Repair v's Replace

If you have a damaged fitting, glass or surface, should you replace or restore?

Here's the pro's and con's

The replace route!

Let’s say you have chipped or cracked a bathroom sink. You decide to replace it and call out a plumber. Now Plumbers costs can vary across the country so we will assume 2 hours work, to remove the old sink, remove the old fittings and pop them onto the new sink and fit it back and plumb it in. Based on the average plumbers fees this will be around £160 + VAT in labour = £192

Now .... of course we have not included the cost of the sink, let’s assume you go for the cheapest one you can find. Wickes currently have a pedestal basin for £60 and also let’s assume that all your existing taps and waste fittings can be removed easily and are good enough to use on the new sink. This leaves you with a bill of £252.

But hang on ...... Do we really think a plumber can take out and replace a basin, it fits the exact space the old one came out from and no other mess has been made..... I think not. You will end up with some decorating to do and possibly some tiling or flooring if the footprint of the new sink is not the same.

So overall the replacement method is quite expensive and messy. Of course you could claim on your house insurance, after all that's what it's there for!

You need to be aware that claiming on your house insurance will trigger your excess to be paid; this is normally a minimum of £200 unless you have set it higher to get your monthly premiums down. In addition it will go down as a claim, so the next time you get a renewal quote you will have to declare the claim and your premium will go up. Even by claiming on your insurance it does not stop the hassle, the claims process, the mess and possibly the new sink not fitting where the old one came out of!

So what's the alternative?

Well I am glad you asked!.... as if we didn't know where this was going .....

The Surface Master method for the above repair would be £120 +VAT = £144 (this saves you a minimum of £100). We make the repair with the item in place, we colour match the repair to the existing colour. We don’t need to remove any fittings, we don’t make any mess and nothing else in the bathroom gets disrupted.

And .... if you’re not sold already, we can be on site the next day and the repair will take an hour or two at most.

So what are you waiting for, get a free quote today and save yourself some time, hassle and money.