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Original poster

Is it normal for bathroom renovations to cost this much?!

33 replies

Keepthepeace82 · 10/03/2022 13:55

I might be completely out of the loop here, so please tell me if I'm being unrealistic.

We've had a quote of £16,500 Inc VAT to renovate our small wetroom ensuite and main bathroom. It's labour and materials but doesn't include bath/shower toilet etc. Based just outside of London in Hertfordshire.

Cost includes Ensuite: stripping everything back, re-tiling, concealed shower, widening the ensuite entrance and installing a door.

Main bathroom: same as the above (except the door) and changing the layout to include a separate bath and shower.

Is this a decent price or on the expensive side?

OP posts:
patritus · 10/03/2022 14:00

Neighbour and I both had main bathrooms completely redone last summer.

We went to swanky bathroom company and cost 8k all in.
Neighbour had local plumber who specialises in bathrooms and spent 6.5k in total.
Central Scotland

TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo · 10/03/2022 14:07

Oh wow that is a lot!

We've got someone starting on our en-suite next week. It's quite small but needs to be made disability friendly for me after 14 years of NOT being disabled!!!

We are having everything ripped out right down to the tiles and knocking down a stupid dividing wall. We have bought all materials and spent approx £1500. The fitter is charging us £2700 for a weeks labour.

Alexalee · 10/03/2022 14:48

16500 for 2 bathrooms would be ok if it includes all materials, otherwise its on the high side

vampirewellness · 10/03/2022 14:56

We had our bathroom completely gutted and redone recently, £8k incl labour and new suite.

user1493494961 · 10/03/2022 15:02

Expensive, get more quotes.

Nofalseeconomy · 10/03/2022 15:12

Sadly this is in line with what we are paying to renovate our ground floor loo/utility room: moving the partition wall, lots of tiling and re wiring, a quartz worktop I fell for before pricing it, a fair amount of storage, nice but not extremely luxurious fixtures etc. About £10K all in

We went with a well regarded firm in our village. Doing the upstairs bathrooms about 5 yrs ago price was a big consideration and it showed in the results. The village has gone upmarket recently which has probably affected the price but friends around the country also say that Brexit, shipping problems and inflation have caused price surges everywhere.

Forgetaboutme · 10/03/2022 15:25

Seems high to me. I just got my ensuite completely refit, a hot water tank removed and a new boiler put in for 8.4k. That was fully tiled and included all bathroom stuff and shower etc. The one that was ripped out was disposed of and they made changes to the plumbing positioning too.

Jonny1265 · 10/03/2022 15:31

Sounds very high. Mine came in at 6.5k and that included Venetian plastering the whole room. Large shower with sink wc, no bath

LuluBlakey1 · 10/03/2022 15:34

@Jonny1265

Sounds very high. Mine came in at 6.5k and that included Venetian plastering the whole room. Large shower with sink wc, no bath
Does it cost more or less if a Venetian does the plastering?
Sidge · 10/03/2022 15:37

I think some posters are missing that this is a quote for 2 bathrooms - an en-suite, as well as a main bathroom.

Having said that I think it’s expensive for labour and materials not including the sanitary ware. For that price I’d want to be including the bath, sink, loos, showers, tiles, flooring and lighting!

Original poster
Keepthepeace82 · 10/03/2022 16:28

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was surprised it was that much, even with all the price increases because of Brexit, pandemic etc. Like @Sidge says, if it was all in, I'd go for it but once we buy tiles and sanitaryware it would likely be over £20K. What also surprised me was that the ensuite was only approx £1200 less than the main bathroom even though its a 1/5th of the size! I've arranged for some more quotes so it'll be interesting to see whether they are a similar price point.

OP posts:
Caspianberg · 10/03/2022 16:33

I think it will be higher as your moving lots of pipe work to have things moved around, sunken shower requires deeper floor work, and your having doorways widened and door.

As an example, just the door on our bathroom 3 years ago was nearly £1000. That’s just door, not the work to extend doorway.

