Shower room pricing

[RDTiling]

Hi all.

As some of you will know (those that have stayed awake long enough to read some of my posts!), I started tiling in June of last year. Until now, I've been getting by with tile replacements, floor tiling and kitchen splashbacks etc (the small jobs that I'm assuming most tilers start out on).

A friend of mine has asked me to quote to for doing their shower room. I’ve attached a couple of pics of how it currently looks. It measures up to approximately 16sqm in total, including the floor, which is concrete.



Basically, the room is getting ripped back to the bare walls, being framed and overboarded, with either plasterboard or Hardie (I’m pushing for Hardie).

The wall that currently has the WC and shower on it, is to have a new shower tray fitted and then they want the width of the shower tray tiled with Mosaics (300 x 300 sheets) from Victor Paris (I don’t know the exact ones as they couldn’t find the literature from they were given, however I’ve asked them to check if they need sealed.) I’ve recommended a tanking kit on the wall with the shower and the wall to the right.

The rest of the room is to be tiled with plain ceramics (400 x 200) and the floor, despite the small size, they have gone with 600 x 600 tiles.

The wall that has the recess in it is being knocked back so that it is flat with no recess.

I’ve never really worked with mosaic sheets before (other than a small splash back in a WC). Although the finished article was good, it was painstaking and messy, as I had adhesive through all the joints and spent what seemed like an eternity to clean them out before grouting.

I was thinking that BAL Mosaic Fix would be the adhesive of choice for the mosaic fixing, however does anyone have any tips on fixing and setting out for Mosaic sheets, as whilst I can cut full tiles of the mosaic sheet, I’m assuming you can’t cut a mosaic tile in half for example?

Also, the wall with the mosaics are going to have two new hot and cold feeds, is the best way to cut holes for these to simply remove tiles from the mesh where the two pipes stick out the wall, as again I’m assuming you can’t (or shouldn’t try to) drill mosaic sheets?

For the rest of the room, I was thinking of priming with acrylic primer and using a standard setting adhesive from Weber, as I hate having to rush using rapid set, although I might use this on the floor so that I can grout the same day, after I’ve primed the floor with an SBR slurry mix.

So my initial thoughts for pricing for the tiling, including the mosaic sheets was £300, with materials one top of that. Does that seem reasonable? – I’m trying to avoid going in too low.

I just wanted to run through my thoughts and pricing with you guys before I formally price up the job (which is why I’ve posted this in the Arms rather than the main forum). If yout think I’ve overlooked anything please let me know – its my first shower room, so want it to be perfect.

Its situations like this where I'm hoping that ascess to the arms pays dividends so that I can actually start making some ££'s, as I know that over the last 9 months, I've been (majorly) under pricing.

If you are still awake after all of the above, thanks for reading and thank you in advance for your input.

Rich

 

[Stef]

I'am not sure if you are aware of my sleeping habits but if you are suggesting that I can be positive/negative in my replies by getting out of bed in a particular direction - then I have to make you aware that for the last 30 years I have spent the majority of nights on a setee!
Its the only way I can be sure of resting my back and waking up in such a pleasant and happy mood allowing me to provide witty and charming replies!
Thank you for your concern.

Like that reply TJ,

 

[RDTiling]

Fantastic reply 3_fall, it's much appreciated.

The mosaic tiles are only going on one wall (the one with the shower) so that it acts as a feature as you walk in the door (which is why I'm hesitating over taking this on, as I know I need to get it spot on for them).

I've never used a tanking kit before due to the smallish jobs I've done to date, so I'll look into the tanking sheets.

They know my experience level but seem happy to give me the opportunity to work in their bathroom and I've told them to allow me 4 days for the tiling (probably about 2 days of that will be be fixing the mosaics!)

The mosaic tiles will be separated by the shower screen, which thankfully takes care of the different thickness issue.

Thanks again for the response and I am warming to taking this one on - as it would be a cracking bit of experience for me.

