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Old 09-12-2014, 10:11 PM
 
Location: USA
299 posts, read 552,134 times
Reputation: 372

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All of the marketing stuff I've found online speaks of the acrylic being brittle and scratch-prone, except for a few companies who came up with proprietary combinations of acrylic mixed with 15% or so of other materials. (EG. The acrylic system the guy was trying to sell us seems to be similar in makeup to what you'd find used for a pro football helmet.)

Maybe that's a big marketing lie? I just wasn't sure. I know the old fiberglass insert like we have now looks pretty bad after the 10+ years or so it's been in place. It was originally white and now has this yellowish tinge to it. No chips or cracks, but obviously failed to stay sealed between it and the tub. I kept hearing people sing the praises of the right acrylic being far superior to the old fiberglass.

I think everyone's comments here have made me confident that this place was overcharging us, so I did go ahead and cancel the contract. My free time is limited -- but will try to at least meet with a couple more "kitchen and bath" places in the area and/or talk with one of the smaller contractors in town who claims he can do this type of work.

I will say though that despite our house being 100+ years old, most everything in it has been remodeled/rehabbed at some point between the 1970's and today. So the people speaking of wanting to select, say, a stand-alone cast iron tub, may be mistakenly thinking my house still has an original look that should be preserved. It's really past the point where that's a concern.

It's interesting someone mentioned tile being so much easier to clean than the acrylic surround though. I've had nothing but hassles with tile in the last few places I've lived. Always fighting mildew and trying to scrub grout or refresh old caulking. I really hoped to avoid any more of that....


Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL View Post
To give you an idea, we did a bath remodel earlier this year. We demoed the bath all the way to the studs and removed all flooring to the slab. The bath is a 12x 17 which includes a commode room and 2 walk in closets. WE replaced the tub with an enameled one, porcelain tile surround, put a water proof membrane on the ceiling, installed custom made red oak double vanity base cabinets with drawers on both sides of both cabinets using HD soft close hardware. Installed poured granite double sink vanity top with red oak back splash. We installed a new Champion 4 AS low flow commode, installed porcelain tile, installed 5 each 6 panel colonial doors, new plumbing fixtures, new drywall, insulated the tub enclosure, moved and added electrical GFIC outlets, new hi def mirrors, custom made red oak base moulding, textured and painted everything with all new bath hardware and a custom made red oak magazine rack in the commode room. The cost to our customer was $12,800.00. I would think due to the increased cost of labor where you are at it would have been higher but it's still a comparison for you. What these guys want for their work is shear robbery. I would suggest getting other prices and if you value your home, skip the cheap acrylic crap. I don't care about the warranty, it scratches REAL easy and looks like crap in about 5 years if you use it. Normally, these clowns are not around when you call for warranty. They have a tendency to come in, make a splash with business, bankrupt the company and open up under a new name. Good way to stay out of doing warranty work.
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Old 09-13-2014, 04:17 AM
 
6,192 posts, read 7,305,397 times
Reputation: 7558
Quote:
Originally Posted by tw71 View Post

The contract includes a lot of "no matter what, it's taken care of" type of language - such as promise to replace any flooring as needed, any plumbing work as needed, etc. etc.

I get the idea that's part of the business model with these guys. Charge people enough so no matter what, all contingencies are covered in the price. (If they wound up having to move pipes around and redo the whole tile floor because the old one wasn't going to line up properly with the new dimensions of a replacement shower or tub, or what- not -- it's all embedded in the cost.)

That seems to be how they can provide so much "satisfaction" with the work after the sale, despite the really large up-front cost. They never have to go back to a homeowner and say, "Uh... We ran into this little problem and you're going to have to come up with another $1,000 to address it, before we can finish."

To me that doesn't make sense---you're either paying for the work done or not. Why would you pay a certain amount up front for work that may or may not have to be done? Plumbing is $$$ so you want to know if that's "embedded" in the price or not---because if it is and you're paying for it (and it's not needed) then that's a lot of extra to pay right there.

You need more estimates. You need more definition---what is going to be done, what each big thing will cost, etc.


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Old 09-13-2014, 11:26 AM
 
Location: Sunny Florida
7,136 posts, read 12,625,353 times
Reputation: 9547
I'm in the process of having my master bathroom remodeled right now. We had the garden tub removed, new studs put into the walls, concrete put in to slope the shower, Hydro Ban waterproofing done, a walk in, curbless, handicapped accessible shower installed, new porcelain tiles on the walls, floor, and shower floor, new cabinetry with double undermount sinks for the 10'6" vanity area, a frameless glass shower wall 80" tall x 60" long x 1/2" thick installed, new faucets, shower head and trim, shower valve, etc. and are coming in well under $13,000.00. Please get more quotes. You can get an all new, beautiful bathroom for that price.
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Old 09-16-2014, 12:59 AM
 
2,547 posts, read 4,208,929 times
Reputation: 5611
Yea, I agree with the others - we're remodeling two bathrooms right now, and pretty much changing everything BUT the tubs themselves - and it's coming in at about $10K for the master and $7 for the guest bath. We're retiling floors, changing bath surrounds and showers, both vanities and toilets, shower trims, painting, and the price includes slab quartz surrounds for guest bath and master shower - which I highly recommend if you don't want to deal with tile and grout. I'm sooo happy about these - they go up to the ceiling, they look absolutely beautiful and high-end, AND no more grout to clean, ever!! Absolute cinch to clean. Definitely look into it - you can get granite, which is more expensive, we went for quartz which is cheaper but should be still just as good, just slightly softer which shouldn't be a big deal in a bath.
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