What does a London
bathroom actually cost?
Cloakroom, en-suite, family bathroom or wet room — priced by size and by finish, from the same engine that writes our estimates. Plus the rate card for everything that adds to it, and the list of what is not settled until the design is.
- Every figure on this page is produced by the same room-costing engine as our calculator and our written estimates. Nothing here is typed in by hand.
- Outer-London base rate, at the finish grade named in each row. Works and VAT are shown separately, and nothing else is added — no separate line for overheads, no separate line for contingency.
- The £/m² figure rises as the room gets smaller, because the plumbing and sanitaryware lines are per room. A cloakroom is the dearest square metre in the house.
- Sanitaryware, tiles and brassware are carried as a provisional sum against your selections. They are the line you control, and on a small bathroom they can be most of the difference between two quotes.
Four bathrooms, four scopes, four prices.
These are the works: strip-out, plumbing, tanking, plastering, tiling, electrics and the fitting. Read the per-room lines first — most of a bathroom does not scale with its floor area, which is why the cloakroom is the dearest square metre in the house and the wet room the cheapest.
| Room | Works ex VAT | VAT | Total | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloakroom / WCabout 2 m² | £4,496 | £899 | £5,395 | WC and basin, no shower and no tanking. Under the stairs or off a hallway. The cheapest wet room we build in total — and the dearest per m², because the sanitaryware and plumbing lines are per room and do not shrink when the room does. |
| En-suite shower roomabout 3.5 m² | £5,477 | £1,095 | £6,572 | Shower, WC and basin off a bedroom. Small, but it carries the full plumbing first and second fix and a tanked wet area — the two lines that do not shrink with the room. |
| Family bathroomabout 5 m² | £6,425 | £1,285 | £7,710 | Bath with a shower over, WC, basin and full-height tiling. The standard London replacement job and the one most of these searches mean. |
| Large bathroom / wet roomabout 8 m² | £10,110 | £2,022 | £12,132 | Separate walk-in shower and freestanding bath, wall-hung sanitaryware, the whole floor tanked rather than a tray. Twice the area of a family bathroom and rather more than twice the tanking. |
Works only. Sanitaryware, tiles, brassware, worktops and appliances are carried as a provisional sum against your own selections — see what is subject to final design, below. Splitting them out is the only honest way to publish a room price, because the fittings are the line you control and the one that moves most between two otherwise identical quotes.
The same bathroom, three finish grades.
Identical room, identical plumbing, identical tanking. What changes is what you stand on, touch and look at — and it is the lever most quotes never show you, because showing it invites a conversation about specification rather than price.
Ceramic tiling to the wet area, floor-standing sanitaryware, chrome brassware, shower enclosure over a tray, a radiator rather than underfloor heating.
Porcelain tiling, full-height to the wet wall, enclosure or walk-in screen, quality chrome or matt black brassware, underfloor heating, designed lighting.
Natural stone or large-format porcelain, wall-hung sanitaryware, brushed or antique brass, a fully tanked walk-in, niche detailing and scene lighting.
The same job at 5 m², three finish grades. Everything structural is identical across all three — what changes is what you touch, stand on and look at. It is the cheapest lever you have, and the one most quotes never show you.
Every line in a 5 m² family bathroom.
The actual bill of quantities for the typical job above, largest line first. The sanitaryware install dominates it, and that is the honest shape of a bathroom — it is a plumbing project with tiling on top, not a tiling project with plumbing underneath.
| Stage | Ex VAT | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanitaryware install (WC, basin, shower/bath, brassware)Sanitaryware | £3,800 | 59.1% | |
| Porcelain tiling, standard, full heightTiling | £805 | 12.5% | |
| Strip-out of existing finishesStrip-out | £425 | 6.6% | |
| HeatingHeating | £340 | 5.3% | |
| Electrical 2nd fixElectrical | £290 | 4.5% | |
| Skirting, architrave, internal doors2nd fix | £275 | 4.3% | |
| Plumbing 1st + 2nd fixPlumbing | £190 | 3.0% | |
| Skim and bonding plasterPlaster | £160 | 2.5% | |
| New plasterboard ceilingCeilings | £140 | 2.2% |
This is the same stage allocation our written estimates are built from, not a set of percentages written for a web page. Every rate above is all-in: site set-up, supervision and the risk allowance sit inside the rate rather than arriving as a separate line at the bottom, and nothing is added after this except VAT.
Every upgrade, priced, with the trade-off named.
Each figure is the same family bathroom priced twice — once with the choice and once without. Where there is a downside we have written it down, because the ones nobody mentions are the ones people regret.
| Choice | Effect inc VAT | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Natural stone instead of porcelaininstead of porcelain, standard format | +£531 | Stone is heavier, needs sealing and is cut slower. The depth is real; so is the maintenance. |
| Mosaic or herringbone settinginstead of standard format, straight set | +£821 | Almost entirely labour — the tile is cheap and the setting out is not. |
| Large-format tilesinstead of standard format | +£145 | Fewer grout lines and a calmer room. Needs a flatter substrate, which is where the cost sits. |
| Wall-hung sanitarywareinstead of floor-standing | +£912 | A concealed frame and a wall strong enough to carry it. Easier to clean under, harder to service. |
| Walk-in shower instead of an enclosureinstead of enclosure over a tray | +£912 | The floor is tanked and falls to a linear drain rather than sitting in a tray. |
| Brushed or antique brass brasswareinstead of chrome | +£1,140 | A supply-side premium on every outlet in the room, not a labour one. |
| Designed lighting schemeinstead of standard downlights | +£191 | Circuits, scenes and a drawing. Worth it in a room you use at both ends of the day. |
Each figure is the same room priced twice — once with the choice and once without — so it is the real effect at this room size, not a percentage that happens to be true of some other room.
