You’ve decided to renovate. Now comes the awkward question: how much?
The internet is not helpful here. One quote says £5,000. Another says £20,000. Both are, technically, real prices for something called “a bathroom renovation.” That’s not much use when you’re trying to plan.
Here’s an honest breakdown of what a London bathroom actually costs in 2026 — and, more usefully, why the same-sized room can cost £6,000 or £22,000 depending on decisions you might not even know you’re making.
The honest ranges
For a full bathroom renovation in London in 2026:
- £4,500 – £7,000 — a simple refresh. Same layout, standard products, mostly cosmetic.
- £8,000 – £15,000 — a proper mid-range renovation. Full strip-out, good-quality fittings, plumbing and electrics done properly.
- £15,000 – £25,000+ — high specification. Wet room or walk-in shower, layout changes, premium materials, underfloor heating.
- £25,000+ — luxury builds, large bathrooms, natural stone, bespoke everything.
These are ranges, not fixed prices. The single biggest driver isn’t the size of your bathroom. It’s how much work you’re actually asking the fitter to do.
What each budget band actually gets you
Around £5,000 — a bathroom refresh
You’re keeping the layout. Toilet, basin, and shower stay roughly where they are. You’re replacing sanitaryware, some tiles, and the flooring, and you’re choosing standard rather than designer products. A smaller bathroom or ensuite can fit inside this budget — but only if the quote actually includes the tiles, sanitaryware, and electrical work. Cheap-looking quotes often don’t. More on that below.
Around £10,000 — a proper renovation
This is where most Hackney homeowners land for a complete job. Full strip-out and refit. New bath or shower, toilet, basin, vanity unit, tiles, flooring. Plumbing and electrical properly costed in. Good-quality products without straying into luxury brands. Crucially, this budget also leaves room for the invisible work — plastering, boarding, waterproofing — that keeps your bathroom looking good three years from now.
£20,000 and above — ambitious builds
Walk-in showers, wet rooms, moving the toilet or basin to a new position, large-format porcelain or natural stone, premium brassware, underfloor heating, bespoke storage, statement lighting. Prices climb quickly here because you’re paying for better products and more complicated installation. A wet room needs meticulous waterproofing. Moving plumbing takes serious labour.
Why London costs more
Higher labour rates are only part of the story.
Access matters. A ground-floor house with parking is a different job from a fourth-floor flat with no lift. Materials get carried through communal areas. Skips can’t just sit outside. Every trip up and down adds time.
Old buildings hide things. Hackney’s Victorian and Edwardian houses are beautiful — and full of surprises. Outdated plumbing. Uneven walls. Previous “fixes” that need undoing. You often don’t know what’s underneath until the old bathroom’s out.
That’s why two identically-sized bathrooms can have wildly different costs. One might sit above sound pipework and modern joists. The other might reveal a slow leak that’s rotted the floor.
The biggest lever: your layout
If there’s a single most powerful budget decision to make, this is it.
Keeping your existing layout — toilet, basin, and shower in their current spots — lets the fitter concentrate on replacing the bathroom rather than redesigning the infrastructure behind it. Moving the toilet is especially significant because the waste pipe and soil connection have to move with it. Moving a basin or shower means new pipework.
A layout change can add hundreds or thousands of pounds. That’s not a reason not to do it. It’s a reason to price it up before you fall in love with the design.
Where the money actually goes
Sanitaryware. A basic toilet is a few hundred pounds. A premium wall-hung one is much more. Same with basins, taps, showers, baths, vanity units. Decide your specification before comparing quotes. Otherwise you’re comparing apples and oranges — one fitter’s “basin included” might mean £300; another’s might mean a £900 vanity unit.
Tiles. The tiles themselves are only part of the tile cost. There’s also adhesive, grout, trims, and the labour to lay them. Large-format tiles take more care. Natural stone needs sealing. Full-height tiling costs more than half-height. Ask for a tile allowance in every quote so you can compare like for like.
