I was quoted over £4700 (inclusive of VAT) to rip out and replace my bathroom. This does not include the price of the bathroom suite itself nor does it include the cost of the actual tiles or removal of waste.
I selected a local plumber in Norfolk who does bathroom installations. I checked out his Facebook and noticed he often uses a professional tiler to work along side him. My house is old and has lath and plaster walls. To cut a long story short, I realised part way through the work that the tiling would be done by the plumber himself. He assured me that he knew how to tile and that he is just as good (if not better) than the tiler he would have used.
He took much longer to do the bathroom than planned. We thought maybe 2 weeks but it took over 5 weeks. This delayed the decorator who I hired at the same time. The plumber was extremely untidy, preventing the decorator from doing work. Part of the work was to overboard and plaster the ceiling. The plumber informed me that the ceiling is not level and to get it level would cost extra money. He said he will leave a gap along the top but don't worry, whoever decorates can paint it white and it would blend in to the ceiling fine. I wasn't happy with this (the gap measures approximately 7cm all the way around). He also told me that grout was not part of the quote and that I had to pay for that on top.
Fast forward to last week. He's almost finished. I have already paid him two installments of around £1550 each. We agreed at the start that I would pay the last installment upon completion and inspection of work. However, he asked for almost all of the last payment early before I could inspect the work. (I work and live part time in another city) I stupidly paid him. When viewing the bathroom the next day I was not satisfied with the quality of tiling. I've attached some photos to this thread. It looks OK from a distance but when you look closer it's really not up to my expectations.
He said my walls aren't perfectly squared (whose are?) and that I should have paid extra to have the walls stripped back so he could square them (despite telling me from the start with his spirit level that my walls are surprisingly straight for an old house). He kept saying he did what he could within my limited budget but my budget was based on his quotation that I accepted.
I called him and explained that I'm not happy. We met at my house a day later and he wanted to put right the work. I said there is no point in doing patch work, the whole thing needs tiling again. There were just too many areas that I wasn't happy with. He said he isn't prepared to take down the tiles nor refund me any money. I pre-arranged a local tiler to talk to him over the phone. He explained to the plumber that how he did it was wrong, explained how you should do it and stated the tiling is of a poor standard. The tiler said the way he did it leaves no room to compensate for uneven walls. From what I can see the plumbing side is fine. The floor tiling is also fine to me (yes he used concrete boards underneath)
I'm in the process now of trying to avoid small claims court and to get a partial refund. As the plumber was leaving we verbally agreed on £1200 refund plus ignoring the last few hundred I owed him. He asked me to put that in writing which I did but so far I've not had a refund. I know getting this redone would likely cost more than that but I'm trying to compromise so we can move on with our lives.
What's everyone's opinion? I work for the NHS as an administrator and the cost of the bathroom is about half a years wage minus expenses. I'm gutted and upset as this is such a lot of money for me to spend all at once.
I selected a local plumber in Norfolk who does bathroom installations. I checked out his Facebook and noticed he often uses a professional tiler to work along side him. My house is old and has lath and plaster walls. To cut a long story short, I realised part way through the work that the tiling would be done by the plumber himself. He assured me that he knew how to tile and that he is just as good (if not better) than the tiler he would have used.
He took much longer to do the bathroom than planned. We thought maybe 2 weeks but it took over 5 weeks. This delayed the decorator who I hired at the same time. The plumber was extremely untidy, preventing the decorator from doing work. Part of the work was to overboard and plaster the ceiling. The plumber informed me that the ceiling is not level and to get it level would cost extra money. He said he will leave a gap along the top but don't worry, whoever decorates can paint it white and it would blend in to the ceiling fine. I wasn't happy with this (the gap measures approximately 7cm all the way around). He also told me that grout was not part of the quote and that I had to pay for that on top.
Fast forward to last week. He's almost finished. I have already paid him two installments of around £1550 each. We agreed at the start that I would pay the last installment upon completion and inspection of work. However, he asked for almost all of the last payment early before I could inspect the work. (I work and live part time in another city) I stupidly paid him. When viewing the bathroom the next day I was not satisfied with the quality of tiling. I've attached some photos to this thread. It looks OK from a distance but when you look closer it's really not up to my expectations.
He said my walls aren't perfectly squared (whose are?) and that I should have paid extra to have the walls stripped back so he could square them (despite telling me from the start with his spirit level that my walls are surprisingly straight for an old house). He kept saying he did what he could within my limited budget but my budget was based on his quotation that I accepted.
I called him and explained that I'm not happy. We met at my house a day later and he wanted to put right the work. I said there is no point in doing patch work, the whole thing needs tiling again. There were just too many areas that I wasn't happy with. He said he isn't prepared to take down the tiles nor refund me any money. I pre-arranged a local tiler to talk to him over the phone. He explained to the plumber that how he did it was wrong, explained how you should do it and stated the tiling is of a poor standard. The tiler said the way he did it leaves no room to compensate for uneven walls. From what I can see the plumbing side is fine. The floor tiling is also fine to me (yes he used concrete boards underneath)
I'm in the process now of trying to avoid small claims court and to get a partial refund. As the plumber was leaving we verbally agreed on £1200 refund plus ignoring the last few hundred I owed him. He asked me to put that in writing which I did but so far I've not had a refund. I know getting this redone would likely cost more than that but I'm trying to compromise so we can move on with our lives.
What's everyone's opinion? I work for the NHS as an administrator and the cost of the bathroom is about half a years wage minus expenses. I'm gutted and upset as this is such a lot of money for me to spend all at once.
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