New bathroom cost: a room-by-room breakdown
Fitted 2026 prices for cloakrooms, family bathrooms and en suites, what fitting only costs, fitter day rates by region, and the extras a bathroom quote can leave out.
A new bathroom costs £4,500 to £11,000 fitted in 2026 for a standard UK bathroom with a new suite, tiling and labour. A budget swap in the same layout can come in at £2,000, and a fully managed renovation typically comes to about £15,700 including VAT. We price bathrooms by specification and by room, fitting only, day rates by region, the extras quotes leave out, and the rules in each nation.
New bathroom cost by specification
These are fitted prices for a standard bathroom: the suite, tiles, plumbing, electrics and the fitter's labour. The tier depends on the fittings you choose and on how much of the plumbing changes.
| Tier | Fitted price | What it includes | Fitting time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | £2,000 – £4,500 | Close-coupled toilet, pedestal basin and acrylic bath; ceramic tiles at £10 – £20 per m²; plumbing kept where it is | 5 – 7 working days |
| Standard | £4,500 – £9,000 | Wall-hung toilet, vanity basin unit, P-shaped or shower bath; porcelain tiles at £25 – £40 per m²; some plumbing moved | 7 – 10 working days |
| Premium | £10,000 – £20,000+ | Freestanding stone bath, rimless toilet, sensor taps; natural stone or microcement; plumbing repositioned; underfloor heating | 10 – 14+ working days |
Check whether a quote includes VAT before comparing it with another. A £6,000 price before VAT is £7,200 with it, so two quotes for the same room can sit £1,200 apart on VAT alone.
A fully managed bathroom renovation
A renovation company that strips the room back to the walls and floor and rebuilds it is pricing a bigger job. A full project like that typically costs about £15,700 including VAT, the middle half of projects fall between £13,700 and £20,000, and the top 10% pass £25,000.
That price covers the suite, shower, tiling, flooring, waterproofing, plumbing, electrics and labour. The work is the bigger share: about 63% goes on plumbing, tiling, electrics, waterproofing and plastering, and 37% on the materials. A new kitchen runs the other way, with materials taking 57%.
When the bathroom is one room in a whole-house renovation, the skip, the rewire and the consumer unit are shared with the rest of the house, so those lines stop being bathroom costs.
New bathroom cost by room
Room size moves the price less than the layout does, because the same trades visit a cloakroom and a family bathroom. What changes is the tiled area, the number of fittings and the days on site.
| Room | Fitted price | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Cloakroom (toilet and basin) | £1,500 – £3,000 | 3 – 5 days |
| Family bathroom | £5,000 – £10,000 | 6 – 10 days |
| Large en suite | From £12,000 | 10 – 15+ days |
| En suite built in a loft conversion | £5,000 – £12,000 | Built with the loft |
An average UK bathroom has about 4.8 m² of floor, and a new one that size comes to around £7,000 with materials, fittings and labour. A loft en suite sits at the top of its range when the soil stack has to be extended up to reach it.
Can you get a new bathroom for £5,000?
Yes, if the layout stays as it is, the suite is a budget one and the fitter works outside London. A basic white suite, plumbing in the same places, a new fan and lights, and 5 to 7 days of labour sit inside £5,000 with room left for tiles.
What £5,000 does not cover is a layout change, a wet room, or a full strip-out with a new floor and fresh plaster. Those belong in the standard tier or above.
Bathroom fitting cost if you supply the suite
Fitting only costs £1,800 to £4,000 for a full bathroom, for the labour alone. Labour is 45% to 60% of a standard refit, so it is the part of the quote that moves most from one fitter to the next.
| Trade | Labour price |
|---|---|
| General fitting | £1,000 – £1,800 |
| Plumbing | £500 – £1,200 |
| Tiling | £600 – £1,500 |
| Electrical work | £250 – £500 |
| Joinery and panel fitting | £200 – £400 |
Tiling is the largest single item inside the labour and the slowest stage, because in a small room only one trade can work at a time. A tiler charges about £50 per m² for labour, or £150 to £350 a day, so tiling costs rise with every square metre of wall you cover.
For a smaller job, fitters price by the fitting. These are labour prices, with the parts bought separately.
| Job | Labour price |
|---|---|
| Whole suite (toilet, bath and basin) | £350 – £1,100 |
| Toilet | £150 – £300 |
| Basin | £120 – £250 |
| Bath | £200 – £400 |
| Shower | £250 – £750 |
| Shower and enclosure together | £600 – £1,550 |
| Taps, per pair | £50 – £150 |
| Heated towel rail | £120 – £450 |
| Extractor fan | £60 – £300 |
Supplying your own suite is common in bathrooms, because toilets, basins and baths are easy to buy well. The fitter then prices labour, sundries and anything the room needs, and you carry the risk on the parts.
Fitting through Wickes
Wickes sells bathroom fitting through its own installation service. It starts with a free design consultation, then a home survey and an itemised, fixed-price quote, and the work goes to Wickes-approved installers.
