Assessment of tile work offer. Are surcharges justified?

Hello everyone,

we are building with a general contractor and have been satisfied so far, but now we feel that the prices are increasing towards the end. We have tile work included in the contract in formats up to 80x80cm up to a height of 1.2m (in the showers up to approx. 2m) in two bathrooms and a technical room. Shower niche and seating bench are also included, as well as grouting in white or gray and standard plastic strips as edge finish.

We have chosen a tile described as wall and floor tile and would like to have 60x60cm (total approx. 24m²) floor tiles and 120x60cm (total approx. 30m²) wall tiles installed. The general contractor’s offer now includes the following surcharges:

- Large format surcharge €21.40 per m²
- Laying in pattern surcharge €12.20 per m²
- Rectified tiles surcharge €10.30 per m²
- Installing floor tiles as wall tiles surcharge €18.75 per m²
- Expansion joint profiles surcharge €32.60 per running meter
- Shower floor slope €218 each
- Stainless steel strips as finish €29.65 per running meter
- Stainless steel strips for tile edges €39 per running meter
- Stainless steel corners €17 each
- Base tiles €25 per running meter

Without the tile pattern layout, the amount comes to €4,500; we had not planned this much as additional costs for laying and for the stainless steel strips/base tiles and would like to get a sense of whether the price is justified or not. I understand the surcharges for large format and rectified tiles, but installing floor tiles as wall tiles or the surcharge for the pattern? Maybe you could share your opinion on this.

Thank you very much.

Well, you are building with a general contractor (GU). That means you either take the price as it is, or you remove things, or you get what is stated in the [BLB]. Even if everyone here says that this is quite an expensive price, which is true, what do you want to do about it? If you say "I won’t pay that," then your GU says "Ok, then there will be the standard according to [BLB], please choose materials and installation methods that fit within the price range."

We have other open points and I would like to have a basis for negotiation; for that, I would like to get an assessment of how realistic the price is. I can understand most items, but the surcharge for floor tiles versus wall tiles or laying them in a pattern is not clear to me.

When I briefly research it, I mostly find prices for installation work of 40-80€ per m²; our additional costs seem quite high to me. However, maybe everyone is saying that these are currently market prices; unfortunately, I have no references for that. Isn't the forum meant for exchanging information about such topics?

I had the same - the tiler as a subcontractor from the general contractor seemed the worst, charged heavily during the inspection, but you can't do anything about it.

Examples:
60x60 laying instead of 30x60 = 17€/sqm
120x120 = 75€
Stainless steel rail 7€/m
Miter cut 30€/m (is awesome, I did it, was definitely worth the money)

I didn’t have to pay anything for the slope, but the BLB included a flush shower, which isn’t possible without a slope
And we also have floor tiles on the wall, for free...
GD

Have someone show you specifically what would be included within the scope. Who knows, maybe the result is closer than you think. A bathroom does not become more beautiful just because of a different tile format. I also do not want to have to pay extra for a slope; otherwise, I would also like to know what the cost-neutral option includes.

Thank you for the tips and assessments! I was already discussing just taking the standard, and we are happy to do without a larger format - however, we have hardly found any suitable tiles that are not rectified, and he definitely wants to enforce the floor and wall tiles as well as the pattern surcharge, so the larger tiles hardly matter anymore :-(