I have been given a quote for tiling my small bathroom - 60 euros per sq metre to take the old tiles off and 130 euros per sq metre to put new tiles on, plus extra for resin etc. Can this be right?! Thank you for any advice. Btw this is for labour costs only!
Get a couple of quotes and compare like for like.
The cost seems high but this is could be down to the size of the job, most artisans want to work a whole day at a time so if they’ve only 4/5 hours of work they’d struggle to fill the rest of the day, to compensate for possible ‘dead time’ they bump the price up.
Another consideration is the size of tiles being laid and whether there’s also a ‘mosaic’ or other decorative tile which could increase the sqmt cost.
Sounds like a prix des étrangers to me 
unless it’s a very complex bit if tiling. Ask what the hourly rate is?
he works with a plumber whose quote we have accepted before Christmas (the builder has only just sent his quote in).
He’s quoted for 14.5 sq metres so it would take more than a day. He didn’t ask about the size of the tiles but it won’t be complicated.
It does sound expensive, both for removing old ones and retiling. I would get another quote or 2 if you can.
Our tiling quotes ranged from €20-€50 per square metre for flooring reasonable sized rooms.
If the bathroom is small then it may be tricky - I did a very small bathroom of about 4m2 tiles and it took me 2 days as small tiles and loads of cuts.
In the early days we found the prix anglais to be double the real price.
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Jeepers! 2755€ labour! Is that inc VAT? Even if … 190€/m. I think John Scully has it. Or maybe as you have accepted the quote by his pal, the plumber, he reckons you are a captive audience. But it looks an outrageous price, to me.
I have done a great deal of tiling, for myself and for paying customers, over original tiles, bare concrete, suspended wooden floorboards, walls, in porcelain, ceramic, natural slate, mosaic …
By the way - mosaic. Looks great but depending on how much limescale or iron oxide is in your water, very high maintenance if used in a shower or anywhere that gets constant wetting with hot water. All those hundreds of grout lines getting stained and grubby. To keep the soiling at bay, rinse with cold water and squeegee off.
On the floor, look out. The glazed ones are like ice when wet.
The reason I didn’t set up as a tiler was simple. I realised half the job would be lugging extremely heavy boxes of tiles, adhesive and grout about, mostly up flights of stairs to bathrooms. Are there tilers over 55? The tiling would be the easy bit.
Is the 14.5 sq m all wall, all floor or a bit of both? ’ Taking the old tiles off…’ One of the best substrates for tiling is sound original tiling. Why does the present tiling have to come away? In fact, unless the tiles are wavy-davy and half are falling off, do leave them in situ.
If they are really well stuck down you will find great lumps of the wall/floor materials coming away with the tiles. This does indeed take a lot of work to make good.
I have my own bathroom to do. The existing floor tiles are fine, just 'orrible 1970’s orange colour. No reason not to tile straight over them. The wall tiles are only 5-6 courses deep, round three sides of the basin unit. Once that’s out of the way I reckon 10 mins with the pneumatic chisel and they’re gone.
In my opinion, big tiles good. They lay so much faster than small tiles. There is so much less grouting to do and then to get mucky. If they have a texture, as these ones do, along the length, in a shower have them laid portrait rather than landscape. That way the water runs down the lines of the texture not across hundreds of hills 'n dales. I missed the day when the guy did my bathroom and he chose landscape. 
And finally … don’t let the plumber near the job till the tiling is done. One does not tile round sanitary ware. One instals it on a fully tiled floor. Plumbers hate this rule but you have to be firm.
Jose, the boss of the crew, fitting the w.c on the fully tiled floor. He knows. Note the water supply and waste also. Shower tray on full tiles.
The floor tiles are a lightweight exterior grade, ribbed - excellent non-slip factor.
All 60 x 40’s. Fast to lay. Minimal grout.
D.I.Y !
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There are anti slip coatings you can apply.
An SDS drill on chisel setting fitted with an Armeg tile removing chisel removes tiles at around 1m2 in 5 minutes.
Only double?
Depending very much on the adhesive originally used!
We had an outrageous price quoted for 1 job. Not as bad as yours though. It was 150% of our 2 other quotes.
The guy was a friend so we figured he was politely telling us he didn’t really want the job. We took one of the other two, and the guy who quoted half as much again as either of the other two is still a friend.
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Yes if its premixed crap twice the removal rate! Original cement is a bit tougher but not by much when the chisel gets to work.
I have only ever used pre-mixed but then there may be a different formulations in UK to FR. It has always proved to be sound stuff. That which was laid, stayed laid.
In my Bristol bathroom, on suspended boards + 19mm ply + bathroom grade chip, 500mm sq natural slate tiles didn’t move or joints open up.
Is it then the nature of FR ready-mix? One thing than daunts me somewhat is that the adhesive I see at the Bricos comes in 25kg bags.
This is a bit weighty for me these days, considering I have a 5m metre elevation to climb, from the road to my front door and a right knee that is trying to tell me that enough of this schlepping is enough, already
I think you cak get 10kg too.
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Thank you all for your replies and especially the tips. I think you are right Captainendeavour in that he thinks we have no option but to accept his quote as we have accepted the plumber’s (plumber gave us his quote on 11th November but the builder has only just sent his after much prompting). It’s not been easy to even get someone to come and look (Mobalpa came but never got back to us, think we were too small). As we’re not too hot on DIY we have to rely on professionals. Back to the drawing board for a tiler, thank goodness the plumber is more on the ball. Have a good day everyone!
If this guy is ‘a builder’ he will reckon to be on a different rate from an 'umble tiler. So A] he hopes you have nowhere else to go. B] His quote is on the basis of making the pips squeak.
It really isn’t difficult to do. There will be yards of video tutorial on YT. Preparation [the surface to be tied] and calculation[ working out where to start, vertically and horizontally - out with the squared paper] is the key. The actually tiling is easy.