which mount up!).

We didn't want a cheap crap suite so went for what you might call "mid range" stuff. We got sink, taps, toilet, shower bath & screen, shower & cupboard/unit that sink sits on - this all came to about £1850 (£320 of that was just for the shower as we went for a digital one with built in pump so not to have issues with pressure).

Then on top of that was about another £360 for tiles (we re-tiled from floor to ceiling).

Other things like pipe fittings, pipe, tile adhesive/grout, lights, mirror, flooring, oh and a skip to put all the crap in came to £600+.

So if you have to pay for labour as well then £3000 wouldn't surprise me after doing mine.

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

Mine is being done next month. Plumber is charging £350 to rip out the old suite, and install the new one. Including all fittings etc.