New sink

[graham1030]

Hello everyone i was wondering if any of you could help me.

My current sink in my utilty room has holes in it near the plug meaning i cant really use it so am looking to get a new one.

I called up a plumber to look at costs but he told me it would take him over a day to remove the old sink and put in a new one. is this normal? I thought it would only take a couple of hours if that.

I just want the old one taking out and a new one putting in. Can anybody advise me on how much you would charge for this and how long it would normally take?

Thanks
Graham

 

[johnmcginty]

Is it just a basin or a sink mounted in some sort of unit ? sometimes jobs can take all day you just never know . Can he wreck / break the old one ? A few hours probably. Did you quiz him on his " hourly rate " or day rate or ask for a price for the whole job?
£ 75 up to £ 120 is reasonable for this job depending on what day and time ( people always want me to go round when they get in from work at 7 pm or on a sunday and expect it to be the same price. And where abouts you are in the country?

 

[graham1030]

It is a sink mounted into a unit. I was told by a family member who has done plumbing jobs before that he should be able to remove the old sink and replace it with a new one reasonably easily. Is it something i could do myself? i know how to disconnect the taps and re-fit the pipework just not sure about the actual fitting and removing the old one.

He told me it would be roughly £175 which i thought was steep. i can have him do it any time really so its not going to be unsociable hours foir him.

And i live in Nottingham.

Thanks for your help so far

 

[newbie1]

hard for anyone to price something they cant see..good plumbers 150-200 pounds a day
and before anyone thinks this is steep
try public liabilty/diesel/van/tools/training time spent pricing jobs that you dont get/late payers/timewasters who get you to tell them whats wrong then get a cheaper quote to fix it

 

[graham1030]

i want help with my sink not you telling me that im going to pay someone £200 because other people dont pay.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i want help with my sink not you telling me that im going to pay someone £200 because other people dont pay.

funny how no one expects the plumber to cover his cost when the likes of tesco sainsburies all build in a margin to cover shoplifting dud notes etc

 

[newbie1]

i was trying to answer your question BUT as i stated hard to price something that you cant physically see in relation to time involved removing and refitting and then i was trying to explain why its priced the way it is
and the breakdown of why that price is outwardly high and has to take into account the factors i listed
so in short it isnt as easy as saying it should be a couple of hours as all factors i noted have to be taken into account

 

[graham1030]

you sound like all plumbers, never willing to give you a straight answer. And then plumbers wonder why they get bad reputations and get labelle as rip off merchants. Every time i have contacted a plumber i get the same answer about not knowing how much it will cost then even when they have seen it they still can only give me an 'estimate'. Anyway thanks to those who actually helped me with some advise about my sink.

 

[newbie1]

sorry you got the hump you asked how long and how much...how can you expect to get a detailed idea when noone can actually see anything but the keyboard
and no i dont agree with overcharging but each job has to be factored with more than just one thing
if job takes 5 hrs its unlikely you will have time to start anything else that day so a day rate needs to be applied
now that day rate may seem expensive but if you take out all the associated costs then it starts to get more reasonable
i was merely trying to illuminate you why something on the face may seem expensive but when factored into the overall scheme of things then it doesnt seem so
when you go to the garage does the mechanic give an estimate or a fixed price??

 

[graham1030]

he gives me a fixed price or i go elsewhere. If you let them give you estimates thats when they suddenly find all these other things wrong with your car. anyway thanks for your help

 

[NickH]

I was told by a family member who has done plumbing jobs before that he should be able to remove the old sink and replace it with a new one reasonably easily. Is it something i could do myself? i know how to disconnect the taps and re-fit the pipework just not sure about the actual fitting and removing the old one.

So why not get your family member to do it, or better still have a go yourself.
Then if it all goes wrong you can spend your own time putting it right and not have to pay a professional to do it.
Hopefully you can turn off the inside stopcock otherwise you might need to dig around for the outside one but it may be full up with dirt and/or be seized.
Presumably the hot water can be isolated OK, gate valves are notoriously unreliable so you may need to drain down the tank, hope you dont get airlocks when you refill.
Easy to get the sink out provided the clips undo OK and its not stuck in with silicon, got to be very careful not to damage the worktop though, OOPS chipped the laminate, whos going to pay for that ?
Lets hope the new sink fits the hole, lots of slightly different sizes and corner radius's. Might have to alter the cut-out.
Obviously you will have disconnected all the plumbing, can be a bit tricky in a tight cupboard.
Then just spend a few minutes peeling off the protective film, fit the taps,waste,overflow, new sealent, pop it into the hole and fit all the really fiddly clips, alter the pipework to suit the new tap/waste positions
turn the water back on, get rid of the really annoying airlock, check for leaks, fix the leak, clean up your mess, put 50 bottles of cleaning products back into the cupboard and

"VOILA" your done, easy

I dont mean to be TOO sarcastic but until you've done the job a few times you will have no understanding of whats involved in a seemingly simple job and what potential there is for things to go wrong. It's impossible to say EXACTLY how long it would take until you do it.

If someone undertakes the job and subsequently finds problems with YOUR property that require additional work, do you seriously think they should swallow that cost ?

 

[dick999]

Granham,
Its easy, just pull out the old sink fix the new one....job done!!! it will be a nice little saturday project for you.. it should'nt take you more than half a day...think about all the money you will save!!!