Planning a Bathroom Renovation in London

A bathroom renovation in a London home is rarely just a bathroom renovation. Once the old suite comes out, you usually find pipework that has been worked on five times, tiles that have been re-grouted twice, and floors that have absorbed two decades of small leaks. Done well, a renovation resets the room and the underlying plumbing for the next twenty years. Done badly, you'll be calling someone back in six months. This guide covers what we have learned from running these projects across Dulwich, Peckham and the wider South East.

Planning the Project

The most expensive part of a bathroom renovation is changing your mind once the work has started. Spending an extra week up front on the layout, the suite, and the finishes pays back many times over.

Start with how you actually want to use the room. Do you need a bath, or would a generous walk-in shower be more useful day to day? Where does natural light come in? Is the ventilation working or does it need an upgrade? Is the existing layout dictated by the soil pipe, or can the toilet move? These are the questions that shape the rest of the spec.

What to Budget For

A full bathroom renovation in South East London typically costs between £5,000 and £15,000 plus VAT. The number depends on the size of the room, the fixtures chosen, the tiling spec, and what the underlying plumbing looks like once the old suite is out.

A rough split for a mid-spec project:

• Strip-out and waste removal: 5–10% of the budget
• Plumbing first fix: 15–20%
• Electrics first fix: 5–10%
• Tiling labour and materials: 20–30%
• Suite, taps, valves and accessories: 25–35%
• Second fix and snagging: 10–15%

The "supply" portion (the suite, the tiles, the fittings) varies massively. A premium suite from a brand like Hansgrohe or Vado can be 3–4× the cost of a perfectly competent value-end equivalent. Where you spend matters: the tap you touch every day deserves a real budget; the cistern hidden behind the wall does not.

One Team or Many Trades?

A typical bathroom needs a plumber, an electrician, a tiler, sometimes a plasterer, and someone to coordinate them all. The traditional approach is to hire each trade separately and play project manager yourself. The all-under-one-roof approach is to hire a single team that runs all the trades through one quote, one schedule, and one number to call.

Hiring trades separately can be cheaper on paper, but only if everything goes right. As soon as one trade overruns or pulls a sickie, the whole job slips and you are negotiating extras with multiple parties. Running it all through one team is more expensive on the line item but cheaper on the timeline and almost always cheaper on the snagging.

A Realistic Timeline

Most full bathroom projects take 1 to 2 weeks. A small en-suite with a straightforward layout swap can be done in 5 to 7 working days. A larger family bathroom with a wet-room conversion, full re-tiling, and any structural changes is usually 10 to 14 working days. Anyone quoting "3 days" for a full bathroom is either skipping steps or planning to come back later.

Allow a couple of extra days for the unexpected. London houses, especially Victorian ones, hide their secrets behind the tiles. Old galvanised pipework, hidden leaks, rotten floor joists, and ancient electrics are common discoveries on the strip-out day. A good team flags these on the spot, prices the fix, and continues with minimal delay.

Small London Bathrooms

South East London is full of small Victorian and Edwardian bathrooms, sometimes 5 m² or less. Small bathrooms are not harder to renovate, just less forgiving. Every centimetre matters and the layout choices need to be specific.

A few moves that work well in small London bathrooms:

• Wall-hung WC with concealed cistern frees up floor space and reads as bigger
• Walk-in shower without a tray gives you a flat, continuous floor
• Mirrored cabinet over the basin doubles the perceived width of the room
• Large-format tiles (300×600+) reduce visible grout lines and feel less busy
• Rimless WC pan is easier to clean and looks cleaner

Choices That Save You Money

Some choices look like savings but cost you later. Cheap mixer taps fail in 18 months. Sub-£100 shower valves fur up. Bargain-bin tile adhesive lifts. The way to save real money on a bathroom is not in the parts you touch, it's in the parts you don't.

• Concealed cisterns: pay for a recognised brand. The valve fails inside the wall and replacing it is expensive.
• Shower valves: spend on the brass body, save on the trim. The body lasts decades; the trim is a 30-minute swap if you ever want to refresh.
• Tiles: large simple porcelain in a neutral colour is easier to live with than a "feature" trend tile that dates badly.
• Underfloor heating: actually pays back fast on a tiled floor, comfort is high and running cost is low because the room is small.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the bathroom while the work happens?

Not the one being renovated, no. Most clients use a downstairs cloakroom or arrange to use a neighbour's. We try to minimise the days when there's no working WC by phasing the strip-out and first-fix carefully.

Do I need planning permission?

Almost never for an internal bathroom renovation. Building Regulations apply for the electrical and plumbing first fix, which we handle and certificate. Adding a new bathroom (e.g. converting a cupboard) is usually still permitted development inside the existing footprint.

Can I use my own materials?

Yes. We can fit anything you've sourced, including suite, tiles, taps and accessories. We just confirm the spec is fit for purpose before we start. Where we supply, we usually get trade discount that can offset the markup.

What about the old suite?

We strip it out and dispose of it responsibly. That's part of the quote, you don't need to arrange a skip or a separate clearance.