Bathroom renovation-how long can you live without running water?

[Kat256M]

Ok so maybe (I hope!) I misunderstood but when a bathroom renovation takes weeks, do you have to shut running water completely? For the whole time? I can't believe people would show up for work without taking a shower and dirty clothes...weeks!!

Can you turn on again in the evenings? Or do it one bathroom at a time? It seems hell otherwise! I am talking about a 2 bathroom flat in a big block of flats.

No you don’t have to wait too long without it but it may be on/ off at times.
with mine I think on day 1 it was off for quite a while for the plumber to disconnect the suite. Then… I assume he put some kind of stopper over the pipework to sort of seal it all before we could turn the water supply back on. Then all the tiling work, plastering, etc, took a few days including waiting for other trades’ availability. Then on the last day water back off for a while for plumber to refit the new suite.

mine was all replaced in the same position so I suppose it may take a little longer is things are being repositioned.

We just had our bathroom done. We only have the one bathroom/toilet but that's not too unusual and the plumber was used to managing those situations. We had running water most of the time and a functioning toilet by the end of every day.

@ViaRia01 @ProfYaffle That is good to know!! How long did it take for it to be completed give or take?

I have a friend who did hers recently and they were without a shower for 6 weeks!! I don't understand why...it is a house. They had to use their inlaws's shower but we have no family/close friends around. Someone from a neighbourhood group also said that I should get a gym membership to shower there. I really don't want to do that!

Mine just took 3 weeks but water was only off for short periods. We used downstairs toilet and washed in the sink. They got the bath back in before 2 weeks was up so we had somewhere to wash.

You can stop the water supply in a specific bathroom? So maybe we can just do the family bathroom (and use the ensuite)? That would be best case scenario...

If you've got another bathroom then there shouldn't be a problem at all. I don't think our water was turned off at all when we had our bathrooms done - we've had 3 bathrooms done in 4 years - they just isolate the individual pipework to each sink/toilet/shower. If they can't do that they will turn the water off briefly whilst they cap of the individual supply. Your other bathroom should remain fully functioning throughout.

My son had a new shower room put in earlier in the month. It took 4 days and he moved back into our house whilst it was completed.

Yes you can definitely stop the water for a specific bathroom.

Even in flats (not houses)? Oh that is great news!

You can do whatever you want if you're willing to pay for it.

You can make your plumbing isolate every individual appliance, or a group of appliances, or a whole bathroom (this is usually what I do when plumbing a new bathroom). Worst case, if your house is not currently set up for it, is you have to cut off the water for a couple of hours while they put in a stopcock for the other bathroom (and pay for that work). It's not a big deal.