Bathroom Renovation Cost Calculator UK (2026)

UK Bathroom Renovation Cost Guide 2024

What should I know about Where the Money Goes?

Typical cost split for a £6,000 mid-range bathroom: suite & fittings (toilet, basin, bath/shower, taps): 25-35%. Tiling (materials + labour): 20-30%. Labour (plumber, tiler, electrician, fitter): 30-40%. Sundries (waste, sealants, fixings, lighting): 5-10%. Decorating: 5%. Labour is often the biggest single cost. A full bathroom refit involves multiple trades: plumber (suite, pipework). Tiler (walls, floor). Electrician (lights, extractor, shaver point — Part P notifiable work). Sometimes a plasterer for any wall repairs after old tiling or fittings are removed.

What do I need to know about Spec Level Comparison?

Budget (£2,000-£4,000 total): basic white suite (B&Q, Wickes, Screwfix). Standard ceramic tiles. Chrome taps. Adequate for rentals or quick refresh. Mid-range (£5,000-£9,000): branded suite (Roca, Ideal Standard, Victoria Plum). Better brassware (Bristan, Hansgrohe entry). Quality porcelain tiles. Thermostatic shower. Most homeowner renovations land here. High-end (£10,000-£18,000): premium suite (Villeroy & Boch, Duravit). Designer brassware (Hansgrohe, Grohe, Crosswater). Natural stone or large-format porcelain tiles, and often underfloor heating as standard, are typical of installations at this level.

What do I need to know about Scope Affects Everything?

Like-for-like swap (cheapest): replace suite in same positions. No plumbing relocation. Retile if wanted. Fastest, cheapest — minimal trades and disruption. Moderate refit: move some fittings (e.g. swap bath for shower). Some new pipework. Full retile. New extractor/lighting. Most common renovation type. Full refit (significant cost): new layout. Full re-plumb and re-wire. Move soil pipe (expensive — major plumbing). Complete strip-out to bare walls. Wet room conversion, the most complex option, requires tanking — a waterproof membrane across the whole floor and lower walls — plus careful attention to drainage falls.

What do I need to know about Timescale and Planning?

Typical timescales: cloakroom/WC: 3-5 days. Small bathroom swap: 5-7 days. Medium full refit: 1.5-2.5 weeks. Wet room conversion: 2-3 weeks (tanking needs curing time). Order of work: 1. Strip out old suite and tiles. 2. First fix (plumbing and electrical rough-in). 3. Plastering/boarding if needed. 4. Tanking (wet rooms) and waterproofing. 5. Tiling. 6. Second fix (install suite, taps, electrics). 7. Sealing, grouting, finishing. 8. Decorating. Living without a bathroom: plan for 1-3 weeks with alternative washing arrangements, or budget for a portable shower/toilet hire if it's your only bathroom.

What do I need to know about Waterproofing (Tanking)?

Tanking is the process of making a bathroom, particularly the shower area, fully waterproof before tiling, and skipping or skimping on it is one of the most expensive mistakes to fix later, since problems typically aren't discovered until water has already caused damage behind the tiles. A tanking system usually combines a waterproof membrane or liquid tanking compound applied to walls and floor in the wet area, reinforced with a waterproof tape at every joint and corner, since corners and the junction between floor and wall are the most common failure points. Modern practice tanks at minimum the entire shower enclosure floor to ceiling and extends tanking across the whole bathroom floor if there's no raised shower tray or step to contain water, particularly for walk-in or level-access showers where water can spread further across the floor. Because tanking sits underneath the tiling and is invisible once the job is finished, it's an area where corners are sometimes cut by less scrupulous tradespeople to save time — it's worth specifically asking what tanking system is being used and confirming it's being applied to the full wet area, not just spot-sealed around the shower tray edge.

What should I know about Ventilation Requirements?

