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Bathroom Fitting
Who to hire if bathroom needs damp proofing and many other works?
Hi, a new home owner and rather lost at where to begin! Please advise which tradesmen I should be engaging to assist with the following things that need to be looked at / done in the ground floor bathroom? Also, in what order should these things be done?
1) Had damp proof report done and looks like one of the external walls of bathroom needs to be treated (amongst one or two other places in the house e.g. living room/dining room areas) (Can a bathroom fitter do this for the bathroom, along with other things below?)
2) After shower, lots of condensation on walls, patches of wall paint starting to falling off when touched, and also 'bubbles' appearing on wall. New to all these problems but they appear to signal a huge ventilation problem? No ventilator at moment, only some small air vents built into wall. (Bathroom fitters can fix ventilator if they are/have certified electricians too?)
3) Toilet not well insulated as the 2 small windows has fixed parts that are not double glazed and also have glass shutters. Would like these replaced to improve insulation. (Require window fitters? Joiners? Or can bathroom fitters do this too?)
4) Remove previous owner's self built cabinets under basin and replace existing basin with separate taps, to a new basin with mixer tap and under basin cabinets. (Plumber or Builder needed for this?)
5) Toilet has 2 doors - one leading to garden, other to indoors. Would like to replace these too. (Joiner? Builder?)
I'm rather clueless but assume ideal scenario is to hire one tradesman to coordinate everything for me, rather than me trying to hire different tradesmen separately and ensuring work gets done in the correct sequence? Would be helpful if you can also advise ballpark figure to deal with all the above?
Any advice will be very much appreciated. Thank you.
8 Answers from MyBuilder Bathroom Fitters
Best Answer
An ideal company would be someone who , as you described can coordinate all the work and pull in the skilled tradesmen for each stage, but order of works would be dirty work first....
1. damp proofing first to be done, ( I recently had full gable end wall done and bathroom Internally for £300 Ish...
2. Building work ( new doors, windows and electrics to fan and any other appliances)
3. Whilst new doors and getting put in ( could Do bathroom units too) unless bathroom fitter can do this.
4. First fix plumbing , which includes pipe work to all new suite ( sink, toilet, taps etc.
5. Second fix bathroom, ( fitting of suite , toilet etc , extractor fan
6. Tiling or decoration....
Finally get three written quotes, from guys who put at least a moderate amount of effort in with good suggestions for use of space, materials, quality of supplies, any guarantees, an APPROX reasonable length of time it should take .
Depends if you want budget DIY, or designer finish, shiny fittings!!! You certainly get what you pay for..... Within reason!
Mark (The Property Team) Stockton on tees
Answered 13th Jan 2012
Hi,
Post the job on this site and look for a small building company with experience in bathroom refurbisment.
The builders may well be registered electricans themselves. If not, for sure they will have sub-contractors working closely with them.
In my experience the majority of small building firms will carry out the in house plumbing also. Excepting any gas work, unless of course they are gas safe registered aswell. (Some are).
Detail in breif the work you require, post the job and I am sure you will have success.
You may pay a little more for the use of a 'one stop' building company but in my opinion it will be money well spent, for the benefit of the management of the overall project.
Also bar in mind that a builder / improver will only use trusted collegues with which he will have a reliable proven working relationship.
Good luck with your project.
Regards,
Adrian Hagger
Answered 13th Jan 2012
put job on job section ,better getting a building contractor who will have all the necessary trades at hand to carry out all the tasks in the correct order ,if you are in west london area look us up i will be happy to provide a quote
Answered 13th Jan 2012
Hi beatrice_28
We have carried repairs simular to your problem, if you are in the Bristol area please contact me otherwise get in touch with the Federation of Master Builders.
Regards
Mike Cleverley
Answered 13th Jan 2012
Hello,
You mentioned that every time you bath the wall gets moist. This is most certainly condensation.
There may be another damp issue in addition to this but the very obvious problem (of condensation) needs to be dealt with first. A certified electrician can install an extractor, preferably one which is sensetive to humidity and most certainly one which will stay on once the light has turned off.
If the fan is situated abofe the bath/shower area then it will have to be low voltage to conform with building regulations (unless it is more than 2.2 meteres above floor level).
It is unlikely that a plumber will be able to treat damp if there is also a damp problem. I would suggest you use a 'Sovereign approved contractor' to asess the potential damp issue.
You would be best to get a small building firm in to do these jobs you mentioned. They should be sovereign approved and would absoloutley need to be using certified electricians for any electrical works.
You do need a lot of different trades in there and things could get messy. You may end up paying more than you would a building contractor to get things rectified if things go wrong.
Get 3 quotes, research the reputation of the builders. Get a small contract in place to specify what will be done. In terms of the damp (if there is any), all contractors dealing with damp should be able to offer at least a ten year guarantee if they are truly approved to deal with damp. This gives you peace of mind that they are competent in this area. That guarantee should be with Soverign or Tallgrove and be insurance backed. This way it is not just the guarantee of a builder,it is backed by larger organizations.
If they really are sovereign approved and there is something they aren't sure about, they will be able to get a survey and specification done by Sovereign and it won't cost you any extra.
if you have the damp report in digital copy you can send it to me and I'll check it over for you, I may then be able to offer some more advice:
info@deganphillips.co.uk
Unfortunately it is impossible give you an idea of price without at least having, dimensions, photographs, specification etc.
The fan should be £100-£200 depending on access. I would expect your damp treatment would be around £2000 when you consider the knock on effects of removing plaster and skirting board from the interior walls (assuming the method of retrospective damp proof installation is drilling and injecting inside and outside skins, hacking off to 1.5 meteres internal plaster, then re-rendering with sand cement render). Skirting boards, plaster (top coat), decorating will be needed.
A bathroom fit, well I would normally allocate £2000-£3000 possibly more depending on spec.
Again, you need someone competent to project manage this. It's small building works, you need a small building contractor.
Good luck!
Answered 20th Feb 2012
Hi Beatrice
If you get one general builder to do the lot, you will pay more. If you get seperate tradesmen you may well find it cheaper. I would suggest 1 damp proofing company, 2 electrician, 3 carpenter, 4 plumber, 5 carpenter
Phil
Answered 13th Jan 2012
hi,post your job on this site.my company can see to all the work you have listed,all reasonably priced.
Answered 13th Jan 2012
Hello Beatrice,
A good bathroom fitter should be able to carry out all the work you mention. The damp to your external bathroom wall should be checked for a very common problem and a lot cheaper to fix. make a small crevice/hole to expose the undercoat render/cement. a lot of untrained builders use a bonding undercoat plaster on brick walls. which is more than wrong, when dry this product pulls moisture in from everywhere, creating havoc and makes everyone think the wall is damp...
or externaly check if there is something bridging your damp course, ie and most commonly a raised patio/slabbed area or a cement render skerting.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Peter
Answered 13th Jan 2012
