AIBU to expect to get a new bathroom for under £10k?

getmeoutofhear · 2026-01-14T09:26:57+00:00

We are getting our old bathroom renovated, or we need to, as it's leaking and moldy and the sink is broken... but I can't believe the quotes coming back. We are not even looking at fancy fixtures and fittings, pretty ordinary, and it's a tiny bathroom with just room for a sink, a loo and a shower. I got one today which is £14k plus tiles and paint to be supplied. Last week I was told £9k for labour and £3-4k or more for materials. We are in the Southeast - but is this normal? e

CarrotVan · 14/01/2026 09:34

Are you moving any plumbing? Is the floor damaged and needing work?

get a detailed breakdown and see if there’s anything you can do yourself such as rubbish disposal or stripping out the current fittings and tiles.

SparklyGlitterballs · 14/01/2026 09:38

I'm SE too and I had my small bathroom done at the end of 2024. It was around 10K plus tiles and shower cubicle. They stripped it back to the brickwork and did an absolutely fabulous job. It took a week. I think you get what you pay for really. You can pay a lot less, but you might not get a good quality job done.

Bearella21 · 14/01/2026 09:39

We are South East too and just had our small bathroom completely redone (bath, toilet, sink) most of the quotes were around 7k for labor and then fixtures/fitting/tiles on top. It came in around 10k in the end as we did choose expensive tiles but we could have made it slightly cheaper but I think 10k is average

Youngeryoungsuddenly · 14/01/2026 09:40

My brother has just had a new bathroom, it looks amazing. It cost £8000.

BejewelledCat · 14/01/2026 09:51

Also in the South East and just had mine done. Labour costs came in at around £11k, which included some extra building work plus boxing in pipework, new ceiling, etc. Parts, including tiles, paint and flooring came to around £3k. I have spent about £1k on top on fancy fixtures (Bluetooth mirror, upgraded taps).

All of my quotes came in within about £1k of each other, including those from the big DIY sheds.

reversegear · 14/01/2026 09:54

You need to go online order all of your own fittings, and then get a plumber and tiler to quote for the job. You really don’t need to spend anymore than 5 days labour on any bathroom 2k max with items 3k-4k depending on the quality.

Just don’t use a firm.

Victorian plumbing has January offers on decent quality and simple to call and they help you order everything you need.

plumbers here south east are about £200-£250 a day, tilers the same.

Liftedmeup · 14/01/2026 09:56

My DD just had hers done in London. It’s v small, with a shower over the bath. Cost about 6.5k including fitting. That included moving the plumbing for new layout - the bath, loo, sink were moved to new places - new loo, bath, sink, shower, shower screen, wall tiles (basic white ones), bath panel, new tiled floor, and things like new plasterboard because the walls were knackered, some boxing in and removal of a radiator.

MJstarterbefore40 · 14/01/2026 09:56

Just had mine done, everything including waste removal cost £6.5k and looks amazing. I'm North West though

ContentedAlpaca · 14/01/2026 09:58

I think we paid 3k labour - 2 weeks work but he warned they're every day and worked quite short hours which was frustrating as we have only the one shower and meant two hotel stays.

We paid for everything else on top. Probably about 2.5k although the sundries really did add up!

AMiddleClassWomanOfACertainAge · 14/01/2026 10:00

West Midlands here. Just had a tiny bathroom done, cost £8.5k. We bought everything online, plumber fitted. Included tiling floor and round the bath (have shower over bath)

MotherofPufflings · 14/01/2026 10:01

reversegear · 14/01/2026 09:54

You need to go online order all of your own fittings, and then get a plumber and tiler to quote for the job. You really don’t need to spend anymore than 5 days labour on any bathroom 2k max with items 3k-4k depending on the quality.

Just don’t use a firm.

Victorian plumbing has January offers on decent quality and simple to call and they help you order everything you need.

plumbers here south east are about £200-£250 a day, tilers the same.

Agree with this. When we had an en suite replaced 3 years ago, all the "bathroom fitters" were quoting £8k labour only. We spent £5k for everything in the end by using a local plumber and his recommended tiler.

FerrisWheelsandLilacs · 14/01/2026 10:02

We re did ours for under £4k - including stripping the room back to plaster and floor joists - but we DIYed all of the plumbing and tiling (neither of us are tradies) so saved a huge amount there.

Verytall · 14/01/2026 10:04

reversegear · 14/01/2026 09:54

You need to go online order all of your own fittings, and then get a plumber and tiler to quote for the job. You really don’t need to spend anymore than 5 days labour on any bathroom 2k max with items 3k-4k depending on the quality.

Just don’t use a firm.

Victorian plumbing has January offers on decent quality and simple to call and they help you order everything you need.

plumbers here south east are about £200-£250 a day, tilers the same.

This is a really good way to rule out getting a decent plumber to do the job.

