For most homes in Edinburgh and the Lothians, a full bathroom renovation takes between two and four weeks on site. The honest answer, though, depends on the size of the room, the age of the property and how much is changing behind the walls. Here is a realistic breakdown so you can plan around the disruption rather than be surprised by it.
A straightforward like-for-like refit, where the bath, basin and toilet stay in roughly the same positions, usually takes 10 to 15 working days. A full renovation with a new layout, moved pipework or a bath-to-shower conversion tends to run 15 to 20 working days. Larger projects, such as knocking through to create a bigger bathroom or converting a box room into an en suite, can take four to six weeks.
Bear in mind these figures cover time on site. Before anyone lifts a tool there is usually two to four weeks of lead time for ordering suites, tiles and shower enclosures, and longer if anything is on back order. Booking a start date before your materials have arrived is one of the most common causes of a stalled job.
Most full renovations follow a similar sequence, and the order matters because each trade depends on the one before it. This is where using a multi-trade firm helps, as the plumber, electrician, tiler and joiner are coordinated rather than booked separately with gaps between them.
Much of the housing stock in Edinburgh and the Lothians is Victorian tenement or older stone-built property, and these bring their own surprises. Lath and plaster walls that crumble during strip out, old lead or corroded steel pipework that needs replacing, and uneven floors that must be levelled before tiling can all add two to five days. In tenements, access is also a factor, as carrying an old cast iron bath down three flights of a shared stair takes longer than wheeling it out of a bungalow.
Rot under the old bath is the most common unwelcome discovery. If water has been getting past a failed seal for years, the floor joists may need attention before anything new goes in. A good fitter will price and schedule this quickly, but it is sensible to keep a few days of flexibility in your plans rather than booking a big event for the day after the promised finish date.
The projects that finish on time are almost always the ones where every decision was made before day one. Choosing tiles mid-job or swapping the shower tray after the pipework is in adds days, not hours, because it can mean redoing work that has already been signed off.
It also pays to be realistic about drying and curing times. Tanking membranes, tile adhesive, grout and silicone all need time to cure, and a new shower generally should not be used for at least 24 hours after final sealing. Rushing these stages is a false economy that leads to leaks and callbacks later.
Not for most of it. The toilet is usually out of action for several days mid-project and the bath or shower for longer, so if it is your only bathroom, plan to use a neighbour's, a gym or a temporary arrangement, and tell your fitter so they can keep the toilet usable for as long as possible.
Not as much as you might expect. Small bathrooms are often fiddlier to work in, so a compact tenement bathroom might only finish two or three days sooner than a larger family one with the same specification.
A like-for-like replacement usually does not need one, but forming a new bathroom or en suite, or altering drainage, can require a building warrant from your local council. Your installer should advise on this before work begins, and it is worth confirming early because approval can take several weeks.