What is always in, and what depends on your house.
These are the rates we price with, published at the unit we price them in. The first table is what every bathroom carries whether a quote itemises it or not — worth checking a cheaper quote against. The second is the part that depends on your building.
Always in the job
These are not add-ons. They are in every figure quoted above, and they are listed so you can check whether a cheaper quote has left one out.
| Item | Rate inc VAT | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing first and second fix | £5,184per room | The largest single line in any bathroom, and it barely moves with room size. |
| Tanking to the wet area | £90per m² | The membrane behind the tile. Invisible, and the reason the ceiling below stays dry. |
| Tile backer board | £42per m² | A stable substrate. Tiling straight onto plasterboard in a wet room is how it fails in year three. |
Depends on your house and your choices
Add the ones that apply. This is the part of a quote that usually arrives as a surprise, so it is published instead.
| Item | Rate inc VAT | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Standard tiling | £114per m² | Porcelain or ceramic, straight set. The baseline the deltas above are measured from. |
| Large-format tiling | £156per m² | Fewer joints, flatter substrate, slower setting out. |
| Natural stone tiling | £192per m² | Sealed on both faces before it goes on the wall. |
| Mosaic or herringbone | £252per m² | The most labour-intensive setting we do. |
| Underfloor heating | £173per m² | Plus a manifold. In a bathroom this is the upgrade people mention years later. |
| Moving the soil stack | £115per linear m | Changes where the WC can go. Decide this at design stage — it is expensive as a variation. |
| Macerator | £1,440per room | Where gravity to the stack is not available. A workaround, not a preference. |
| Shower booster pump | £691each | Where mains pressure will not run the shower you have chosen. |
| Downlights | £168each | Fire-rated and IP-rated over a wet zone. |
| Extract and new circuits | £114per point | A new run rather than a replacement on existing wiring, which is roughly half. |
These are the rates we price with, at the unit we price them in. Add the ones that apply to your house and you will land within a few thousand pounds of our written estimate before you have spoken to anybody.
What is not settled until the drawings are.
A bathroom has fewer unknowns than a structural project, but it has four that matter — and one of them is behind the tiles until the day they come off.
What is behind the tiles
Rotten joists under a leaking tray and buried lead pipework are both common in London stock and neither is visible before the tiles come off.
Sanitaryware, tiles and brassware
Carried as a provisional sum. It is the line you control completely, and on a small bathroom it can be most of the difference between two quotes.
Soil stack and WC position
Settle it on the drawing. Moving a WC after first fix is a variation, and an expensive one.
Water pressure
Decides whether the shower you have chosen will work as specified, or needs a pump or a different valve.
None of these carries a figure here, and that is deliberate. We work to a contract plus variations, every variation is priced and agreed before the work happens, and a site risk allowance is already inside the rates above. Putting an invented allowance against an unknown would make the total look more settled than it is.
How accurate is a number from a web page?
Honestly: as accurate as what you have told us. A figure from a size bracket is a starting point, not a quotation, and we would rather label it than let you find out later.
| Accuracy | What we know | Why it narrows |
|---|---|---|
| ±20%Ballpark | Project type and a size bracket | A starting point. Useful for deciding whether to keep reading. |
| ±14%Good estimate | A measured floor area | Your actual area instead of a bracket — the single biggest improvement available. |
| ±10%Sharp estimate | Postcode and finish level | Your build zone and the specification you actually want. |
| ±7%Survey-grade | Scope answered at a measured survey | Room count, drainage, structure and access seen rather than assumed. |
The rungs are cumulative — a postcode cannot sharpen a guessed floor area, because the area is the number the rate multiplies. ±7% is a statement about that set of answers, not a promise that the figure cannot move. We work to a contract plus variations, and every variation is costed and agreed with you before the work happens rather than after.
The set-scope package, £9,950.
Where the job is a like-for-like replacement, we sell it as a fixed scope rather than pricing it from scratch. It is cheaper than the bespoke figures above because the scope is capped, not because the work is thinner.
The package covers design and 3D layout, full strip-out and waste removal, all materials including tiles, sanitaryware, brassware and shower, the plumbing, electrics, tanking and waterproofing, then tiling, fitting, painting and a snag-free handover. 2–3 weeks on site, with the same 12-month workmanship warranty on second-fix fittings.
Where it stops. The moment a job needs strip-to-brick, structural work or services moved, it leaves the package and is priced as a bespoke estimate — which is what the tables above are. We tell you which one you are buying at the survey, not at the invoice. The full package menu sets out all four.
The ones people actually ask.
A measured survey is what closes the gap.
Everything above is derived from an area and a finish level. A survey replaces both with measurements, reads the pressure at the outlet, finds out where the stack actually runs, and takes the band to ±7%. It costs£550 and it is credited in full against your contract, so if you build with us it has cost you nothing.
Book the survey →Prefer to see the room first? What we build and how. Pricing a whole house rather than one room? Renovation costs.