Bathroom renovation quote

illdoit2morrow

I have received a quote to do you a main bathroom and the en-suite in my house.

The quote is split out by all materials and then labour costs.

The renovation involves removing a bath tub in the main bathroom and replacing with a shower, tiling floor + floor to ceiling, replacing the ceiling and replacing the sink and toilet. En-suite is similar, floor tiled, tiles floor to ceiling, ceiling replaced and new shower, sink and toilet.

The costs of material seems reasonable from my own research, my query is about labour costs. The labour costs are about 45% of the total cost.

Would that be a reasonable/normal percentage?

TIA

jimmycrackcorm

How is percentage of any relevance? How many days and what labour is involved?

Pawwed Rig

Get more quotes and see how they look.

the_pen_turner

this is te very reason why you should never break down a quote like this. too much nit picking and cutting down pricing. just give a list of work done and not a cost of materials.

jimmycrackcorm

the_pen_turner wrote: »

this is te very reason why you should never break down a quote like this. too much nit picking and cutting down pricing. just give a list of work done and not a cost of materials.

It depends though. I got a quote for a painting job. Because it was simply a matter of determining cost of materials and time, I ended up painting myself.

illdoit2morrow

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

How is percentage of any relevance? How many days and what labour is involved?

Labour to include all plumbing, carpentry, electrics and all associated works and materials.
Labour for tiling was listed separately.

For the two bathrooms, they said it will take 4.5 days.

goz83

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

It depends though. I got a quote for a painting job. Because it was simply a matter of determining cost of materials and time, I ended up painting myself.

You wouldn’t have painted yourself if you paid a professional :P

Bonzo Delaney

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

Labour to include all plumbing, carpentry, electrics and all associated works and materials.
Labour for tiling was listed separately.

For the two bathrooms, they said it will take 4.5 days.

Dosent matter diddly squat what percentage of material labour cost is.
Bathroom refurbs are labour intensive and also every bathroom has it's own issues anyway..

illdoit2morrow

the_pen_turner wrote: »

this is te very reason why you should never break down a quote like this. too much nit picking and cutting down pricing. just give a list of work done and not a cost of materials.

Keep the client in the dark when it comes to what they are paying for? :rolleyes:

goz83

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Dosent matter diddly squat what percentage of material labour cost is.
Bathroom refurbs are labour intensive and also every bathroom has it's own issues anyway..

+1

When in the trade, I made the mistake once of giving a full breakdown to a customer who was related to my sales rep. It took a week of back and forward with the customer before I told him where to go and refused to take the job. The sad thing is, the price was really good and he ended up paying more than double what I quoted.

It's not just labour either. After materials and labour, you have other costs to cover, like insurance, fuel, tax and not to mention the high probability of unforeseen expenses which the customer might have an issue covering.

Also bathrooms are not nice to work in. The area is small, hazardous and there are always hidden issues, not to mention the knowledge that you are working in a less than sanitary environment. That's gonna cost a few pairs of gloves

the_pen_turner

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

Keep the client in the dark when it comes to what they are paying for? :rolleyes:

of course not.
supply and fit x m2 of tiles for y
do this for each area of the job.
specify any particular brands to be used and any unique requirments

no need to list materials. that is not relivent to the quote

all you are doing is giving bad customers the opertunity to nit pick.(not saying you are)
if everyone quotes to the same spec then all that matters is the final no

goz83

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

Keep the client in the dark when it comes to what they are paying for? :rolleyes:

No, just don't break it down. It often causes problems because clients aren't aware of why the cost of labour, or material is higher than expected. If they see the price of a roof window for €1000 for example, they might think they can get it from Poland for half that price, causing delays, issues with guarantees, fitting etc etc.

As long as the customer knows they are getting X, Y and Z done for the quoted price, that's all that matters. I preferred not to let a customer use a full breakdown as a bargaining tool with another trades person.

illdoit2morrow

the_pen_turner wrote: »

of course not.
supply and fit x m2 of tiles for y
do this for each area of the job.
specify any particular brands to be used and any unique requirments

no need to list materials. that is not relivent to the quote

all you are doing is giving bad customers the opertunity to nit pick.(not saying you are)
if everyone quotes to the same spec then all that matters is the final no

OK thanks.

I've not done this before, I naively assumed that there might be some kind of rough relationship between the size of the room and labour costs. My original metric (i.e labour as a % of total cost) isn't a good one based on everyone's feedback.

This company came out and had a look at both bathrooms, suggested things they could do to improve the rooms (i.e hide piping which is currently boxed, lower the shower tray to floor level) and other things they would just have to work around. I can imagine it is messy work and there will be unexpected issues if they were to start tearing into it.

They also said that they split out the labour and tiling costs as they leave it up to the client to chose them or someone else to fit out the bathrooms if they want.