How Much Does It Cost To Fit a Shower Valve?



Stacks Image 97247




Cost To Fit a Shower Valve



Job
Description
Labour
1Replace a like for like external valve (a “Grohe” say), and the supply pipes are a doddle to turn off. This will take a nice leisurely hour.
£40

A “Grohe” will cost about ……
£200
2To replace a valve which requires the wall to be broken into, the pipework altered, the new valve fitted, the wall made good and. amazingly, retiled with some you had in the shed.
He will give it 2 days to cover himself and even then he may lose out!
£375

Plus materials etc. for the above
£225




“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc).  Also VAT must be added all round

Information Sheet on Fitting/Replacing a Shower Valve

Think long and hard before going ahead with this. Unless you can exchange “like for like” it’s going to cost!
Why are you doing it anyway? Has a problem developed with water flow? Does the temperature keep fluctuating, when it didn’t used to? Get someone to take the old unit off and try to fix it. It may just be a bit of muck in the pipe.
I’m immediately reminded here of the very handsome Warren Beatty and the very beautiful Faye Dunaway in “Bonny and Clyde” about 40 years ago. Their car had broken down and a bat-faced little man whose character’s name was C. Dubbya (W) Moss, fixed it for them. When he was asked how he did it he looked up at them all oily and grinning and in a wonderful southern drawl said…“Dirt n’ the fuel line, just bloooowed it away”).
Give me a ring and I’ll do the accent for you if you like. I also do a mean Sean Connery, you’ll love it!
It could be a broken thermostat if it’s fitted with one. It may still be possible to get spares if it’s a “good” brand. Try and get it fixed first if at all possible.
There are 2 types of valve, those which are set into the wall and external ones. Allied to this there is the tube from the valve up to the shower head. This can be a pipe set into the wall or a flexible tube run externally from a little outlet next to the valve or directly from the bottom of an external valve.
If the valve is externally mounted and you can swap it “like for like”, the job can be quite simple. If fitting another type of external valve, the supply pipes won’t fit and if they emerge from the wall close by, that probably means “demolition”.

If the valve is set into a solid wall, there is a very slim chance that a “like for like” swap can be affected but it’s very slim! The problem is undoing the nuts which connect the supply pipes to the valve. You can never get the spanner fully onto them, sometimes you can’t even see them. What I’m getting at is….the tiles are going to come off, and very probably a nice ugly piece of wall as well, to expose enough of the supply pipework to make new connections and possibly alter the angles a little.
The demolition may have to be extended to alter the angle of the rigid pipe to the shower head, if that’s set into the wall as well. All this is “dooable” of course but will you be able to get new tiles to match? This will be nigh on impossible.
So really it’s down to tiling! It’s very probable that at least one wall will need new tiles and that will then show up the remainder. What if the valve is on a stud wall? That’s a hollow wall consisting of a timber frame covered with something. Hopefully the “something” will be an “aquaboard” of some sort and not plasterboard.
Aquaboard is much stronger and doesn’t rot.
The problems will be just the same of course. (Unless you get really lucky and the pipes are all visible from the other side of the wall in a cupboard, or a nice big access hatch is provided). The builder may have to remove even more tiles than on a solid wall as the plasterboard or whatever will have to be cut back to the nearest timber studs before a new section can be fixed.
Please, don’t let him put plasterboard back on!
If the wall is damaged on the other side (in your bedroom for instance ) which is very possible, the valve being nearly as thick as a dividing wall. You will have to replaster in there and then decorate!

FAQs 'traffic light' guide



www.buildingsheriff.com
Copyright The Building Sheriff Ltd 2017