How Much Does It Cost To Fit a Hand Basin?

Cost to fit a hand basin

job	Description	labour
1	Let’s assume a straightforward changeover with no making good and everything fitting perfectly.	£120
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£80
2	If he has to fit a complete new waste pipe, right back to the external soil stack and make good internally, plus redesign the water supply pipework, you can add another day.	£200
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£50

“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 a Hand Basin

Removing an existing hand basin and pedestal is simple enough but you may be left with more “making good” than you thought. If any tiling was fitted after the basin was fixed, there will be a basin shaped hole staring at you. Similarly there may be a nasty shape missing in the floor tiling where the pedestal was. All this will have to be made good and you won’t be able to buy matching tiles anymore. This also applies to carpet, lino etc.

Or, the chap who fixed the previous basin may have simply glued it to the tiling which will mean at best a horrible mess to get rid of, or more likely several tiles simply ripped off the wall!

If the basin is older and has no pedestal, there could be two dirty great cast iron brackets set into the wall or you could be left with two large fixing holes that neither the new basin nor the best grouter can hide.
The waste pipework, particularly if it disappears straight into the wall will probably now be in the wrong place for the new basin. This may require it’s removal and a new waste fitted, all the way to the exterior soil stack.
The water supply pipework may also need re-siting. If it does, remind the chap that this should not be showing on completion. Also, get him to fit in line “isolation” valves, these aid any future work which may have to be undertaken. However if the pressure is low, make sure he fits “full bore” ones

You will very likely be fitting modern (probably mixer) taps. The old taps were most probably fed by good old 15mm (½“) pipes, giving a great flow of water. New taps (particularly mixer taps) are very often supplied with flexible connector pipes. These make the water connection much simpler BUT seriously restrict the water flow. If your tap is supplied with low pressure water as opposed to mains water, particularly if the supply tank (not the hot water cistern) is on the same floor as the tap, you are very likely to be now faced with vastly reduced water flow from the new tap.

This can be fixed by using 15mm taps, or converting the supply to mains pressure (very expensive if it’s for the hot tap), or fitting a pump. It’s a game isn’t it
Also, take notice of the tap hole arrangement in the new basin you are going to buy. They now often come with facility for one mixer tap only. If you want 2 taps, you will be unlucky! Also the “waste and trap” (that’s the plug hole thingy and what’s underneath) come separately from the basin. Decide on the type of waste you want… normal, pop up or click. (Only the “normal” one will still be working properly in a year).

FAQs 'traffic light' guide

What's easy about this job…
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If all goes, well, it's just removing the taps and basin and re-installing like-for-like.

What's tricky about this job…
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Turning off the mains and draining down. access to the taps. Damage to the wall when the basin is removed

Potential problems with regards to this job…
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Taps may be seized on and an old basin will have iron fixings within the wall causing damage to the plasterwork when removed.