Bathroom Renovation Costs UK — What to Charge for a Full Bathroom Refit in 2026

What a Full Bathroom Refit Involves

A bathroom is multi-trade work compressed into a small, awkward room. Even when one multi-skilled fitter does most of it, the job moves through distinct stages — and if you forget to price one of them, you eat the cost. Here is the typical sequence:

• Strip-out / rip-out: Remove the old suite, tiles, flooring and any boxing. Cap off supplies, disconnect waste, and clear the room back to brick or stud. Old tiled walls and screeded floors are heavy and slow to break out.
• First-fix plumbing: Move, extend or renew hot and cold supplies and waste pipes to suit the new layout. This is where reconfiguration cost lives — moving a WC means moving the soil pipe.
• Electrics: Extractor fan, lighting, shaver point, and any underfloor heating all need a qualified electrician working to Part P of the Building Regulations. Bathroom zones dictate what fittings are allowed where.
• Plastering and boarding: Patch or re-skim walls, and board out where needed. Use moisture-resistant or cement backer board behind tiled wet areas — never standard plasterboard in a shower.
• Tanking / waterproofing: Apply a tanking membrane or waterproof system to showers, wetroom areas and splash zones before tiling. This is the single most important step for preventing future leaks.
• Tiling: Walls and floor, set out properly with consistent grout lines, correct adhesive and the right falls in wet areas so water runs to the drain.
• Second-fix plumbing: Install and connect the suite — WC, basin, taps, bath, shower valve and screen. Test everything under pressure.
• Flooring, sealing and decorating: Lay flooring (tile, LVT or vinyl), silicone all junctions, fit accessories, and paint the ceiling and any non-tiled walls.

Two things separate a good fitter from a callback magnet: tanking and falls. Get the waterproofing right and the shower falls running cleanly to the gully, and the bathroom will be watertight for decades. Get them wrong and you'll be back ripping out tiles to chase a leak — on your own time.

Supply-and-Fit vs Labour-Only

One of the first decisions on any bathroom quote is who supplies the materials. There are two models, and they price very differently.

Labour-only means the customer buys the suite, tiles, taps and accessories, and you fit them. Your quote is purely your time and consumables. It is cleaner and lower-risk for you — you don't tie up cash in stock — but your margin is limited to the labour, and you carry the headache of a customer who orders the wrong items, under-orders tiles, or supplies a cheap suite that's a nightmare to fit.

Supply-and-fit means you provide everything. This is where the money is: you buy at trade price and mark up to retail, so the materials become a second profit centre on top of the labour. The trade-off is that you carry the cost and the risk — you front the cash for the suite and tiles, you're responsible if something arrives damaged or faulty, and you have to manage deliveries and storage. Most established fitters run supply-and-fit for exactly this reason: it's where the margin sits. If you go this route, build a clear markup into your materials line rather than hiding it, and protect yourself with a deposit that covers the cost of the goods.

What Affects the Price

No two bathrooms cost the same. The same square footage can swing by thousands depending on the spec and what's hiding behind the old tiles. The main drivers:

• Bathroom size: More floor and wall area means more tiling, more flooring and more labour. A small cloakroom and a family bathroom are different jobs.
• Like-for-like vs reconfiguring: Swapping a suite into the same positions is straightforward. Moving fixtures — especially the WC — means moving supplies and waste, which is one of the biggest cost jumps you can make.
• Suite quality: A budget high-street suite and a premium designer suite with a concealed cistern, wall-hung WC and thermostatic shower are worlds apart in both material cost and fitting time.
• Tile area and tile cost: Large-format porcelain and natural stone are slower to set out, heavier and less forgiving than standard ceramic. Out-of-square walls make large tiles harder still.
• Wetroom vs standard bathroom: A wetroom needs full tanking, a properly formed floor fall and a linear or point drain — significantly more skilled work than a tray-based shower enclosure.
• Underfloor heating: Electric mats or wet UFH add electrician and plumbing time, plus screed or levelling depth.
• Access: Upstairs bathrooms, narrow stairs and tight landings slow down every stage — carrying out rubble and carrying in a heavy bath takes longer.
• Removing old materials: Breaking out a tiled floor screed or a cast-iron bath is heavy, slow work, and you need to price the skip or waste disposal.
• Structural changes: Knocking through, removing a stud wall, or building a stud wall for a concealed cistern adds carpentry and making-good.
• Square and level: Old houses are rarely true. Walls and floors that are out of square or out of level need packing, levelling and more setting-out time before a single tile goes up.

