The typical 10–15 day timeline
A standard full bathroom refurbishment — strip-out, new suite, full tiling, shower or bath swap — runs to roughly this pattern when one team owns the whole job:
- Day 1–2: Strip-out, waste removal, expose pipework, first inspection of floor and walls.
- Day 3–4: First-fix plumbing and electrics (re-routing pipework, shower feeds, lighting, fan).
- Day 5: Boarding, tanking (for wet areas), making good walls.
- Day 6–9: Tiling — floor first, then walls. Large-format porcelain takes longer than ceramic.
- Day 10–11: Suite installation — bath, shower tray, WC, basin, brassware.
- Day 12–13: Second-fix electrics, silicone, grout finishing, snag walk-through.
- Day 14–15: Final clean, handover, written guarantee.
What makes a bathroom take longer than 15 days
Three things push timelines past the standard window. None of them are about the fitter being slow — they're about scope.
- Moving the soil pipe or WC location — re-routing soil adds 2–3 days and often needs joist work.
- Wet rooms with full tanking — proper waterproofing has cure times that can't be rushed.
- Bespoke or out-of-stock materials — a 4-week lead time on tiles delays the whole job, not the install week.
Can you live in the house during the work?
Yes, if you have a second bathroom or downstairs WC. We isolate water and dust to the bathroom itself, sheet the route in and out, and clean down every evening. Single-bathroom homes usually rent a portable WC for the strip-out and tiling phase, or arrange to stay with family for the busiest days.
Why some quotes promise '5 days' — and why we don't
A 5-day bathroom is almost always a like-for-like replacement with no tiling, or it's a fitter cutting corners on tanking, drying times and second-fix snagging. We'd rather take 12 days and hand back a bathroom that's silicone-finished, leak-tested and properly cleaned than rush it in a week.