My time estimate is 3 days to rip out and install tub, rough plumbing, prepare walls and floor for tiler. (Then we wait for tiler?) Say he comes on day 4, he is expected to take several days at least. Floor can't be walked on for a day, then needs grout, etc. Then vanity install. Then granite install. Granite has a turn around time of a week? Plumbing fixtures, lights, not sure if wainscoting goes up when? I'm figuring 2-3 weeks over which the bath will be unusable and workmen will be coming and going. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will be done in 2 weeks. But there are sometimes delays between sets of workers. I know people who get a kitchen in 2 weeks, and ones who take 6 months. It depends on what you are having done. Also where you live. As soon as anyone comes into my neighborhood their price goes up. Not bragging, we got a smaller house in a nice neighborhood that was run down and have been fixing it up slowly for years. But the contractors all seem to assume we have "money"! LOL! We went with our plumber because we've known him for years and he's very reliable. I'm sure there are people who might be less, and I KNOW there are people who are MORE! If you get a good recommendation, and can see their work, that's what counts.

I live in central NJ (Princeton Area) and I purchased a Trane System in May (before the PSE&G rebate was reduced). I had quotes from Home Depot, PSE&G, Sears, and a couple of local guys. I went with a local guy because the salesman "seemed" the most knowledgeable at the time. I have a 2800 sq. ft 2-story home and purchased an XL15i 4ton AC and a XV95 100K btu furnace. It included a 10 year parts only and 2 year parts and labor warranty. (They initially tried to give me a 1 year but the Trane website indicated that if your purchase my system it comes with 2 years). I had problems with the install but the HVAC-Talk website helped me resolve them (wiring was set on timer instead of 2-stage). The final cost to me was $8600 after $1000 worth of rebates (Trane $300 and PSE&G $700). Key1

The national average 5 piece master bath renovation starts at about 35K and goes up. Way up. You are way way low for this project. It also requires permits and inspections, and that the labor be done from someone licensed and insured. Which doesn't sound like he case from your chuck in a truck hack. He ain't a licensed plumber, that's for sure. Or electrician. And both are REQUIRED. He is far far to cheap for what is being discussed here. Scary cheap. As in he may rot your house down from improper work. I'd be scared to look at that kitchen work! I think your cheap little project needs to upgrade or it is not worth wasting money doing at all. No one actually puts in builder grade crapola a second time once they've lived with it the first time. It's what they dream of getting rid of as soon as possible. Labor is the biggest part of any job, so moving to better materials will not be that costly on that front. And you will get a much better return by hiring someone with better qualifications.

Handyman here. Just replaced a shower valve today with different circumstances, but similar to what OP is talking about. My 2 cents: 1. Trades people will most likely charge more than you think they should. This is due to many of the things people already mentioned in this thread, but also because you bought the material. Trades people often have products they like to work with because they are familiar with them. Familiar with how they install, how they perform, how they function. When you provide materials, you also remove one of the ways they pay for their cost of doing business - markups. You can judge the practice of marking up however you'd like (just like some people don't like tipping), but its standard throughout every trade you are ever going to hire. Some people are transparent about it, some are secretive. Either way, it's how everyone pays for the cost of providing any semblance of a guarantee. 2. There will always be a spread of cost for the trades. Think of it compared to a whole house - at some point, someone is going to build a house that is less expensive in order to sell it faster or more often. The only way to do that, is to compromise somewhere. That price compromise can happen in the quality, profit margin, or speed. The race to the bottom sinks all ships. When you undercut the markets evolved price, you cannibalize small business (think about Amazon compared to small local boutique shops, toy stores, or anything non-chain). If you take a loss, you wont stay in business. If you hide cost cutting measures, like hidden poor workmanship or speedily done work that will not last, you might win in the short term, but your reviews and your customers will reflect that over time. If you are able to outlast everyone else, run at a loss, and own the whole industry - well thats not good for anyone except you. 3. Costing more often means more value. The person may have been a poor salesman, but I would wager that they provided more than their competitor - cleanliness, documentation, warranty/guarantee, etc. 4. Understand that often a quick quote will be some standardized cost that the company or person is confident they can make a reasonable profit with over time. This may mean that jobs like yours, while simple seeming to you, sometimes are more complicated than anticipated. Yours may not have been, but the next one down the road might take a whole day and they would loose money. The subsidized model is similar to the way insurance companies price their products - obviously different in other ways since it's not a subscription model. To those other people in the thread saying things like: "spare me the overhead' or "its on youtube, DIY it" or "my friends a master and says it should cost this" You should be cautious when telling other people how to run their business. Your assuredness and sometimes smug responses, while protected by the anonymity or distance of online communication, it doesn't protect you from forming poor mental habits filled with logical fallacies. You come across as arrogant and ignorant. Imagine everyone one you've ever met in your life - that's a garbage sample size from which to pull an opinion when you speak to the crowd of the world online.