We have just had kitchen sink piping moved, about 1m and radiator about 1m. The mess and work involved was a lot. Labour and materials just for that was around £2000

Blossom64265 · 10/03/2022 16:34

We just had work done on half of our bathroom. Admittedly it was complicated, but the prices were astounding. We got multiple quotes and they were all relatively consistent even though there were different suggestions for exactly how they might do the work. Prices for remodeling have skyrocketed. If ours had not been an essential repair, there is no way we would have proceeded right now.

patritus · 10/03/2022 16:36

When you're getting more quotes @Keepthepeace82 just check the timescale when they can actually do the work!
Because of the lockdowns the plumbers round here ended up with backlog of non-urgent work like new bathrooms so last year there was quite a wait. May be bit better now

Original poster
Keepthepeace82 · 11/03/2022 11:20

Well the original quote is willing to negotiate. Not a huge amount of movement on the price (he'll take it down to £15k) but he will also square off rounded archways in the main bedroom and kitchen and do some work on our chimney breast in the kitchen to thin it down. - we were always planning on doing this but at a later stage. Also he'll do a 3 year guarantee against any leaks etc. in the bathrooms.

OP posts:
Summersdreaming · 11/03/2022 12:01

@Caspianberg

I think it will be higher as your moving lots of pipe work to have things moved around, sunken shower requires deeper floor work, and your having doorways widened and door.

As an example, just the door on our bathroom 3 years ago was nearly £1000. That’s just door, not the work to extend doorway.

We have just had kitchen sink piping moved, about 1m and radiator about 1m. The mess and work involved was a lot. Labour and materials just for that was around £2000

£1000 for an internal door?! Crikey is it a super special one?
Caspianberg · 11/03/2022 12:22

@Summersdreaming - no, just a solid wood standard door that was made to measure. It was a fairly standard price when we received 3 different quotes

iwantmyownicecreamvan · 11/03/2022 13:08

Bathroom and downstairs cloakroom redone this year. Shower over bath, toilet, washbasin and wall cabinet in both. Walls fully tiled and floors done in those clip together laminate tiles. UPVC ceilings plus spotlights in both. £12.5k in the NW of England.

Original poster
Keepthepeace82 · 11/03/2022 14:03

[quote Caspianberg]@Summersdreaming - no, just a solid wood standard door that was made to measure. It was a fairly standard price when we received 3 different quotes[/quote]
Wow that's surprising! Maybe we should hold off on replacing the internal doors in our house. Thanks for the info though, it's useful to get an idea about associated costs so we can prepare ourselves.

OP posts:
Original poster
Keepthepeace82 · 11/03/2022 14:06

@iwantmyownicecreamvan thanks for the response. Was that including all the sanitaryware?

OP posts:
iwantmyownicecreamvan · 11/03/2022 14:13

Yes, that was including everything - but I don't know if I was clear, it was for a bathroom (toilet/bath + shower + screen/washbasin unit/electrified wall cabinet/ tiles) and cloakroom (toilet/washbasin unit/cabinet/tiles).
Had to buy toilet roll holder etc on top.

Jonny1265 · 11/03/2022 14:24

@Caspianberg

I think it will be higher as your moving lots of pipe work to have things moved around, sunken shower requires deeper floor work, and your having doorways widened and door.

As an example, just the door on our bathroom 3 years ago was nearly £1000. That’s just door, not the work to extend doorway.

We have just had kitchen sink piping moved, about 1m and radiator about 1m. The mess and work involved was a lot. Labour and materials just for that was around £2000

That's pretty steep for a door. I replaced all of mine (15) with solid oak ones and heavy duty stainless steel fittings and they came in at £400 each
Caspianberg · 11/03/2022 14:34

@Keepthepeace82 - our doors are brand ‘Dana’. Which is a local brand to where we live.
I was a bit apprehensive tbh as we needed several doors plus a large double door. But now we have I wouldn’t every compromise on cheaper doors. They close silently and make the rooms almost soundproof.

We stayed in an air B and B in uk again a few months back and it had like £50 basic doors which meant you could hear everything and they basically banged shut. If baby Ds was asleep he would wake from toilet flushing or kettle boiling etc. They are cheaper if your going with white also, we had to try and match other doors already in house.

Caspianberg · 11/03/2022 14:37

That was door and door frame btw, not just door

AwayInMyMind · 11/03/2022 14:38

@Keepthepeace82 drop me a message