How much did you spend on plumbing hardware?

16 years ago

I'm trying to get a feel of what is a reasonable amount to spend on hardware for 3 full bathrooms. I'm planning to use ORB, but the original model calls for brushed nickel. The amount for the brushed nickle has *supposedly* been deducted and i've been told it will be $2000 to upgrade to the ORB. The manufacturer they use is Moen, and not as expensive as other brands. The one I chose is at the low rather than high end, so i'm not understanding the $2k.

So what's a reasonable amount without going over the top? TIA

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (15)

kelntx
16 years ago
Our GC let us buy our hardware where we wanted. I went to ferguson's and picked out some Price Pfister faucets. I was floored by the price so I went on Ebay and found a vendor and bought them for much much cheaper! My kitchen faucet was $285 at Ferguson's and I bought it on Ebay for $79, brand new and in the box. I think for all the faucets in all three baths, the kitchen and the laundry room I spent somewhere around $650. I found a Moen faucet at Home Depot, regular price $145, on clearance for $35 for the laundry room sink! I was beyond thrilled.

I guess with us it might be different since our plumber did not require us to buy from a certain store or a certain brand. If you are able to buy anywhere I would for sure shop around.
dixiedoodle
16 years ago
For our 3 full bathrooms, we are probably at about $2500-$3000 for all chrome Danze fixtures (that includes 3 shower heads, 1 rain shower head, 4 lavatory faucets, 4 body sprays, and 1 Roman tub faucet with spray). If we had gone with ORB, it would have been at least double that. You can get very expensive with fixtures...especially if you go with one of the "upgraded" finishes.
Related Discussions
Attn: Owner Builders: How much did you spend per sq ft on home?
Q
Comments (45)
Wow, am I envious! I live in the Tampa Bay area and we are hoping to come in somewhere about $110-120/ft. Average prices are between $175-300/ft. The main thing to consider is that our building codes are probably some of the strictest in the country due to the hurricanes. The home is built to withstand 130mph winds. It is built from concrete block which definitely increases our cost substantially. As we are the GC, we did hire a manager to over see the entire project (he also did the slab/block/frame). But the money we are paying him to manage is definetly worth the peace of mind! He is very reputable in our area and has many many contacts so we are able to get his pricing. In the end, his management fee will probably wash with the savings. We are also going pretty high end with everything else from windows to appliances to flooring and so forth. In the end, it will all be worth it. However, our cost to build does not include what we paid for the lot. Land is NOT abundant here and you pay for it - ALOT. Our lot had a home which we initially wanted to add on to. But after talking with our architect and engineer, the cost was more to do that (by going up a floor) than it was to demo and start over. We went that route since then we are not limited to the footprint and could then have exactly what we wanted. Our new home is 4000 sq ft living/8900 sq ft under roof incl 1500 sq ft covered lanai/3 car garage/semi-detached 4 car garage. So, with all of this, in the end we should be about $450K (not including pool). For Florida, this is not bad at all.
...See More
How much did you spend to get to a sale?
Q
Comments (7)
Isn't it only tax deductible if your have to pay a capital gains tax on the sale of the house? Not many have to do that anymore. Jeff, we spent about $6000 fixing up our $150,000 house to sell about a year ago. It hasn't sold yet. Things we did included removing wallpaper that we had grumpily lived with for 12 years, texturing the walls and painting where the wallpaper irregularly pulled off the skim coat of plaster. (This is why we had lived with it - we wanted it replastered and had no place to live while all that work was done.) We repainted two of the three bedrooms and the bath, touched up the third bedroom. We scrubbed, primed, and painted the basement cement walls, repaired the stair treads and put down new vinyl tile and aluminum stairnose going down the basement stairs. We installed laminate wallboard over the peeling wallpaper in the basement stairwell. We also had a small crack in the basement wall repaired with high-pressure urethane injection. We had the bathroom ceiling repaired (we had lived with stains and some gaping around the new heater/vent fan. We had the hardwood floors refinished. There is a built-in shelf in the dining area of the living room that was pure 1950 - scalloped trim and chipping white paint. The built-in is on a piano hinge and is the door to a cedar closet that is situated in the stairwell going down to the basement. We had the built-in removed and remade with oak, which I stained and polyurethaned. There is a stairway going up to a room above the garage near the dining area. We had the top of the wall cut-out for the stairs topped with oak, and oak trim put on the newel post at the bottom. I also had a new floor put into the front closet and I tiled that with the same vinyl from the basement stairs. We also painted the stairwell between the house and the garage, and tiled those stairs. We had the trim on the door to the back yard from the garage replaced and painted. We put a new storm door on the back door from the house to the back yard. We painted all four exterior doors and the garage door. Most of the work was done by neighbors we hired, since I cannot do hard labor anymore (joint problems) and DH was busy at work and not that handy. I painted doors and stained and urethaned wood, bought supplies, and supervised. BTW, the house started out at $165,000. I did FSBO for five months before we had a realtor take over and not one realtor showed the house to a client when it was FSBO and in the MLS. It gets shown occasionally now, but the market here has been almost frozen, not just slow.
...See More
How much did you spend on a new porch?
Q
Comments (5)
In 2003, we paid $25,000 in Fairfield county, CT. $2800 for architect, which was a rip-off. His designs sucked and we ended up with our own design mostly achieved from magazine photos and riding around the countryside. We then had a contractor who poured the piers and then disappIERed. $1,000 to move the water meter about 6 feet. The second contractor, Frank Burdo, Shelton, CT was great. The deck is mahogany and the railings are vinyl. The price included the window in the bath above the porch and the labor to remove the brick sidewalk and replace it after the porch was built. We love it.
...See More
Getting cabinets sprayed professionally...how much did you spend?
Q
Comments (4)
Ok, I'll bite. $3515.12 (plus $351.51 10% GC markup) for a 9.5' x 10.5' kitchen and a 65" bathroom vanity. Kitchen had 3 coats of poly on walnut and the vanity was primed plus 3 coats of oil enamel. This particular contractor is expensive and VERY meticulous. They are truly gorgeous IMO and everyone who comes into the house, even if they are overwhelmed by the large expanse of wood, strokes them ;-) I know I couldn't have done 10% of the job and planned for him in budgeting!
...See More
dixiedoodle
16 years ago
Also, we did shop around! We were not locked into a certain store. We found our best prices online, and then our local Noland store pretty much matched them.
jenanla
16 years ago
I just ordered my bath room faucets yesterday. We chose to go with Delta Victorian Aged Pewter for the master and kids bath(there are 3 shower fixtures). I have not ordered the sink faucets for these 2 bathrooms (plumber needs the shower valves to start the rough). I also ordered a Delta Leland Vessel faucet in ORB for my 1/2 bath. I noticed the prices for the finishes that I chose were close to double that of stainless, but I don't remember there being a difference in price between the brushed nickel. Cost for these items $940.00

