Bathroom Renovation - seeking advice

[Bananasinpyjamass]

We are planning on renovating our upstairs bathroom. Currently have a separate toilet room/bathroom but want to knock this through and create a larger bathroom to be able to fit in separate bath and shower.

We had a Wickes design visit this week who has quoted ~12k for full renovation cost (dependent on what appliances we choose which could drive cost up.) However I have seen a lot of negative view online about Wickes installation, and that it can be much cheaper to buy appliances and arrange our own installation.

I just wanted to ask what people would recommend. I would like to keep the work to below £10k as £12k seems an insane amount to spend on a bathroom (could get a second hand car and a decent holiday for that price). We are in Nottingham area. Should we go it alone with separate buying appliances and hiring an installer (risking getting a poor tradesman as we don't know any reliable ones) or do we go with Wickes and pay more for potentially also a less than great experience?

Check the separating wall isn’t structural.If it’s brick or block it may be. You can do this yourself by checking the run of joists in the roof or getting in a structural surveyor to have a look if you’re unsure how
( basically if the joists run at 90drgrees to the wall it may be structural. If the run is the same direction it won’t )
Then employ a plumber, plasterer and tiler separately
These companies that do everything charge more

The wall is definitely not structural. And thank you for the advice. I am thinking of cost, value, reliability and time and wondering whether people had a better experience going it alone or using a design and installation company. I wonder how much additional stress it would be to do it myself (as in source and hire installers), but some make it seem quite simple.

Also, has anyone used B&Q design and installation service?

I’m an architect and never employ one company to do a small job like this
Even full house renovations I’d employ separately
It’s not time consuming and you have more control over what they do. No middle men

There are levels between going for a big national, and getting all trades in separately. Why not look for a local bathroom tradesman? They will have the links to coordinate all the stages (which yes, you will pay more for) rather than trying to project manage ut all yourself?

I did what *IceIceSlippyIce *describes and it was about £7k. I bought the appliances but the main contractor arranged the individual trades to do the work. I would do the same again.

We had a complete bathroom renovation in August 2025. Our quotes for fitting only ranged from £3,500- 12,000. It was a nightmare finding people and they didn’t seem to understand I didn’t want LVT, I wanted tiles on the floor. Neither did I want pipework showing.
Eventually I went with a Polish guy I found on Check- a- trade( I can hear groans) he was fantastic and our bathroom is wonderful.
He assured me any problems could be overcome and that it might just cost a bit more. In total we paid him £5,000 odd. We bought everything from Plumbworld. Would highly recommend them. Our guy was very impressed with the quality.
I got B&Q to design the room for free and used those plans.
Good luck..

Wanted to edit but couldn’t. Just wanted to make it clear it was £5,000 excluding the sanitaryware, vanity units, tiling and towel rail.
Also our guy fitted everything but electrics but he used an electrician he gets to do electrical work.
Ask lots of questions.

If you find a decent bathroom fitter they will likely order for you or advise on what to buy. Id never go via such a big company.

I agree with PPs - find a good local builder and they will likely have regular reliable trades people they use for the specialist areas such as electrics. A small builder will often recommend suppliers for appliances as well and may suggest you pay suppliers direct as it can be cheaper unless they get a hefty trade discount.

I am in a similar situation and have been horrified by the proposed costs - so far £5k-7.5k for a shower room which is 1.3m x 2.6m! On top I have to buy the fttings and sanitaryware.

I thought I was being clever and shopped around on end of line items and sales to keep the cost of the fittings down but I am still struggling with the proposed fitting costs.

The £7.5k guy comes highly recommended but when I asked how I could get the price down he said he could do it for £5k if I organised the plastering... which is a ridiculous sum for that work and makes me wonder how inflated the rest of his price is... it looks like I will have to get some help from my friendly plumber and do a lot DIY (which I was hoping to avoid due to health problems and other big jobs which need doing).

Anyway in summary, what I wish I had done was find a well respected local & independent bathroom shop to supply the fittings. This would cost a bit more than my end of line items, but they seem to have arrangements with good bathroom fitters. But I think that might be about the same as Wickes/B&Q but hopefully with a more personal service. Too late I got a recommendation via a local Facebook group. So take your time and take references would be my suggestion. good luck

I did this a couple of years ago. Removed the wall between toilet and bathroom, replastered, etc, and fitted a new toilet (same location) , bath tub (same location), sink and shower (different locations in the room). Wickes quoted around £10k as far as I remember. A local company wirh good reviews quoted £12k.
In the end I risked it and chose someone off one of those websites where you find tradesmen. He was a plumber and worked with other tradesmen so he organised the work. Work involved the plumber, a handyman, an electrician, 2 plasterers, 2 tilers. Took just under a couple of weeks (allowing time for the plaster to dry etc). Cost of the work was around £5.5k, wirh units and all the materials it reached around £8.5k.
Im in south London.
I think I got VERY lucky as every tradesman was very good, but I have friends who have horror stories.

I still wouldn’t go with Wickes because they use sub-contractors who might or might not be good. The only protection you’ll have is that wickes will send someone else to fix things if the sub-contractors mess up. I took the risk as I always thought that I wouldn’t pay until each stage of the work was complete, so if, for example, the plasterers messed up, I wasn’t going to pay them but pay someone else instead to fix things.

I’ll try to attach a photo

That's a lovely bathroom @gabitule

That is a gorgeous bathroom, @Gabitule. Thank you for sharing your stories and advice, everyone. It sounds like there is a risk either way, but I will do my research on local tradies before committing to Wickes.

Have a look for a local specialist bathroom company that sell bathroom items and offer installation. Your local Facebook may help in selecting them but just because someone says they are great might just be they have lower standards than you. Check their photos etc of their work.

Why I am suggesting this is because if anything goes wrong you have a physical building you can go to and complain rather than a person at the end of a phone who can just block you or never get back to you.

You only have to go on DIYUK on Reddit where people post "professional" tradie work and ask for opinions to know that anyone can call themselves a fitter.

Personally we just went down the DIY route, researched a lot of YouTube videos because professionals post their work too and either do the whole thing or do as much as we can, ie wall removal stuff but hired a plasterer.

I’m just hai g a bathroom finished today…£2000 for all the items (steel bath, shower/sink/loo), including the wall panels which were £700
im paying the fitter £2k so £4 k cost total
im not in the SE (Yorkshire).

@Gabitule Who was the plumber that did your bathroom? I'm currently in search for someone to renovate ours in South London and looking to avoid the big companies! It looks like they did a really good job :)

I don’t think he is doing bathroom refurbs anymore. He found paid employment just as he was finishing my bathroom as he found it too stressful trying to organise/ sub-contract workmen when he took on bigger jobs.