Ballpark Costs for Rough Plumbing for New Bathroom Addition

The last job I requoted I found a mistake and the 2nd quote was higher!
I decided thats what I'm doing from now on!

CTXRehab said:

Particulars that would of helped

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Those particulars might of helped "calm the sea" with the attitudes you've been presented with.


Expect plumbers to be in a plumbing forum.


Let us know how difficult the task is involving the 30' of trenching/laying the piping.

CTXRehab said:

I've tried to stay fairly civil in my responses, but with the exception of a few truly helpful posters here (who I'm grateful for taking the approximately 30 seconds or so it takes to try to help someone out who comes here with a question), many of you couldn't have been less helpful if you tried.

Do you even care to know the particulars of the situation before you start accusing me of hiring unlicensed contractors and taking the lowest offer I can find? Or is it just more fun to go off on a new poster who, God forbid, has the gall to post on a plumbing forum about a bid he got that seemed far too high?

If you'd bothered to ask, I could have told you that I've renovated 4-5 houses for the last three years, but the plumber I'd previously used retired, and this is the first job I've done with the current plumbers, who are two brothers )both master plumbers) that started their own business a year and a half ago, and still doing all of the work themselves, trying to build up their business, and likely willing to work with me somewhat based on the potential for future work. Or that they'd already handled about $3,500 worth of work on this house, all of which passed inspection with flying colors?

Naah, that's boring, it's just more fun to go off. That's what the Internet is for, right?

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Ok I'm glad they are certified master's. I would still want proof of gl ins. and wc before I turned them loose on my site.

I did not accuse you of hiring unlicensed contractors I only said that if you did shame on you. The pricing given seems consistent with unlicensed contractors. I don't fault anyone in this situation. You are trying to make as much money as you can on your investment and that means not spending anymore than is necessary. The plumbers are just starting out. They may be great plumbers and yet not know the first thing about running a business or knowing what they should be charging in order to be successful. A lot of plumbers start plumbing businesses the same way, myself included. In my case I was smart enough to figure out at a certain point that what I was doing wasn't working and so I found help. It's not that I have become king of the plumbing world or even desire to do so but my business is profitable and I now have the tools in place to keep it that way. If they are going to survive they will have to figure this out too. They are grossly under priced for this job given what little bit I know about it.

Please have Your local plumbers call Us, and We'll let them know what They can charge. This is what You want ,right?

They may be great plumbers and yet not know the first thing about running a business or knowing what they should be charging in order to be successful.

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When I first started this business in 1992, after working 18 years for others, I too was quoting pretty low, to "get my foot in the door".

I remember losing one job, the customer said the other contractor didn't think I knew what I was doing with such a low quote.
Well, this annoyed me, I knew how good I was, and fast I could do things. And yes, it was quoted low. When I saw that guy at the plumbing supply, I asked who it was that was talking about my abilities without knowing me. He played dumb. Said it musta been someone else.
But the lesson was learned. A bid too cheap, just looks stupid to others. When I raised my pricing up, I stopped losing jobs like that.
Now that I've been in business for a while, I need to add more staff.
Right now we are doing the fixture replacement pretty good, and I've dropped some of the old time plumbing I used to do.
It was fun in the old days, when homes where splits, two baths up, with a rough bath and laundry in the basement.
If I was running waste, I would be done in 7 hours and if I was running copper and setting the tub, I could finish in 6.75 hours including the one hour driving time.
With the two of us, we could rough-in five three bath houses a week.
But that was then, and this is now. They don't build houses like that anymore, there is a lot more pipe, more fixtures, and everything has more wood and it's all sized up so much bigger.
Remodel is even worse, as far as how long things take.

I don't discount much for ditch digging, like Cass says, it needs proper grade, and size to work in. That, and I can dig much faster than most. It doesn't really take me that much time.
Those splits that I plumbed above, they had ditches that were about 33 feet long.

If I were looking at todays remodel pricing, I would be thinking about 5 hours per fixture as a staring point.
If I was looking at three fixtures, I would add one more, because it has to tie in somewhere, and that take time.
Remodel is way different than new construction plumbing in a split.
New construction plumbing with wood floors can be 3.5 hours a fixture.

OK, stop right here, without seeing it, there is now way I can say.
The outside 4" sewer, which I'm not licensed to do, (I've done some though) is a small job to itself.
It may be sand, it may be rock.
If someone had bumped thier pricing double for similar work, it may be that they are busy at the moment, and don't know how to say no otherwise.
Either way, I need to hire more workers.