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How much should I budget for a new bathroom?

36 replies

fruitstick · 06/09/2023 17:09

Our family bathroom needs updating.

We have an en suite so it's really only DS and guests that use it.

I don't have any money at the moment so need to save for it. What should I be aiming for? At the moment it has a bath, electric shower over the bath, toilet and sink, and heated towel rail. It's about 3m square.

I don't think any of the plumbing will need moving. We could spend huge amounts moving things about but would rather not. To have a mixer shower I think we would need a new tank in the loft and bigger hot water tank, so happy to stick with electric. I'd like built in units with plenty of storage, which we don't have at the moment.

I have looked at sites etc but don't want to waste tradespeople's time getting them to come round for quotes as it's a year or so away anyway (although they are probably booked up anyway!)

What should I put on my totaliser?

OP posts:
Strawberryboost · 06/09/2023 17:12

Yep difficult to answer

I spent £8k. 5 years ago. South east.

toilet stayed. No moving anything around.
new bath, over bath shower, basin and and mirror and Amtico floor.

Strawberryboost · 06/09/2023 17:12

You won’t be wasting their time. Your gathering quotes to get an idea of how much to budget for

WasteOfPaint · 06/09/2023 17:25

I spent £7k this year for a small bathroom with no layout changes, nothing high end but not the absolute cheapest items either. South West.

OhhhhhhhhBiscuits · 06/09/2023 17:26

We spent 6k on fitting and materials in 2021. That was us on a strict budget and doing all the shopping around. We didn't move anything around as that's when it starts to get pricey.

CatsOnTheChair · 06/09/2023 17:27

From our experience ths year, If you get it project managed by someone, who will sort all the trades, 10k.
If you buy the stuff yourself when a sale is on, and find your own fitter, tiler etc, several grand cheaper.

BringOnSummerHolidays · 06/09/2023 17:29

I spent just under £10k for a small bathroom with no layout changes. This includes new bath, shower, radiator towel rail, built in toilet, sink and storage units along one wall, full wall and floor tiling, ceiling lights and fan and replaster, and floor. The price also includes all the tiles.

Anxioys · 06/09/2023 17:30

Last year in London, 9k, not moving anything, complete renovation with adjustment for water pressure and tiling the whole room: Materials cost was steep even for the basics but all project managed for me.

frenchfancy81 · 06/09/2023 17:30

Ours was £15k last summer...

Pootle40 · 06/09/2023 17:30

We are paying 12.5k in the next few weeks. Decent quality fittings and tiles. Moving the toilet. That's in Scotland. We paid 6.5k for en suite 5 years. Quality ok but this is higher end.

BringOnSummerHolidays · 06/09/2023 17:30

@CatsOnTheChair is right about the project management aspect. Ours is project managed and the guy arranged all the plumber, tiler, carpenter, plasterer and decorator.

BringOnSummerHolidays · 06/09/2023 17:31

Oh and electrician too.

MinnieMouse0 · 06/09/2023 17:31

I was quoted between £5k - £6k for a smaller bathroom makeover in 2021. I guess you’d be at least £8k now.

Pootle40 · 06/09/2023 17:32

I should say I have similarly seen 'all in one package' bathrooms for 6.5k here so depends what quality you want to and other finishes. We will have some LED lighting in shower area and around bath....

Spillo · 06/09/2023 17:32

CatsOnTheChair · 06/09/2023 17:27

From our experience ths year, If you get it project managed by someone, who will sort all the trades, 10k.
If you buy the stuff yourself when a sale is on, and find your own fitter, tiler etc, several grand cheaper.

Where did you find a project manager? I would like to do this but wouldn't know where to start looking.

BringOnSummerHolidays · 06/09/2023 17:33

@Spillo ours is a plumber who does full bathroom renovation. See if you know a neighbour or school mum who has done this recently or ask on your neighbourhood facebook pages.

housethatbuiltme · 06/09/2023 18:03

I was looking at a new bathroom for our new house. Decide just to rip out the tiles (they're manky), have it all skimmed and just paint it. Then fit new flooring, fit a new fancy shower (the showers awful and leaky) and possibly underfloor heating.

The bath, toilet and sink are perfectly nice so I'm just going to reuse them.

Its the tiles that make the biggest difference. They where going to cost a FORTUNE to replace and wall to wall tiles don't even look that nice IMO so skipping them made a huge difference to price.

Overall looking at approx. £3k (would have been more like £5k with new bath/toilet/sink).

LindaDawn · 06/09/2023 18:13

Had a new good sized bathroom almost 3 years ago in SE £10k. Did not move anything, didn’t replace the bath. Porcelanosa tiles on all walls and a cheaper version of amtico flooring. Got a bathroom company in who project managed it all.

SnapdragonToadflax · 06/09/2023 18:22

We were quoted between 7k and 10k (Wickes being the highest quote) this time last year for a small bathroom, mid-range. Definitely much cheaper to source everything yourself but obviously more stressful. I begrudged paying the extra to Wickes for what I suspected were not great quality products, and we still haven't got it done 🤦 because I don't have time to do the research to find what I should be buying.

If anyone knows of a good bathroom project manager in Essex...

unsync · 06/09/2023 18:25

Full strip out and rebuild and moving everything around - £17k. Building regs now mean you need extraction, even if you have a window.

Silkiebunny · 06/09/2023 18:28

Ours was just over 6k in 2020 with me sourcing everything and designing. But prices for work we are doing now have gone up sharply since 2020, some of our quotes are coming in 50% higher though at least we can get people now. No plumbing moved.

Ariela · 06/09/2023 18:33

Do you actually need to replace the bath toilet and washbasin? My last house the bath was damaged, the rest was OK so I bought just the bath and replaced the tiling along the wall the bath was on, re-did the grouting behind the sink, new flooring, cupboards and blind

fruitstick · 06/09/2023 19:51

Thanks everyone. I was hoping for £5k but maybe I'll need to save a bit more.

The toilet and sink are fine, but I would rather have built in storage as it's a fairly small room and I hate everything being on display.

DS has a lot of skincare!

I shall investigate.

OP posts:
Winederlust · 06/09/2023 19:57

We had ours done November last year. It was around £8k total for everything, mid-range tiles and sanitary ware. NE England.

Houseplantmad · 06/09/2023 20:22

We’ve just spent £9k on a refurb. of a fairly small bathroom. Nothing fancy and just a small amount of plumbing moved. Tiles from Wickes etc. so nothing spendy.

harriethoyle · 06/09/2023 20:24

8k this summer, north east. Nothing moved but included tiling and flooring