Having items supplied by the customer who doesn't know anything about renovating a bathroom means a headache for the plumber due to the likelihood of the customer buying incompatible items, not providing everything needed or buying poor quality that's difficult to work with. More importantly it shows the plumber that the customer thinks they know better, can do better and don't trust the plumber to charge fairly - would you work for someone who you don't trust will pay your invoice or who is going to try and haggle the bill?

oviraptor21 · 14/01/2026 10:05

Yep. Just buy the fittings and get a plumber.
You can get cheaper (and often just as good) fittings from the DIY stores rather than specialist bath stores.

HappyMamma2023 · 14/01/2026 10:06

Recently got a quote for 12k for new suite, tiles, labour. Didn't chose fancy fittings. We decided to put it off. NW based.

Bulbsbulbsbulbs · 14/01/2026 10:07

We got a quote for £10k for ours 5 years ago! It's still not done but really, really needs doing now.

That was new shower, moving pipes to reposition the sink, new shower and new floor. We don't have £10k unfortunately!

oviraptor21 · 14/01/2026 10:07

Verytall · 14/01/2026 10:04

This is a really good way to rule out getting a decent plumber to do the job.

Having items supplied by the customer who doesn't know anything about renovating a bathroom means a headache for the plumber due to the likelihood of the customer buying incompatible items, not providing everything needed or buying poor quality that's difficult to work with. More importantly it shows the plumber that the customer thinks they know better, can do better and don't trust the plumber to charge fairly - would you work for someone who you don't trust will pay your invoice or who is going to try and haggle the bill?

Show quote history

My plumber has been very happy to work with us on all our projects. Perhaps because he knows he will get more work from us plus good recommendations.

FartyAnimal · 14/01/2026 10:07

Hi OP. My husband used to do bathrooms (stopped a couple of years ago when we moved house) in SE - Tunbridge Wells. You should definitely be able to get a small bathroom done for around £10k, if you are not moving everything around too much. Tiling is very expensive, so a lot depends on cost of tiles and square metres being tiled. Good luck!

District66 · 14/01/2026 10:08

You can do this yourself

Irememberwhenitwasallfieldsroundhere · 14/01/2026 10:08

Verytall · 14/01/2026 10:04

This is a really good way to rule out getting a decent plumber to do the job.

Having items supplied by the customer who doesn't know anything about renovating a bathroom means a headache for the plumber due to the likelihood of the customer buying incompatible items, not providing everything needed or buying poor quality that's difficult to work with. More importantly it shows the plumber that the customer thinks they know better, can do better and don't trust the plumber to charge fairly - would you work for someone who you don't trust will pay your invoice or who is going to try and haggle the bill?

Show quote history

Disagree, we've done that on 2 bathrooms - bought our own stuff and got a plumber and tiler to do their bits.

skippy67 · 14/01/2026 10:09

District66 · 14/01/2026 10:08

You can do this yourself

😐

District66 · 14/01/2026 10:10

Verytall · 14/01/2026 10:04

This is a really good way to rule out getting a decent plumber to do the job.

Having items supplied by the customer who doesn't know anything about renovating a bathroom means a headache for the plumber due to the likelihood of the customer buying incompatible items, not providing everything needed or buying poor quality that's difficult to work with. More importantly it shows the plumber that the customer thinks they know better, can do better and don't trust the plumber to charge fairly - would you work for someone who you don't trust will pay your invoice or who is going to try and haggle the bill?

Show quote history

It’s funny you mentioned that because I asked a plumber to come in and give me a quote for a re fit including loads of stuff that I didn’t actually want
But anyway they came around gave me a quote for 7K and a list of everything that I would need to buy myself for them to fit
So some of them it would seem prefer to work that way.

aCatCalledFawkes · 14/01/2026 10:16

Verytall · 14/01/2026 10:04

This is a really good way to rule out getting a decent plumber to do the job.

Having items supplied by the customer who doesn't know anything about renovating a bathroom means a headache for the plumber due to the likelihood of the customer buying incompatible items, not providing everything needed or buying poor quality that's difficult to work with. More importantly it shows the plumber that the customer thinks they know better, can do better and don't trust the plumber to charge fairly - would you work for someone who you don't trust will pay your invoice or who is going to try and haggle the bill?

Show quote history

I agree with this. I know loads of tradesman who will turn down work like this due to customers not buying the correct fittings or good quality items, especially if something needs to be returned because it's broken or not correct and the customer expects them to cover the cost.

BigSkies2022 · 14/01/2026 10:16

London here. Just had a bathroom done - stripped back to the brickwork, walk in shower to replace manky bath, new tiled floor and walls ( I provided tiles, Mandarin Stone £450), ceiling spots, new electrical work and plumbing to put in a utility cupboard, sink and vanity, new lav, new radiator, decoration including teplacing the window and door architraves. All old stuff disposed of. It was closer to £12k than £10k and I needed to pay for parking permits on top.

It is really great, I am very happy with it and I’ve been able to get a better rental price as a consequence. But yeah, it was more than I expected, by about 20 per cent.

BigSkies2022 · 14/01/2026 10:19

And yes, agree with letting the fitter exercise their own judgment on fixtures. I wanted a certain tile , fitter happy with my choice. And I asked for a Matt rather than a gloss finish on the vanity unit, but the hat aside, trusted my fitter to choose well.