Need help from any contracter/remodeling types...

Mongo

Mongo

Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Messages
8,969
Greetings all, me and the missus got a quote from a family friend who has a remodeling business. Our bathroom has some serious leakage through the shower tiles resulting in water damage behind the wall. We have received a quote of $4200 for:
1. remove existing shower valve and shower head
2. demolish existing shower door, wall tile, insulation, drywall and caulk
3. furnish and install new waste and overflow (chrome)
4. furnish and install new insulation to outside wall
5. furnish and install new "Durock" waterproof wallboard to tub enclosure
6. tape, sand smooth
7. furnish and install "Corian" walls in tub and behind toilet
8. caulk all joint areas
9. reinstall mixer valve and shower head (higher)
10. reinstall toilet
11. furnish and install new "Euro Style" shower door
12. remove excess debris

We will be required to pay half up front and the rest upon completion.
Does this sound reasonable? Hopefully it won't take too long. He said it would take a couple of days. Edited to add: my extremely picky bro-in-law, who has chased away a couple of handymen from my Mother-in-law's house, approves of and suggested this guy.

Thanks in advance for your answers and advice.
Mongo
 
That sounds exactly like Wife's current house project. I estimate it will cost under $1000, including insulation, durock/green board, and ceramic tiles. Of course, Wife works for free though...

It seems like your project budget is mostly labor expense. Although that Corian-plastic is expensive too. And we're not replacing any fixtures; they're all less than ten years old.

Good Luck,
-Bob
 
I'm thinking in CDN $ but that sounds not that far off. Just finished doing a similar reno, but I did it myself/plus some help from friends.

What we ended up doing. Our house was built in '75'ish, so my wife wanted to make the bathroom a bit more antique styled. We ended up gutting it and then replacing surround and skirting with pine wainscotting. Ended up with a jet tub, new toilet, vanity, shower head, new floor.

The labor on the plumbing and jet tub install, plus misc things was about $1,000 CDN alone. This included moving the toilet drain, re-routing some piping for the new vanity that was much shallower, and re-running the piping to accomodate the jet tub/shower. We had to install a new sub panel (found out after the fact that we were out of circuits) and that was about another $700 for parts/labor. This was done thru a friend in the family so it was about half of what it would have normally cost. We also had to re-do wiring to code, seeing as we were there anyway. Part of re-wiring also involved putting in dimmers, volume control, speaker system but I don't have the final bill on that yet... Because we are getting sound in several rooms in the house - I'm figuring at least $1,500... Jet tub (simply a jet tub to replace the bathtub - same size) - ran about $700 CDN, energy saving toilet - $250, vanity - $400, medicine cabinet - $200, plus cost of wainscotting, drywall, we used that paintable greenboard, tile for floor, wire, etc was in the neighborhood of another $600'sh. We got pretty well everything at Home Depot, including a few tools:) and the material costs ended up at roughly $3500 CDN, with only about $300 or so of that in tools. There was also several hundred in there for some laminate flooring. One of my friends figured if I had contracted this out, the labor costs alone would probably have exceeded $5K. That was before plumbing/electrical - strictly demolition, and putting walls back and getting a finished bathroom. I had originally budgeted about $5K before tools. One of the costs that really caught me off guard was the cost of wiring. One of the spools cost just under $200 for 150m. Then there was the wiring costs for the sound system. It was stuff like this that added up as we went along. Now the big differance in some places, was that I was also getting things likes extra switches, plugs, etc to re-do the whole house, but that wasn't all that much. Also bear in mind that we are in a very fast moving real estate market here and the pricing to get stuff done comes with it

Hope this helps - gord
 
It depends if they do a good job or not. If they do, the price is reasonable IMO. I'm used to prices around here though (much higher for both materials and work) so I'm not the best advice you can get.

A very important thing is to either get a trustworthy contractor, or supervise the work yourself. When we installed the kitchen (basic plumming and electricity already in place, furniture and appliances already delivered) I had the following options:
- hire a really good contractor for about $3000
- hire a so so contractor for $1500 and take two days off to supervise him

I couldn't afford $3000 at that time so I ended up taking 2 days off and did it myself. A shower or bathroom is a much harder job, go with this guy if you're positive he's good.
 
I would get another quote from someone else just to have more perspective. It looks like you are doing a lot of work that is not easy and you are using "quality" materials, which always cost more. One question is how big is your bathroom and how much Corian are you putting down. As stated before that stuff is pretty expensive and might be jacking up your price.

I would look around, but that price really doesn’t seem that high for the work being done.

Billyp
 
if your handy -its alot of money-
if you have 3 thumbs-its not

they probably tiled over sheetrock in the shower,the Sheetrock becomes a wick and takes on water trill it rotts away- that is the cause to 99% of the worlds water problems in tiled showers-all they had to do was leave it 3/4 of a inch off the tub -

material to do the job isnt that much-new diverter for shower is about 100-150 bucks-
cement board is 11$ a sheet thats 36" x60" and tape and sanding should be done with thinset not sheetrock joint compound-4 sheets will do a average tub area-
toilet seals are 2 bucks-
the biggest expense is the corian sheets-and being a tile guy for 20 some years all i can do is gag when its mentioned-
i can honestly say ive done that job a few times for a whole lot less when i was self employed -i would have loved to get that kind of george -
 
Depends on where you are in Ill. Price does sound high to me but I am in rural Ks. I would recommend that you get a second/third estimate. Signed contract. Recommendations. The construction industry, specifically residential, is rift with fly by nights. Typically, you will pay more for a better grade contractor - they are generally worth it.
 
It sounds right to me too. When I had my hotel, showers were the bain of my life. In one case, water was going behind the tiles and even though I knew there was water dripping onto a walkway below, it took me a while to getting around to getting a contractor. In the end, the floor and some of the joists were replaced, the drywall, wooden studwork, tiles and skirting boards not only for that bathroom, but for the one next door! The rot and mould extended 20 feet around that shower.

Corian is great stuff. http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_US/products/corian/corian123.html

Makes great knife scales too if you can get some offcuts!
 
Mongo, here is my advice (worth about what you pay for it) :D

- Make sure the Cont. installs the replacement finish materials that you have already picked out (Tile, Toilet, Shower Fixtures, etc)

- Check progress often (I personally think it will take 4-5 days, a larger crew on this one will not necessarily make it go faster. How many sweaty guys can you fit in a bathroom shower area?)

- Make sure the Crew puts some type of (plastic, Carpet, Drop cloth) along the route they are taking to/from the front door. Most likely they will toss the debris out the Bath window, but tracking mud, mold etc in/out usually happens.

Good Luck.
 
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