Is this price for real?

[nelliedee]

Have just had a price for bonding and tiling a shower room that measures 1.5m x 1.5m. The guy is asking £1000. The price includes bonding materials and adhesive. The Tiles were not included in the price.

Now I can tile myself but I have never bonded, Is it hard???

 

[lancenotalot]

When you say bonding do you mean a bonding coat of plaster?You would only need a few bags,cost about £20 or so.

Tiling onto bonding is no good anyway,either direct onto plasterboard or a skimcoat.

How many sq meters of tiling are we talking,excluding doors,windows etc?

 

[nelliedee]

I am not good with working out size I'm afraid. The room is standard height and its 5 ft by 5ft with 1 doorway and no windows.
The walls are newly built blockwork and the tiler said that we need to Bond this first before we can tile. So do we need to tile and plaster before we can tile?

 

[lancenotalot]

You dont have to plaster new blockwork,you can dot and dab plasterboard directly onto it then tile directly onto the plasterboard.
Tank around the shower area too.

From your info I would guess your looking at about 12-13sqm of tiling on the walls and the price depends on the tiles your having as well as awkward corners cuts etc.



A competent diyer could dot and dab the walls,



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pssxkpXEb8&feature=related

 

[jefoss]

does the price include the tiles too?

 

[nelliedee]

No the price did not include the tiles, I was going to buy them myself. So £1000 was for bonding and tiling a 5ft x 5ft square room that has no pipes and no other obstacles except the door opening. I am now going to Tile it myself and hubby is going to plasterboard the walls first.

Is plasterboard ok to hold tiles from floor to ceiling? or would I be better off doing half the wall tiles? I am going to use ceramic wall tiles, not the heavy stone ones

 

[Jasonb]

Lets say
1 day to plaster Bonding & finish ct Allow a week or two to dry
1/2 day to come back and tank allow to dry 24hrs
1 day Day to tile
1/2 day to grout & mastic

Materials

Plaster 30
Tanking 50
Adhesive say 75
grout, trims mastic 25

At £250 a day you not far off the quoted price.

Jason

 

[nelliedee]

Wow!!! Are tilers really on £250 a day? If so then they are earning more than our plumber and builder (very good workmen)

There are good tradesmen out there and there are greedy b-stads, which is a shame.

 

[lancenotalot]

I am now going to Tile it myself and hubby is going to plasterboard the walls first.

Hope it goes smoothly for you

Is plasterboard ok to hold tiles from floor to ceiling? or would I be better off doing half the wall tiles? I am going to use ceramic wall tiles, not the heavy stone ones

Direct onto plasterboard will take the weight easily
http://www.tiles.org.uk/help/answer-weight.shtml?hilite=weight

 

[lancenotalot]

I think Jason means £250 a day including materials,although that still seems high to me.

 

[IJWS15]

To put this into perspective a few years ago (10) Marconi used to cost on the basis of a service engineer in a van being £80 per hour! And this part of their business still exists as part of Ericsson.

Your tiler still has to provide a van, tools, insurance, "holiday pay" etc. out of the £250 and have a reasonable wage to take home after paying tax and pension. Skilled jobs give a reasonable take home pay (our navvies earn about £100/day). After all what does the OP earn a day after tax?

Don't expect cowboy prices AND a decent job with a warranty.

 

[nelliedee]

Yes I accept that paying navvie prices is not cost effective but I do not feel £250 a day is justifiable. My hubby is self employed and he too has to cover himself for various things but he does not earn £250 a day and to be honest he is lucky if he earns that over 2 days. I'd be lucky to earn that in a week but thats neither here nor there. tradesmen call here to give quotes for various jobs and sometimes they see a black cab on the drive and a large property, to some that means we have money and they quote accordingly. Robbers I say. On the upside we have met quite a few decent tradesmen who arnt out to cover the rainy season but unfortunately we have also met a few who seem to think that if they charge double on a job, then that will cover them the following week when they havent got work.
I am not tight in any way and dont mind paying the going rate but to me £250 a day for a tiler is an awful lot of money.

 

[lancenotalot]

Rates for tilers vary in my experince from £120 upto about £180,my mate was tiling in london for £180 a day,labor only.If you have a tiler quoting at less than £120 a day then be wary as he may skimp to make up his money.

I work on price and look to get between £130-£150 a day.

 

[jefoss]

i have to agree with lance, if im earning 140 a day im happy, that price does include materials, i never quote without it unless asked.

250 does sound a lot a day, but if you can get someone to pay that fair play.

 

[nelliedee]

Just like to say thank you for the links to do with dot dab and plasterboards weights, it has been handy
Thank you