Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Right, in the bathroom it's more complicated because of the sealing. However, in our case it's the living room, kitchen, and hallway. Our sanitation company apparently recently also has a tiler and we will still get an offer from them (they are also already doing the ST and the underfloor heating).

Of course, it also depends heavily on the region. You say 137 EUR including 37 EUR/m² tiles. That's not everything. Then there's the baseboard, which he needs quite a few meters of in 3 rooms. Then the finishing profiles, usually stainless steel?

So the labor cost might be around 80-90 EUR/m².

My labor costs apply to Saxony-Anhalt... I can imagine that in other regions 80-90 EUR/m² is normal.

75 EUR/m² for 60x60 tiles, pure labor costs. However, kitchen and hallway, for the bathroom I only have the surcharges compared to the standard of the general contractor.

Since he has to fiddle much more in the bathroom, I think 100 EUR/m² without tiles is quite fair?
In addition, there’s twice complete sealing, setting corner profiles, cutting out all the connections for the fittings...

Well, you have to trust the craftsman: working hours for sanitary installation are also listed. Are the cutouts included there? They would still have to be done if you use smaller tiles. But that costs 37€ less per sqm.

I find it weak that "large" tiles start at 30x30. I have already laid 30x60 myself, that works without problems. In my opinion, difficult formats start at 60x60.

In the end, though, it’s all a thought experiment for the golden pineapple: if I don’t do it myself, someone else has to do it. And that person has an excellent reputation, charges a reasonable price, and the bathroom is 8 sqm in the end.

We chose decorative tiles for the shower side walls (2x) and the wall in front of the toilet for a certain accent. They cost a lot, but thankfully you only need a little of them. What 60x120 on the wall will cost is not yet certain. But we are less afraid of the price than of our courage to choose this tile…

My rule is: What I can quickly remove again if I don’t like it, I do myself. Laminate, click parquet, paving, terrace, carport. Unscrew a few screws and do it again.

If I have to stick something "permanently" to the wall or floor, then I like to leave it to the professional. Unless it’s about the HAR.

Even laying tiles is out of the question for me in the living area, we did it in the basement after all. You can do it, it’s enough for down there, but definitely not in the living area. There I want perfectly straight tiles and proper baseboards with stainless steel finish. Besides, my back was already at its limit after 2 rooms in the basement. I’m also happy to pay a fair price, but no extortionate prices.

49€ net/sqm
For laying and grouting
Adhesive extra
Silicone joints extra
Laying system/leveling system 2-3€/sqm extra

And of course the tiles extra

One or two items like sweeping and priming were also included, from memory about 40-50€ each

That was still cheap then, phew

Now I was finally able to look at the invoice:
Grout was also extra

Everything mentioned so far was for our open plan room, outside the construction service description.

Within the construction service description for the bathrooms, we also had some extras, because who would have thought, rails or even base tiles are not part of the scope of services.

This added up to the following:

Cutting and attaching base tiles: 20€/m
Sealing membrane in the shower instead of normal bituminous insulation: 35€ per shower wall
4 hours for laying rails at 45€ each
Surcharges for bathtub shelf and shower niche, 80€ each
....
Altogether, this then added up to over 6400€ extra for the tiler. We supplied the tiles for the open plan room ourselves because that was a separate contract with the tiler. Everything else went only through the tiler and was correspondingly expensive (Quadec rails, we could have saved a lot if we had procured them ourselves)
But the tiler did a good job and I enjoy our beautiful tiles during the breaks between filling, sanding, and painting.