Rich

 

[Andy Allen]

so you say your 'Quoting' the job for a friend......dose this mean your friend will be getting other quotes as well, or the jobs yours anyway.........just asking so John can carry on sleeping well at night...:smilewinkgrin:

 

[peteablard]

What size trowel did you use when you had problems with adhesive coming through? If the whole wall is being done then use a mosaic trowel, if it's a border or a feature between thicker tiles then search on here for the dog tooth method. Phil Hobson posted some pictures giving a step by step guide

 

[Old Mod]

No problem Rich,
thats supposedly why we're all here! TO HELP!
You say shower screen will mask the join between tiles and mosaic, is the screen full height? Prob not. Do they meet above it?
When working with mosaic I typically set out my sheets so that I can start around chest height. Couple of reasons, firstly it's a comfortable height to start at and you're not bent double or stretching which can lead to mis shaped mesh and obviously tiles. Secondly and maybe more importantly when a client first looks into room initially the eye is ALWAYS drawn to the brightest source of light (that's one reason why the window setting out is of utmost importance!) then they scan the room at about shoulder height, for me it's head height cos I ain't too tall! Haha so if your first four sheets between chest and just above head height are perfect they don't always inspect the rest too tough! So if u get a MINOR mistake or two u'll probably be ok. So set your sheets out just like any other tile, remembering to space between them. Draw your start line across wall at about shoulder height and HANG the sheet from the line down! don't put bottom on first and push up! It will distort. Then measure up or down (your choice) 2 sheets, then hang them from top down. Once in place gentle tap and flatten the sheet with the flattest grout float u have. Try and ensure u tap not WHACK! Watch the angle of your arm, make sure it's straight and not off on an angle. Trowel carefully, don't leave lumps of addy on wall. After nxt course of mosaic, go back on last course and wipe clean with DAMP sponge to clean any excess addy off. WORK CLEAN Bal's new Max-flex fibre (mosaic fix) is brilliant white and high grab, expensive but worth it! It's as easy as that! :smiley2:
good luck.

 

[RDTiling]

so you say your 'Quoting' the job for a friend......dose this mean your friend will be getting other quotes as well, or the jobs yours anyway.........just asking so John can carry on sleeping well at night...:smilewinkgrin:

He is getting one other quote too - the guy they have doing the plumbing, his brother is a tiler too, but they have use him before and thought he was expensive. From the area I saw of what he had done before in their kitchen , he did a cracking job of it.

 

[RDTiling]

[MENTION=42603]3_fall[/MENTION] I've not seen the new shower cubicle yet, but you are probably better in the know about how high most shower cubicle screen are than me!

Thank you for the advice on fitting the mosaic's - it is very useful to know.

I think you've just established where I went wrong the last time with the mosaics - too much pressure was applied with my grout float (I think the phrase 'touch of an elephant' just about covers it). I did use a mosaic trowel though.

When I bought my rubi washboy, it came with a a big sponge thing that you use over the rollers and it also came with some sort of foam covered float, which I've never used - so I used that to flatten the mosaic splashback against the wall - i went on the logic that as it was larger than my grout float i could apply an even pressure across a larger area meaning it would sit flat. It did, just pushed a bit to hard!

 

[thompsonbrown]

Thank you to all who have replied to this.

To be honest a part of me says that I am happy to do. 95% of this room, it's the Mosaic bit I'm unsure of. Whilst I'm of the opinion that everyone has to do everything for the first time at some stage I'm thinking I should learn to walk before I learn to run, so on this occasion I'm going to turn down the job.

I'm on my mobile typing this and I know some of you have questioned some of my original comments. I'm not ignoring them and will reply when I'm in front of my PC later tonight.

Quoting is probably a weak point for me (as you've gathered from my pricing!) but I'll expand on my thought process later.

Thanks again for your input.

Rich

Your price does seem low and I know how awkward it is to price a job for a friend. The mosaics wont be a problem if you are over boarding that wall.
The wall where you have the recess might be a bit of a problem to knock back flat. That corner boxing by the toilet will contain an automatic air valve and will have to stay and be accessible.