The service covers taking out the old bathroom, plumbing, electrics, tiling, plastering and waste. The installation page lists no fitting prices, so the way to judge the quote is to set its labour lines against the £1,800 to £4,000 a full bathroom's labour usually costs.
Bathroom fitter day rates by region
A bathroom fitter's day rate runs from £180 in the North to £350 in London, and the national average is about £245. Multi-skilled fitters who plumb, tile and wire charge 15% to 25% more than the rates below.
| Region | Day rate |
|---|---|
| North West, North East and Yorkshire | £180 – £220 |
| Midlands, Wales and South West | £200 – £275 |
| South East, not London | £250 – £300 |
| Greater London | £300 – £350 |
Labour is most of the bill, so the region shows in the total. London adds 10% to 20% to a bathroom, and a fully managed bathroom in London typically comes to about £17,200 including VAT, against about £15,700 for the UK as a whole.
Scotland and Wales price closer to the North West and the Midlands than to the South East. Across whole-house renovations, Scotland runs £1,300 to £2,100 per m² and Wales £1,250 to £2,000, against £2,000 to £2,800 in London and the South East.
Bathroom materials: what each item costs
Materials for a whole bathroom cost £2,000 to £6,000. The bath or shower is the line with the widest spread, and tiles come second.
| Item | Price range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Toilet | £100 – £500 | Close-coupled at the low end, wall-hung and rimless higher |
| Basin and vanity unit | £150 – £600 | Pedestal basin at the low end |
| Bath | £200 – £1,500 | Acrylic £200 – £400, freestanding £800 – £1,500 |
| Shower enclosure | £300 – £900 | Enclosure only, before fitting |
| Taps and brassware | £100 – £400 | Basin, bath and shower taps |
| Tiles and wall finishes | £200 – £1,200 | Ceramic from £10 per m², natural stone or large format about £60 per m² |
| Flooring | £150 – £500 | Tiles or vinyl for the whole floor |
| Lighting and electricals | £100 – £300 | Fittings only |
| Heating | £100 – £300 | Towel rail or radiator |
| Accessories and finishing | £100 – £400 | Mirror, holders and trims |
What pushes a bathroom quote up
Moving the toilet is the biggest single variable, because the soil pipe has to fall all the way to the stack. Keeping every fitting where it is cuts the plumbing cost by up to 35%.
The other lines that push a quote up:
- Waterproofing. A tiled shower area needs tanking behind the tiles, not only grout. A quote without it is cheaper because it is missing a layer.
- What is behind the walls. Rotten floorboards under a leaking bath, old lead or steel pipework and a boxed-in soil stack only show once the room is stripped. Water damage repairs to joists and damp run £800 to £2,000.
- A wet room. Tanking the whole floor, a floor former and the drainage cost more than dropping in a shower tray, and a full renovation runs 3 to 5 weeks instead of 2 to 3.
- Heat under the floor. Electric underfloor heating adds £60 to £85 per m² installed.
- Structural changes. Moving a wall, a door or a ceiling adds £1,500 to £3,000.
- Specification. A freestanding stone bath and rimless toilet cost £3,000 to £6,000 as a suite, against £400 to £800 for a budget suite.
Extras a bathroom quote can leave out
A fitter's quote prices the room as it looks. These are the lines that appear once it is stripped, or that some quotes leave to you. The prices include VAT.
| Extra | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Skip and waste removal | £919 | £490 – £1,469 |
| Rewiring | £1,224 | £864 – £1,836 |
| Floor levelling or screed | £1,224 | £681 – £2,275 |
| Asbestos survey or removal | £1,346 | £1,003 – £1,814 |
| Consumer unit upgrade | £1,728 | £1,102 – £2,570 |
| Damp treatment or tanking | £2,203 | £1,164 – £3,060 |
| Replastering | £2,439 | £1,469 – £3,293 |
Hold 10% to 15% of the budget back as contingency, separate from the quote. In an older house, ask about an asbestos survey and the state of the consumer unit before work starts, since each adds more than £1,000 once it turns up.
How long a new bathroom takes
A like-for-like family bathroom takes 6 to 10 working days to fit. A full renovation takes 2 to 3 weeks on site, because only one trade can work in a bathroom at a time and each waits for the last to finish.
| Job | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Cloakroom or small en suite | 3 – 5 days |
| Standard family bathroom | 6 – 10 days |
| Large bathroom or layout change | 10 – 15+ days |
| Full renovation, same layout | 2 – 3 weeks |
| Full renovation with a layout change or wet room | 3 – 5 weeks |
A full refit usually runs in this order:
- The old suite, tiles and flooring come out, and the water is capped.
- The plumber and electrician run new pipes and cables while the walls are open.
- Walls are boarded or plastered, and the shower area is tanked.
- The tiler does the walls and floor, the longest single stage.
- The suite, taps, fan, lights and towel rail go in, and everything is sealed.
How to keep a new bathroom's cost down
- Keep the toilet where it is. Staying in the same layout avoids £1,400 to £2,800 of extra plumbing, before the floor and the boxing in.
- Tile to half height. Half-height tiling cuts the tile bill by 30% to 50% against floor to ceiling on every wall.