Quick Reference: Bathroom Refit Prices UK 2026

Pulled together into complete supply-and-fit projects, the typical totals customers should expect look like this:

How to Quote a Bathroom Refit

The single best protection against under-quoting is to itemise. Break the job down stage by stage so nothing gets forgotten and the customer can see where the money goes:

• Rip-out and disposal — strip-out labour plus skip or waste cost.
• First-fix plumbing — moving and renewing supplies and waste.
• Electrics — fan, lighting, shaver point, UFH, with the Part P notification.
• Plastering and boarding — making good and backer board to wet areas.
• Tanking — waterproofing membrane to showers and wetroom areas.
• Tiling — priced by the m² for walls and floor so the customer can flex tile choice.
• Suite and materials — listed with your markup if supply-and-fit.
• Second-fix plumbing — install and commission the suite.
• Flooring, sealing and decorating — the finishing trades.

For labour-only days, most UK bathroom fitters charge a day rate of £180–£280 depending on region and skill mix, with London and the South East at the top. A full refit typically runs 7–14 working days depending on size, spec and how much reconfiguration is involved. Count the days honestly — including drying and curing time for screed, tanking and adhesive — because those waiting days still tie up the room and your schedule.

Always build in a contingency for hidden issues. Once the suite is out and the walls are open you may find rotten or undersized joists, perished old pipework, leaking previous workmanship, or no isolation valves anywhere. A 10–15% contingency line, explained up front, stops every surprise becoming an awkward conversation about going over budget.

Important: Artex and Asbestos

Textured ceiling and wall coatings — commonly known by the brand name Artex — that were applied before the year 2000 may contain asbestos. Sanding, scraping or drilling these coatings can release asbestos fibres, which is a serious health risk and a legal matter under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. If a bathroom has a textured ceiling of unknown age, do not sand or remove it until it has been tested. Flag it in your quote, allow for a sample test, and budget for licensed removal if asbestos is confirmed. It is a small line on a quote and a very large problem if ignored.

Pitfalls and Callbacks

Bathroom callbacks almost always come from the same handful of mistakes. Know them, price for them, and build them out of your process:

• Poor tanking: Skimping on waterproofing is the number one cause of leaks into the room or ceiling below. Tank properly, every time, behind every wet area.
• Bad shower falls: Floors that don't fall correctly leave water ponding instead of draining. Set the falls before you tile, not after.
• Under-estimating days: The most common margin killer. Curing and drying time is real time the room is occupied.
• Forgetting the other trades: Not pricing the electrician, plasterer or tiler properly turns a healthy quote into a loss.
• Tile lippage: Uneven tile edges on large-format tiles look amateur and invite complaints. Use levelling clips and a flat substrate.
• Silicone failures: Cheap or badly applied silicone goes mouldy and lifts within months. Use a quality sanitary-grade product and tool it cleanly.
• Forgetting the skip or waste: Rip-out rubble is heavy and bulky. Always price disposal as its own line.
• Reconfiguration surprises: Moving the soil pipe or chasing in new supplies through an old wall takes longer than expected. Survey carefully before you commit a price.

Bathroom Renovation FAQs

How much does it cost to renovate a bathroom?

In 2026, a full supply-and-fit bathroom renovation in the UK typically costs £4,500–£7,000 for a budget refit, £7,000–£12,000 for a mid-range job, and £12,000–£20,000 or more for a high-end bathroom or wetroom. Labour alone usually runs £2,500–£6,000 depending on size and complexity. The biggest variables are the suite spec, the tile choice and whether you're keeping the same layout or moving fixtures.

How long does a bathroom refit take?

Allow 7–14 working days for a full refit. A simple like-for-like swap can be done in around a week; a larger bathroom, a wetroom, or a job involving reconfiguration and underfloor heating runs nearer the upper end or beyond. Remember that drying and curing time for tanking, screed and tile adhesive is part of the timeline — you can't rush a watertight finish.

Why does moving the toilet add so much cost?

Moving a WC means moving the soil pipe and the waste run, which has to maintain the right fall to drain properly. That often involves lifting floors, chasing in or re-routing the soil stack, and sometimes building up the floor to hide the new pipework — all far more involved than swapping a basin or repositioning a supply. Because the soil pipe dictates the falls and frequently runs through the structure, relocating the toilet is usually the most expensive single change you can make to a bathroom layout.