Bathroom Fitters

[pepp77]

Hi

We are looking to get our bathroom, gutted and redone with new suite, worktops, cupboards, units, tiling etc etc. We had a quote which we accepted but the owner of the company emailed last night to say he has to pull out for health reasons, so now we are stuck looking for a new contractor/company.

Anyone got any recommendations in the SE London area as so far the selection of companies I have tried off Trust-A-Trader have either not responded to messages or not answered phones, its as though no one wants a £5k or so job.

 

[LiE]

tried myhammer?

 

[radderfire]

I'm not an expert here, but I suggest looking at Checkatrade, and maybe going to local merchants and asking if they know a good installer - I expect some of them will.

Rgds

 

[radderfire]

Local letting agents and estate agents might also know someone good??

 

[Kimi]

Would you be tempted to do it yourself? would be a great project.

 

[pepp77]

tried myhammer?

Not heard of that, but will give it a look, thanks.

I'm not an expert here, but I suggest looking at Checkatrade, and maybe going to local merchants and asking if they know a good installer - I expect some of them will.

Rgds

Will check it out, and yes I will pop to the local Bathroom shops and see if they have any recommendations.

Local letting agents and estate agents might also know someone good??

Hadn't thought of that but will keep it as a back up.

Would you be tempted to do it yourself? would be a great project.

Honestly, not a chance in hell, I am not at all that way inclined and the amount of work is actually quite daunting to me. I need Plastering, electrical, carpentry, plumbing, tiling at a minimum.

Cheers for the replies guys.

 

[Maccapacca]

I feel for you fella. I've looked in all my little black books and everyone is busy.

Just one chance depending on where SE london

 

[pepp77]

We are in Eltham, SE9.

 

[Zatoichi.uK]

Trust a trader? Though I've phoned the top two bathroom fitters in my area and one didn't turn up one Sat morning and the other took 5 weeks to send me a quote and his answer was 'I won't apologise as I was on holiday for a week'. I still haven't had it.

 

[pepp77]

Finally managed to talk to two companies who seem interested, one coming round Saturday and one coming round Tuesday. The second one apologised a few times that he only got back to me today after emailing him on Sunday, and the first one I found in the local paper.

 

[radderfire]

I am quite interested in the concept of how to assess people. How will you be assessing the people that come round to quote? Will you be asking for references?

Have you looked at their websites?

Will you be taking a look at their van to help assess, etc etc?

Will you be asking for a written quotation? Or providing them with a written job spec to be quote for? I'm not an expert here but the process interests me.

Rgds

 

[pepp77]

Thought I would provide a little update to this now that I have had the bathroom work completed.

In the end I went for a company through TrustATrader. I looked at their website and photos of other works they had done. The guy who came to quote was here for about 45 minutes asked lots of questions and took lots of notes and measurements. Quote took about two weeks to come (was cheapest out of 3 I ended up getting and also included a set of basic works to the loft at the same time).

Quote was written and was as follows

• Remove and dispose of bathroom suite.
• Remove and dispose of wall tiles.
• Prepare walls and woodwork ready for painting.
• Apply two coats of white bathroom paint to ceiling.
• Remove and dispose of floor covering.
• Remove and dispose of boxing in around soil pipe.
• Reconstruct allowing shelving to right hand side.
• Apply two coats of colored paint to radiator wall, (colour paint to be supplied).
• Install shelving to right hand side of soil pipe.
• Make good walls ready for tiling. However if walls are plaster boarded and are damaged, there may be an additional cost to replace the plasterboard.
• Install new bath and taps, including new bath panel and reinstall disability grips.
• Tile walls in ceramic tiles, approximately 12sqm required (tiles to be supplied).
• Install new shower and raiser rail.
• Install permanent shower curtain rail.
• Remove existing radiator and install new towel rail. Pipe work for new towel rail to be installed in wall.
• Install wpb board to complete floor area.
• Tile complete floor in ceramic tiles approximately 3sqm (tiles to be supplied).
• Install semi-recessed high quality basin and vanity unit
• Install new toilet, and cistern.with isolation valve.
• Install new solid work top to units.
• Rebox piping in to a tight finish.
• Hang new bathroom door and paint.
• Install extractor fan.
• Fit all accessories supplied.
• Clean and clear all debris from site.

***Customer to supply suites, showers, accessories and tiles and custom panels for shelving***

Work took 11 days to complete. We had a toilet for all 11 days (minus several hours during the day on one day when the floor was being tiled), but no basin or bath for 5days. Thankfully my nan only leaves a few miles away so showering there was possible.

Before

Some progress pictures.

And the completed Bathroom

Have to say I am very pleased with it.

 

[radderfire]

Looks good.

Did you find it easy to identify quality Tradesmen on the TrustATrader website?

Were you impressed by the service provided by the Tradesman?

 

[Maccapacca]

Nice, I like the bath.

Tiler needs shooting

 

[Lopéz]

What was the overall cost?

I'm just about finished with my bathroom, 2mx2m, all DIY but it has taken me forever because I'm just not that arsed and I have to restore it to a usable state every day I work on it.

Mine has come in at around £1500 in materials. I haven't tracked labour as I've just been doing bits here and there.

 

[pepp77]

Looks good.

Did you find it easy to identify quality Tradesmen on the TrustATrader website?

Were you impressed by the service provided by the Tradesman?

From a general day to day perspective the actual guys who came in to do the work were great, friendly, hard working, asked questions, kept the place tidy etc. The boss was a little bad to deal with via email but was fine when you phoned him.

Nice, I like the bath.

Tiler needs shooting

Why do you say that?

What was the overall cost?

I'm just about finished with my bathroom, 2mx2m, all DIY but it has taken me forever because I'm just not that arsed and I have to restore it to a usable state every day I work on it.

Mine has come in at around £1500 in materials. I haven't tracked labour as I've just been doing bits here and there.

The quote for the actual work was just about £4k and then I spent about £1600 on all the bits I wanted in there.

The work took them 12 days to complete (with about half a day of that so far spent on the loft work - another half day still to do on that - which was a different quote).

 

[ci_newman]

Overall it looks good, but my eye is constantly drawn to that boxing around the waste stack, it just looks so out of place.

 

[pepp77]

Overall it looks good, but my eye is constantly drawn to that boxing around the waste stack, it just looks so out of place.

Yeah I know what you mean, but the quote to get rid of that pipe was £1200 on its own, so for that I can handle a 20cmx20cm outcrop.

 

[FinglisHobbit]

The reason he said the tiler needs shooting is probably due to the terrible cuts. You are left with slithers of tile about an inch thick at the corner. A decent tiler would adjust the tiles by moving the start point in order to avoid suck crappy cuts.

You would be better with say 4 inches on one corner and 4 on the other, rather than one inch on one side and 7 inch on the other.

 

[Mickie]

id be happy to fit out your bathroom for 5k, shame i dont live in london..