ᐅ Additional Costs for Plumbing – Labor and Material Expenses

Hello everyone,

I have the impression that the additional costs in the plumbing area are much too high.

Example: Standard showerhead 0€ -> showerhead with rain shower 800€ surcharge.

Is this normal?

Can I request a breakdown of material and labor costs?

Gregor_K schrieb:

Example: Standard shower head 0€ -> Rain shower head 800€ upgrade.

Is this normal?

Can I request a breakdown of material and labor costs?

1. An upgrade from what exactly to what? For example, a rain shower might require different plumbing due to increased water flow.
2. Yes, this is common. No, it is not standard practice.
==> What kind of project is this? Bathroom renovation? New house construction? Developer? General contractor? Prefabricated house builder? ...
3. Why do you need a breakdown (see 2.)? You can request many things, but in homebuilding, you don’t always get what you ask for. In this specific case—I assume new house construction—it is almost certainly not possible. Or do you have a contract that already specifies separate labor and material costs?

Gregor_K schrieb:

(...)
Can I request a breakdown of material and labor costs?

Contract already signed and now we’re talking about upgrades? Then you can ask for whatever you want, but the answer will be, “Do you want the rain shower? That’s $800. No $800, no rain shower.”

Take the standard option and install the rain shower yourself later?

We are building with a general contractor, and yes, the construction contract has already been signed. However, the selection of finishes has not been finalized yet.

The additional services offer only includes the surcharge.

I do not want to install the rain shower later because I have concerns about the larger pipe sizing required.

Then you will have to trigger the 800 charges.

Gregor_K schrieb:

We are building with a general contractor (GC) and yes, the construction contract has already been signed. However, the selections for finishes and fittings have not been finalized yet.

The additional service offer only includes the extra cost.

I don’t want to install the rain shower later because I’m concerned about the larger pipework modifications.

Have you already asked the GC to explain the reason for the additional charge? When I was building for the first time, some of the upgrades also seemed quite expensive to me. But we had a good relationship of trust with the GC, so we simply asked. Many things became clearer to us at least. Of course, there are margins included. If you don’t want to pay those, you really have to stick to the standard options after signing the contract and fix or upgrade things later. Everything we negotiated before signing (like the air conditioning, for example) was reasonably priced.