We are GC of our project and I'm sure I could have gotten better prices if I searched but I just wanted my plumber to handle it all, so I used the plumbing supply that he goes through. Right now I need simplicity.

Jenn
tinker_2006
16 years ago
LAst house we built, was a fixed cost contract, and we were able to search and buy at fantastic prices, The house we are now building - I feel a little bit ripped off on EVERYTHING, as the upgrades are way more then I could buy myself. I just got the bill for the 2.5 bath faucet upgrades... $2100.00
jaymielo
16 years ago
I'm currently struggling with this. Our plumber sent us to Ferguson's to finalize our selections. Of course, the initial bid isn't what we want in our house. We've been told that at Ferguson's we will pay retail price for the fixtures (I believe there is a kickback to the plumber for the fixtures). Our plumber has said that if we choose to, we can provide our own fixtures and he will charge us $50 a fixture to install, but it is STRONGLY discouraged. If we do this, there they won't guarantee the installation, blah, blah, blah. I'm still struggling a bit with this, but right now I'm budgeting for the retail price as published on the manufacturers site.

I would suggest going directly to Moen's website and look at the prices for the fixtures you have choosen. Add up the price differential between the brushed nickel and ORB and see if it comes close to $2K.
tinker_2006
16 years ago
jaymielo - you just reminded me... we were told the EXACT same thing, $50.00 per fixture if we buy and they install. They are going to get you one way or another!
patty_cakes
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks everyone, it's good to get a differnet perspective, but if you're doing custom, or are your own GC, things are very different.

Jaymielo, you're exactly where i'm at~the initial bid isn't what I want in my house, and whether or not they deducted the ORB, god only knows. $2K extra seems a lot if they in fact did decuct. I'm about at the point that I may go with the ones quoted, and then change out to nicer ones. My main concern was the drains, since that's the most time consuming. Heck, I could probably do the handles/faucets, or my son. That could be the answer if they don't want to 'play fair'.

Tinker, any little thing you change you get the shaft. ;o)
anthem
16 years ago
I fail to see how charging $50 to install customer supplied fixtures is not "fair". Do you expect them to install it for free ? or build your house free ? Most plumbers won't warrant the item you supply but will warrant their "work" on the item - though that isnt universal.

It's quite simple, if you dont want to pay for installation, install them yourself.
tinker_2006
16 years ago
anthem, the thing is - They should already have the install in with the standard faucet. The only difference should be the price of the faucets, since installing their faucet or my faucet is no different. It is not any extra work at all, it's just their way to make money because they lost the market in their faucet. So like I said, they are going to get paid the same amount, one way or another -and that's not fair IMO. It's fair that they get paid for their labor, they are plumbing a whole house, but I don't see where they need to make money on an item that they are purchasing.
sasha.welling
15 years ago
I had no idea how much to spend on plumbing hardware. Especially faucets! So I researched around and found an online store with fantastic discounts! I was able to get a quality Grohe faucet for $300! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Grohe Faucets
kemptoncourt
15 years ago
We're in the 3-4K range on fixtures and faucets. Does not include tubs....we installed them in the rough-in. We specifically went with a plumber that didn't care about where the fixtures came from. He advised shop at one of their retailers and get their discount or order online.
kateskouros
15 years ago
2K add'l for ORB? fasten your seat belts. you're GC is taking you on some kind of crazy ride!
brendamc
15 years ago
I agree with kateskouros - you should really check those prices out online. We have Altmann's, Waterstone, Santec & Kohler - none inexpensive brands - in 7 baths & I don't think the upcharge was THAT much for all of them!
ponydoc
15 years ago
I can answer this question now as I finally saw the totals.

Plus our builder did not include our plumbing hardware in our estimate for some reason... and guess what- it's the exact amount we are over our estimate!

We spent about 10K.

Reading your posts that sounds like a lot......

It included faucets for 6 bathroom sinks, a laundry sink, the kitchen faucet with side spray in ORB, two bath/showers with hand held spray added, my soaking tub with hand held spray added and our car wash shower- with another handheld. All in brushed nickel except the kitchen as stated......

PD

How much did you spend on plumbing hardware?

Comments (15)

kelntx

dixiedoodle

Related Discussions

dixiedoodle

jenanla

tinker_2006

jaymielo

tinker_2006

patty_cakes
Original Author

anthem

tinker_2006

sasha.welling

kemptoncourt

kateskouros

brendamc

ponydoc

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

How much did *you* spend on plumbing hardware?

Comments (15)

Related Discussions

patty_cakesOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

How much did you spend on plumbing hardware?

patty_cakes
Original Author