Bathroom RENOVATION Cost in London: How Much Do You Need To Budget?

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Hi guys, in this post, I will tell you more about bathroom renovation cost in London and England (and how much you need to budget for your bathroom makeover) based on our experience renovating our own bathroom in a Victorian terraced house. Before we started our renovation, we couldn’t find any relevant information on how much would it cost to change our bathroom and make a trendy design we had in mind. I hope you find this post useful!

Here’s what you can expect to find in this post

What did we have in mind when transforming our bathroom?

When we were thinking of renovating our bathroom, our two primary sources of inspiration were Pinterest and Instagram. I started our home refurbishing account (follow us at @ourlondoncottage if you’re interested) and quickly subscribed to some unique accounts for inspiration. On Pinterest, it was easier to find inspiration. I used to just type “amazing bathroom ideas” or “bathroom transformation” or “bathroom renovaton” and would get thousands of fantastic transformation examples, which. I would later save to my Interior inspiration board!

Having scrolled through a lot of different designs, we realised that we would like to have a modern bathroom with a shower and most probably, it would be black and white (with some elements of green, e.g. green towels and plants). We saw some other fantastic design ideas; however, they either looked very expensive, or we couldn’t find any tiles/taps or even vanity units from these images.

In the end, we settled on a bathroom like this one, which was our main inspiration for our bathroom design:

Finding a tradesperson for a bespoke bathroom project

The first step of our bathroom refurbishment in London was finding a tradesman. We never had any experience with home renovations, so we had absolutely no idea how much a bathroom refurb could cost in England (and in London in particular). We found an article that suggested that a budget bathroom renovation could cost between £1,500 and £2,000, a mid-range bathroom transformation would cost around £3,000 and a luxury bathroom redesign and refurb would cost something like £5,000+. Hence, when we uploaded our task on MyBuilder.com and got some quotes around £5,000 for work only, we got a little upset and frustrated.

However, we kept looking for tradesmen and invited a few people over to our home for quoting. In the end, we picked a tradesman, who quoted us £2,700 for a complete refurb (just like in the photo before). However, in the end, the price went up due to a few issues we discovered during the refurb. 

Buying materials – where to buy Victorian-style tiles, black taps and more

Alright, so you found your builders, what next? Next, you need to buy all the materials, from grout and adhesive to all the decorative finishings and tiles. Obviously, everything depends on your budget, but you can find excellent and not very expensive items at Wayfair, Victoria Plum, Victorian Plumbing, Drench, Topps Tiles and even on Amazon (we bought a few items for our bathroom in Amazon).

How long does a bathroom renovation take?

If you’re wondering how long does a bathroom renovation take, well, it really depends on your design and your tradesmen. In our case, we were able to complete all the works in 8 working days. We didn’t have a second bathroom in our Victorian house, so we were very keen on completing bathroom renovation works as soon as possible!

Bathroom renovation cost in London – how much did we pay to transform our bathroom

Now, the most interesting part: how much bathroom refurb actually costs in London and how much did we way for our extreme bathroom transformation. Well, I’ll split our bathroom renovation cost into two parts: labour cost and materials/furniture cost. The labour cost was £3300 in the end, as we encountered a few problems with the pipes and had to move them for the walk-in shower and for the sink. 

As for the materials including all the furniture (but excluding decor, as we don’t have any at the moment), we paid another £3350. So in total, we paid £6650 for our bathroom refurb in London. We could have saved a lot of money by ordering the correct tiles from the very beginning, buying a cheaper vanity unit and a toilet, however, we’re pretty happy with how the bathroom turned out! Our bathroom looks very modern and sleek now, and I’m in love! However, I still think that it feels a bit empty and needs more plants and posters (and perhaps even a feature wall, who knows). 

If you’re interested in all the things we bought for the bathroom, here are the links:

Lights – https://fave.co/33Ubm0x

Bathroom unit https://fave.co/2GY89EL

Shower shelf – https://amzn.to/31373yi

Towels – https://fave.co/2GYqeSW

Towel rail https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/turin-black-w500-x-h1200mm-heated-towel-rail

Tap https://fave.co/371Dzog

Shower head – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/arezzo-matt-black-concealed-individual-diverter-thermostatic-control-valve-with-handset-200mm-shower-head

Toilet – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/metro-smart-toilet-with-bidet-wash-function-heated-seat-dryer

Shower tray – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/aurora-1700-x-800-slate-effect-walk-in-shower-tray-with-drying-area

Wall tiles – https://fave.co/2H1QKdU

Floor tiles – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/haywood-black-and-white-mosaic-tile-sheet-295-x-295mm?Sort=LP&FT=5145,5133&pgno=1

Shower screen – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/crosswater-design-matt-black-walk-in-side-panel

LED Mirror – https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/arezzo-matt-black-600mm-round-led-illuminated-anti-fog-bathroom-mirror

Bathroom plants – https://fave.co/3nPLfjB

Summary of bathroom renovation cost: can you renovate a bathroom on a budget

To summarise, I can say that we were very happy with our bathroom renovation in London. However, the total price is much higher than what we found as a ballpark figure and what we initially budgeted for our renovation. We ended up spending £6,650 on our bathroom refurb in London, and I definitely don’t consider our bathroom luxurious, just modern and stylish. If you’re wondering, what can you do with a much smaller budget, I can say that it totally depends on your current bathroom. 

For example, we wanted to convert a bath to a shower (get rid of the bath) as well as needed some ventilation in the bathroom (we didn’t have any) and those things were very expensive! However, if you’re happy to leave a bath and you already have ventilation, that’s over £1,000 saved for you! 

I hope you enjoyed this post and should you have any questions, DM me at @ourlondoncottage!

Some other posts you might like:

We bought our first home in London

Is it worth living in London? Pro’s and con’s

Living in East Finchley – is it a good area?

Southgate area guide: is it a nice place to live in London?

5 thoughts on “Bathroom RENOVATION Cost in London: How Much Do You Need To Budget?”

  1. This is so helpful! We’re looking to refurbish our bathroom too and we get quotes of £,5000+. Could you share the tradesmen you went with in the end?

    Reply
    • this is so helpful! Thank you so much for sharing this! We are also interested in refurbishing our bathroom and I wonder if you can share the details of the tradesperson you used? Many thanks sofia☺️

      Reply
    • @Zee, can you share the details of the tradesperson as well, thanks. I hope your bathroom has since been functioning well.

      Reply

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