Bathroom installers - the new millionaires

September 14, 2009 10:39 AM

For about a week now I've been on this apparently never ending task of trying to decide how to renovate our upstairs bathroom which is sadly stuck in 1960 and has had very little TLC over the years. As a consequence, it is falling apart. The sink comes off the wall, the bath has all but a smear of sealant around it, the bath panel frequently detaches itself, the lino floor tiles move about, the heated towel rail is useless and the toilet soil pipe has for some reason been positioned about centre to the room. Add to these inflictions the fact that it is battleship grey you could say therefore that it needs to be updated.

The only plus side (if you can see it as one) is that the bathroom is very small. It's only 2m by 1.7m so whilst a lot of work needs to be done the amount of work and materials is reduces simply because of it's size....

Well, you thought that might have been the case.

Apparently though this is not so.

What is in fact the horrific truth of it all is that whilst the actual parts to make a bathroom in themselves are not too expensive (with the exception of taps) the labour to complete the renovation work is truthfully not short of extortion and a wonderful example of demand outstripping supply.

The UK it appears is so lacking in plumbers and bathroom installer type people that it has given them carte blanche to charge prices that are eye watering!

The company that I went to yesterday for example to get a rough idea of prices were suggesting that it would be reasonable for them to charge circa £300 for them to install some under floor heating. Not bad you may say, but consider this. The area to heat is about 2m². The parts were on top of that price and all they needed to do was lay it and connect it to the electricity circuit.

For the LOVE OF GOD! There is making a good margin on work and then there is taking the piss. From what I've seen so far, most of these bathroom installation companies are verging on the latter. Having said that, it was the same story when we were looking to get the kitchen done.... yes madam, that will be 5K for the kitchen and 7K for the labour, thanks!

The only tiny ray of hope I got out of yesterday's research was that B&Q have a bit more of a realistic price point on their installation service and parts. I think therefore they will be the next avenue I venture down in the torturous and costly route to home renovations.