Realistically , how long should it take to fit a new bathroom suite ( and remove old one).
Especially how long to remove an old ( cast iron ) bath and fit a new ( plastic type) one?
Also how long would it take to do a kitchen ( 5 base units and two sets of double wall units) and a worksurface . This would be including taking the old kitchen out and the sink .
Especially how long to take out and put in a new sink ( inset stainless steel type) and put the worksurface over it?
Could it be done without my having to loose my bath and toilet for a week and the kitchen for a week?
If you are fitting out your bathroom like for like then I would say a long weekend at most. If you are completely ripping everything and repositioning re-tiling etc then I am into my third week. Actually that's a bit unfair. Let's say end of second week if I do all the tiling this w/e.
DIY or are you paying somebody? The answer will be very different. If DIY it depends on if fitting like for like, in the same positions etc, are you retiling. If you are a customer it depends how many men are thrown at the job! In my experience (twice) one of the hardest parts of removing a cast iron bath is getting it down stairs, they are VERY heavy. Last one I did (on my own) I resorted to a rope tied very securely through the waste and overflow holes and with the bath on iits rim let it slide down the stairs while keeping a very tight grip on the rope so it didn't go like a sledge through the nice new UPVc doors at the bottom of the stairs. You should be able to change a bath and toilet in a weekend quite easily if no major changes are required.
Everything should go into the same positions as the existing suite. I am not asking for anything to be moved round . I am told though that my old cast iron ( avocado green) bath is imperial and the new one will be metric and that apparently new baths are an inch narrower than the old one. Therefore the new bath will be one inch further into the wall than the current one.
How difficult is it to make this kind of change? Does it require a lot of re plumbing of the water/ drainage pipes?
Well, its DIY but my husband is a plumber . He will not let me get anyone in! He doesnt want to do it himself either. So I have a problem. He did tell me that it would take over a week of being without a bathroom if I had a new suite fitted but I cant see how since I know of no one else who has been without for so long when having a new bathroom done.
The answer will be very different. If DIY
He is fitting in like for like positions. he tells me " like for like" is never so. In this case it seems there is a "problem" with a modern bath being an inch narrower than the old crap one I want removed ( I am tired of cleaning it just to have white stains re appear an hour later. Its dirt and its old.).
This he says will mean moving the taps and pipes and drains (?) and if he fits it in the present position ( my suggestion) there will be a gap down the back od an inch . Is it possible to fill the gap in with some plastic trpe shelf or other? Surely something for that exists these days?
are you
He would be working alone. I did have a casr iron bath removed from my last house ( only for us to sell up three months after the new bath was put in and I had made a loevly bathroom for the first time in my married life ( 28 years). I know shifting the old bath is hardest . I even had stroppy men saying they wouldnt lift it and take it away when I asked the council , who claim to do this for a fee of £15 back then to do it. I ended up having to lift the bath onto their lorry myself! So I know its hard. But this time the bath is in a bungalow. The worst is going to be getting it through a door - besides I have known my other half carry cast iron baths down three flights of stairs in flats before now!
But thats not the problem. He says it will take over a week to move this bath an inch. In case you are wondering, I think he is having me on because he doesnt want to do it but I cant prove it and dont really know if his objections are reasonable ( although he wont allow me to pay someone else because either he is embarrased at not doing it, or he is such a perfectionist he thinks another plumber wont do it to his standard.)
Its a 1950's bungalow with a 6ft by 8ft bathroom and the old suite is an avacado jobby that most folks threw away years ago now!
It shouldn't be for the latter question. There's no reason to be without either for more than a working day if the job is planned and executed correctly.
Break it up with a lump hammer and carry the bits out.
To be honest, he's either not much of a plumber or a liar, if he suggest you'd need to be without a bath for a week ! You might well have to be more careful than usual, not splashing about before the tiling's done but it would be perfectly usable. Breaking up a cast iron bath is noisy but not difficult.
I would have thought that after 35 years on the job and a four year apprenticeship he would be able to fit a bath . I havent even asked for a toilet and basin - although obviously I would like both of those too.
He isnt a crap plumber. I think he's just a crap husband. I have asked now for 8 years - every Christmas and every birthday for this bathroom. Two years ago he bought a bathroom suite and its been sitting in the summer house ever since. It was my birthday last week and he promised me and then he came up with all the problems and I just want to know if they are reasonable. I am getting the impression he is making excuses?
He has done loads of them. His customers always seem most happy. Its me who is not. He also does kitchens for other people. He is a plumber, thats what he does ( and central heating and gas boilers)
Where are you geographically? If near I will come round and do it whilst he is at work and we wont tell him. If he doesn't like moving pipework and wastes then he'll be out for ages trying to convince his customers that they don't really need a new bathroom, kitchen, boiler..... so we'll have loads of time to fit it!
Before giving me these excuses he told me that the baoth didnt need replacing because it wasnt broken. I have a suspicion that is his real reason. He is a tight arsed Cornishman who wont spend a penny or more time than he has to on his own home.
Even the bathroom suite he brought me was retrieved from a customers house after they changed their mind and decided they wanted a more fancy job with those swirling water jets. He brought it to me and said. " I only put it in yesterday and she didnt like it , so I took it out and thought, well waste not want not, you could have it"
But two years later I am still waiting for it to be fitted.
In the same places, probably no more than a couple of days.
Getting the old one out is the hardest bit, but not too bad if there are at least two of you (and neither of you weigh less than 7st when wet!). I have completely gutted a bathroom with a mate in about two thirds of a day. That included all fittings out cast iron bath) and detiling.
(However that was a full bathroom refit - the total job lasted about 15 man days not including tiling (which was 2 man days))
Stripping out is usually quick. Depends on what you need to do to make good before you start replacing stuff.
I have replaced a sink and three base units under, plus a couple of corner units and two sections of worktop in a day before where is was like for like replacement (apart from the plumbing).
The bathroom - yup certainly if you are not going or the complete remodel. The kitchen will depend on how much is changing.
(bathrooms and kitchens tend in general to be the most complex and expensive rooms in a house to make big changes to)
Bear in mind that it's perfectly possible to it piecemeal: ie, you don't necessarily need to strip out that whole lot to an empty shell and rebuild it - you can do the toilet one day and leave the old bath, basin etc; then a few months later you can do the bath similarly etc. You can use a newly-installed bath which is still surrounded by bare, newly exposed plaster rather than the new tiles (they don't get fitted until a year next February.
Our next door neighbour once was a carpenter. His wife said all the doors and drawers in their house stuck because he never, ever did any carpentry at home.
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