Who to fix bathroom?

Hi — We need to redo all our bathroom plumbing. (We have a nasty sewer gas leak, among other issues.) If we hire only a plumber, I would not be surprised if the job took them at least two days and they charged us $4,000 or more. But if I hire a contractor, we can re-do the entire bathroom, including the walls and fixtures as well as the supply lines, vents, and waste lines, for about $5,000 to $7,000\. Can someone explain why this is? What type of person should I be looking to hire — a licensed contractor? Thanks.

callalily

in Plumbers and Plumbing 13 years and 7 months ago

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callalily | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Thanks, everyone, I appreciate your help.

Rick | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Your question is ” who will be cheaper?”  I think you should get a few bids to find out what truly is being offered for your job. Price is often determined by what it’s worth for the contractor to take the job at this time, not what you think it should cost. Now that you gave us more details, I would say that this is a easy job and 98% of the job is the plumbing. So, I would just get more bids from plumbers and get a handyman to deal with your punch list. I imagine others may debate me on this but this is just my opinon based on many years of experience.

ellenlourie | 13 years and 7 months ago

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General contractor has to do whole job. He must have licenced plumber as a subcontractor. do not separate them, otherwise you will have coordination issues and fingerpointing.

haiderbk | 13 years and 7 months ago

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The general contractor can do all that. The contractor information I gave you, he does all that. so call him if you think it will work for you: at 718-669-8305..

callalily | 13 years and 7 months ago

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To go in from the ceiling below, I mean. It is definitely do-able. Our plumber checked it out yesterday. Plus, it’s been done before.

callalily | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Thank you so much for the answers. I guess my question is: Will a contractor be able to get plumbers or do his own plumbing cheaper than us hiring plumbers ourselves? To answer your questions above: The plumbing price is my estimate based on my plumbers’ day rate and a wild guess that this will take them two days. $5,500 is an estimate I got from a contractor who looked at the job and unfortunately moved upstate and is no longer available. The bathroom is small, only 4×6. We have two choices. Scenerio 1: Hire plumbers to go in from the floor below and replace all the existing waste lines (PVC) with cast iron plus put in vents to code. Scenerio 2: Since we’ll have the fixtures disconnected anyway and can move them out of the way, we could get a contractor with a wood shop to manufacture and replace all the decrepit bead board in the bathroom at the same time, send out the sink to be re-enameled, and re-do the supply lines. No demo is required except to remove and install the bead board. The supply lines are outside the walls. No tiling. We’ll keep the floor and the fixtures.) Which scenerio would you go for, and what would you expect to pay?

haiderbk | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Call Millad at 718-669-8305\. I am sure they will give you good price and he does an excellent job with his price.

Rick | 13 years and 7 months ago

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Yep, I’m with CMU. Your plumbing estimate is high and the complete bath reno estimate is really low. ( for high quality work) Best to shop around.

needmtg | 13 years and 7 months ago

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5-7k for a complete redo seems quite low if any plumbing changes are involved…and believe me, I go low on most of my renos. I spent about 5k for a complete bath redo with no plumbing issues. Is that an actual estimate? And the $4k for plumbing alone (which seems high?)