- Pick larger tiles. Large-format tiles cover the wall faster and cost less to lay per m².
- Buy the suite yourself. Buying fittings where they are cheapest, rather than as a package, cuts the materials bill by 10% to 25%.
- Compare like with like. Give every fitter the same drawing and the same fittings list, so the gap between quotes is labour and not scope.
- Spend to the street. A tired bathroom gives a buyer a reason to offer less, but over-specifying for the street rarely returns the money.
Building regulations for a new bathroom
In England, replacing a bath, toilet, basin or sink needs no approval. Building regulations approval is needed to install a bathroom that involves new plumbing and to change electrics near a bath or shower, under gov.uk's approval rules.
A fitter or electrician in a competent person scheme can self-certify that work and tell the council for you, so you do not apply to building control yourself. The electrical zones in a bathroom decide which fittings can go where around the bath and the shower.
Wales runs its own building regulations. Refitting a bathroom with new fittings does not generally need approval there, but drainage or electrical work in the refit may, and a bathroom in a room that never had one is likely to need approval for ventilation, drainage, structure, electrics and fire safety, according to Welsh Government guidance.
In Scotland, a new bathroom has to meet the Scottish building standards, but minor work such as fitting one might not need a building warrant. A warrant from the council comes into play when the work changes the home, such as adding floor space.
Northern Ireland has its own building regulations and a separate building control system. Check with building control there before moving plumbing or adding a bathroom where there was none.
VAT on a new bathroom
Bathroom work on a lived-in home carries VAT at 20% anywhere in the UK, on the labour and on the materials the fitter supplies. Fittings you buy yourself carry 20% at the till.
Two cases pay less. A home that has not been lived in for the 2 years before work starts takes the 5% rate, so £10,000 of work carries £500 of VAT instead of £2,000. If you are disabled or have a long-term illness, you pay no VAT on building work such as installing a toilet, or on products designed or adapted for you and their installation, once you confirm your eligibility in writing.
Common questions
What is the average cost of putting in a new bathroom?
A standard new bathroom costs £4,500 to £11,000 fitted in 2026, and an average 4.8 m² bathroom comes to about £7,000 with materials and labour. A fully managed renovation with new waterproofing, flooring and electrics typically costs about £15,700 including VAT. London runs 10% to 20% higher.
Can I get a new bathroom for 5k?
A budget bathroom fits inside £5,000 if the toilet, basin and bath stay where they are and the fitter works outside London. A basic suite, same-layout plumbing, a fan, lights and 5 to 7 days of labour come to £2,200 to £4,250 before tiles and waste. Moving the toilet, a wet room or a full strip-out takes the job past it.
How much do Wickes charge to fit a bathroom?
Wickes lists no fitting price on its installation page and quotes a fixed, itemised price after a free design consultation and a home survey. The work goes to Wickes-approved installers and covers removal of the old bathroom, plumbing, electrics, tiling, plastering and waste. Set its labour lines against the £1,800 to £4,000 a full bathroom's labour usually costs.
How much does it cost to fit a bathroom if I buy the suite?
Fitting a full bathroom with a suite you supply costs £1,800 to £4,000 in labour in 2026. Fitting the toilet, bath and basin alone costs £350 to £1,100, and a shower with its enclosure £600 to £1,550. Day rates run from £180 in the North to £350 in London.
How much does a new bathroom with a shower cost?
Fitting a shower costs £250 to £750 in labour, and a shower enclosure costs £300 to £900 to buy. In a fully managed London renovation including VAT, a shower-only room typically costs about £14,900, a shower over a bath about £17,200, and a separate bath and shower about £23,900.
How much does a small bathroom renovation cost?
A cloakroom with a toilet and basin costs £1,500 to £3,000 fitted, and a small bathroom kept to a budget suite and the same layout costs £2,000 to £4,500. A small room still needs the same trades, so labour puts a floor under the price. A cloakroom or small en suite takes 3 to 5 days.
How long does it take to fit a new bathroom?
A standard family bathroom takes 6 to 10 working days to fit, and a cloakroom 3 to 5. A full renovation takes 2 to 3 weeks on site, or 3 to 5 weeks with a layout change or a wet room. Tiling is the longest stage, because only one trade can work in the room at a time.
Do I need building regulations approval for a new bathroom?
In England, replacing a bath, toilet or basin needs no approval, but installing a bathroom that involves new plumbing, or changing electrics near a bath or shower, does. A competent person scheme installer can self-certify that work. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own systems, and in Scotland a new bathroom must meet the building standards even without a warrant.
Is VAT charged on a new bathroom?
Bathroom work on a lived-in home carries VAT at 20%, on labour and on the materials the fitter supplies. A home left empty for the 2 years before work starts takes the 5% rate. Building work for a disabled person, such as installing a toilet, carries no VAT once eligibility is confirmed in writing.
Does a new bathroom add value?
A new bathroom mostly stops a buyer offering less, because a tired bathroom is one of the rooms that gives them a reason to. A second bathroom or an en suite changes how a house is described, not only how it looks. Over-specifying for the street rarely returns the money.