Plumbing and electrical. Easy to underestimate because it disappears behind the finished bathroom. Plumbing might mean new connections, replacing old pipework, or moving waste pipes. Electrical work covers lighting, extractor fans, heated towel rails, and bringing older installations up to current standards. A quote that excludes electrical work looks cheaper — but you’re not comparing the same job.
The invisible work. Wall repair. Floor levelling. Waterproofing (also called tanking). Boarding. It’s not the exciting part of a renovation, but it’s the part that determines whether your beautiful new bathroom is still beautiful — or leaking into the flat below — in three years.
The hidden costs nobody warns you about
Set aside a contingency. Not because your fitter’s going to mess up. Because you’re renovating a real room in a real house, and the full picture only appears once the old bathroom’s out.
Common surprises: rotten flooring under an old bath, plumbing that’s worse than expected, walls that won’t take tile, damp that’s been slowly spreading behind the shower for years.
The best way to avoid a nasty mid-project shock is to catch the surprises before the job starts. Some fitters now offer a pre-start Behind the Wall inspection — a proper structural and damp check before quoting, so hidden problems get priced in from day one rather than dropped on you at week two. It’s not universal, but if you can get one, take it. It’s the single most effective way to prevent the classic “the budget doubled” story.
Rule of thumb: on an older London property, keep 10–15% of your budget in reserve.
Why the cheapest quote often isn’t
Say you get three quotes: £6,500, £9,000, £11,000.
The £6,500 quote is obviously the winner — until you read the small print. It excludes tiles. It excludes electrical work. The sanitaryware allowance is well below what you’d actually choose. Waterproofing isn’t specified. Waste removal isn’t included.
Add those back in and the £6,500 quote might land at £10,500 — more than the £9,000 quote, and delivered by someone who was arguably being less honest about the true cost.
This is why you should never compare bathroom quotes on the total alone. Compare scope. Line by line. It’s the only way to know if you’re comparing the same job.
It’s worth thinking about who’s doing the work as well as what it costs. The tradespeople with the best reputations in Hackney tend to come from referral networks — quietly recommended by top bathroom showrooms and designers — rather than random online marketplaces. They cost the same or slightly more, but they’re much less likely to become the cowboy-builder story you’re trying to avoid.
Finally, ask what happens after the work’s done. A one-year workmanship warranty is standard. Better fitters now use snagging escrow — the final payment sits with a third party until you’ve signed off on everything, so you’re not chasing anyone for fixes.
A simple way to build your budget
Work through this in order:
- Refresh or full renovation? Cosmetic changes or complete strip-out?
- Layout: same or changing? Keeping plumbing where it is, or moving it?
- Finish level: standard, mid-range, or premium? Be honest about the products you’ll actually choose.
- Add the installation work. Plumbing, electrics, waterproofing, prep, tiling, waste removal.
- Add a 10–15% contingency on top for surprises.
You now have a starting number you can defend, and a scope you can hand to fitters for genuinely comparable quotes.
So, how much should you budget?
For a typical London bathroom in 2026, a realistic starting point is £8,000 to £15,000 for a proper full renovation. Less if you’re doing a light refresh. More — sometimes considerably more — if you’re changing the layout, going high-spec, or building a wet room.
The most expensive bathroom isn’t always the one with the highest quote. It’s the one where you didn’t know what was included, couldn’t predict what might change, and had no protection when things went wrong.
The cheapest one isn’t always cheapest either.
The right question isn’t “why is this quote so expensive?” It’s:
“What am I actually getting for the money?”
Once you can answer that clearly, you’re ready to start.
Ready for a bathroom without the surprises?
Hackney Bathroom Fitters exists to make renovation less anxious. Fixed itemised pricing. A vetted, referral-only trades network. Pre-start Behind the Wall inspections so hidden problems don’t become mid-project shocks. Snagging escrow so the final payment only moves when you’re happy.
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