Bathrooms generate large amounts of moisture from showers and baths, and inadequate ventilation is one of the most common causes of mould, peeling paint and damp-feeling rooms after a renovation, regardless of how good the tiling and fittings are. Building Regulations Part F sets minimum extract ventilation rates for bathrooms, and any bathroom without a window that opens directly to the outside needs mechanical extraction, typically an extractor fan ducted to the outside air, not simply into a loft space or another room. Fans are commonly specified either to run continuously at a low background rate with a boost when a light switch or humidity sensor is triggered, or to switch on with the light and run on an overrun timer for several minutes after use, which helps clear residual moisture after someone has left the room. For bathrooms without an external wall to duct straight through, ducting often needs to run through loft space or between floors to reach an outside vent, which should be planned and costed at the same time as the rest of the renovation rather than added as an afterthought once walls and ceilings are already finished.

How Do Wet Room Conversion Costs Compare to a Standard Refit?

Converting a bathroom into a wet room — a fully tanked, level-access shower space without a traditional shower tray or enclosure — generally costs meaningfully more than a standard bathroom refit with a conventional shower, primarily because of the additional structural and waterproofing work required. The main cost driver is floor preparation: a wet room needs the floor built up or dropped to create a gentle fall toward a linear or point drain, which often means removing and relaying the subfloor, adding floor joists work in older timber-floored properties, or in some cases lowering the floor level — work that a standard refit with a shower tray simply doesn't require, since the tray itself handles water containment and drainage. Full tanking (a waterproof membrane system applied to the entire floor and the lower section of walls, not just around a shower tray) adds material and labour cost beyond a standard refit's more limited waterproofing around just the shower enclosure area. On the other hand, wet rooms can sometimes offset part of this additional cost by eliminating the expense of a shower enclosure or screen, and they're often chosen specifically for accessibility reasons — level access without a step or tray lip matters significantly for anyone with mobility limitations, which can justify the additional cost beyond pure aesthetics. Overall, a wet room conversion typically adds a meaningful premium over a standard shower refit, varying considerably with the existing floor structure and how much levelling or structural work is needed.

Reference: Typical Cost Breakdown by Renovation Tier

The total cost of a bathroom refit splits roughly into three pots: sanitaryware and taps, tiling (materials and fitting), and labour for plumbing, electrics and making good. Where you sit in each pot depends on the finish level you choose, not just the room size.

Labour is the one line that barely shrinks as you go downmarket: a plumber and electrician still need roughly the same number of days to first-fix and second-fix a small bathroom whether the taps cost £40 or £400, which is why budget refits often save less than people expect once trade time is counted properly.

Worked Example: Costing a Mid-Range 2m x 2.5m Bathroom

Take a compact bathroom measuring 2m by 2.5m, refitted to a mid-range spec with half-height tiling. Floor area: 2m x 2.5m = 5m². Wall tiling to 1.2m around the room perimeter: perimeter is (2 + 2.5) x 2 = 9m, so wall tile area is 9m x 1.2m = 10.8m². Total tiled area, floor plus walls, is 5 + 10.8 = 15.8m², rounded up to 16m² to allow for cuts and breakage. At a mid-range supply-and-fit tiling rate of roughly £35 per m², that's 16 x £35 = £560. A mid-range suite — bath, basin, close-coupled WC and shower screen — typically runs £900-£1,800; take the midpoint of £1,350. Labour for a plumber and electrician over 6-7 working days at a combined day rate of around £280 comes to roughly £1,850. Add £250-£350 for waste removal, sealant, extractor fan and sundries. Total: £560 (tiling) + £1,350 (suite) + £1,850 (labour) + £300 (sundries) ≈ £4,060. This sits toward the lower end of the mid-range band in the table above because a small bathroom has less floor and wall area to tile than an average-sized one, even though labour time barely changes.

What should I know about VAT and Trade Day Rates?

Most bathroom renovation quotes from VAT-registered tradespeople and merchants include 20% VAT on both materials and labour, so a quote showing £5,000 plus VAT is actually £6,000. Smaller sole-trader plumbers and tilers below the VAT threshold (turnover under £90,000 as of the 2024/25 threshold) won't add VAT, which is one reason small local tradespeople can sometimes undercut larger fitted-bathroom companies on price even with similar skill levels. Day rates vary significantly by region and trade: a plumber in London typically charges £250-£350 a day versus £150-£220 in much of the rest of the UK, and a tiler is usually priced per square metre rather than by the day, which rewards getting an accurate tiled-area figure before you ask for quotes.