It’s hard to tell without seeing the layout of your house. You’re adding a shower where one doesn’t exist, right? Is it on the first floor, 2nd floor…? How much work to tie into the drain? To redo an existing bathroom with one sink and shower, I’d expect the cost to be about $1500 - $2000. But that’s with a shower that’s already there.
Single story structure with a crawlspace (very nice one that, in that end of the house, you can actually stand up in, BTW. Workmen compliment my crawlspace all the time.) Old house, however, build in 1928, so occasionally there are Surprises. Currently there is a sink and a toilet in the bathroom; the shower would need to go in the corner where the sink is and a small pedestal sink would need to be added where currently there is nothing. No idea what the drains are like.
He did indicate that moving a sink and adding plumbing for a shower is a much easier job than moving the toilet would be, which makes sense.
I just replaced two toilets last weekend. They were a little above midrange at home depot, Kohler instead of their house brand. They were $250 each out the door. If I were a plumber covering overhead and earning a living I can’t imagine charging less than $500 to replace a toilet.
Adding a shower can be a sticky thing. Very likely the plumber will have to hire other tradesmen to handle different tasks. He could only be a plumber and not have a general contractors license which would prevent him from hiring other tradesmen and managing a project. Maybe he doesn’t like doing full remodels, which is what adding a shower really is. Maybe he can handle everything and he’s delighted to take it on and that’s really his best off-the-cuff educated guess. There’s really no way to tell without the old fashioned legwork of figuring out what you want, making calls, and getting detailed bids from several contractors and weighing out price vs perceived reliability.
If you’re satisfied with the work the plumber did, great. I don’t think you overpaid nor do I think he gave you unrealistic prices for other work.
At 8 months pregnant you cannot trust your brain on things like this. Seriously, I got in a fight with my boss at one point due to pregnancy brain and made seriously inappropriate comments that normally wouldn’t ever have come out of my mouth. Beyond that, I just felt insanely vulnerable all the time, which meant that even people doing nice things for me were suspected of attempting to cause me some type of harm. Reminding yourself not to be insane is a full time job during pregnancy! Don’t fret, wait until you are un-pregnant for a few months and then do a little more research on plumbing stuff in the future.
Dunno about Columbia, S.C. - but in lots of places plumbers would charge $225 just for crossing the threshold of your home and having a look around.
Okay, THAT would be a ripoff. I’m not sure if I’ve ever paid more than $75 for a service call - certainly never more than $100.
Are you saying the plumber came out on a Sunday afternoon? And left the bathroom cleaner than when he started? And only charged $225? I can’t get a plumber to come to my house in the middle of the week for less than $200.
I did this in my kids bathroom last summer for the same reason. IANAP, but it took me a little over an hour without counting cleanup and aggravation. Had I not had the stuff laying around, 225 would seem pretty fair. By the way in case anyone is wondering a rebill kit goes for like 20-40 bucks.
No, it was a Friday.
In my last post, I was assuming the plumber was doing the pluming only and that the OP was acting as the GC. I would be very suspicious of a plumber acting as a GC. Depending on the materials selected, I would expect $10 - 20K for redoing an entire bathroom. You could do it cheaper with Home Depot prefabs stuff, but I’m talking a decent, custom job.
This is why I love this place. Anyone can post anecdotal replies, or guestimate an answer to the OP’s question. Leave it to a Doper to go the extra mile and do the research. 