Ask three Edinburgh tradespeople what a new bathroom costs and you will get three different answers, because the honest answer is that it depends on the property, the spec and the state of what is behind the tiles. This guide sets out realistic price ranges for Edinburgh and the Lothians, explains what pushes a job up or down, and flags the surprises that catch homeowners out, particularly in the city's older tenement stock.
For a straightforward like-for-like refit of a standard family bathroom, replacing the suite, retiling and making good, most Edinburgh homeowners should budget somewhere between 5,000 and 9,000 pounds including labour and mid-range materials. A fuller renovation, where the layout changes, walls are re-boarded, new flooring goes down and the plumbing is reworked, typically lands between 9,000 and 15,000 pounds. High-end projects with walk-in showers, underfloor heating, wall-hung sanitaryware and premium tiling can comfortably exceed 18,000 pounds.
These are guide figures, not quotes. Two bathrooms of identical size can differ by thousands depending on access, the condition of the existing pipework and how much of the budget goes on fittings versus labour. A written, itemised quote after a proper survey is the only number worth planning around.
A large share of homes in Edinburgh, Leith, Portobello and the older parts of Musselburgh and Dalkeith are Victorian tenements or stone-built houses. These bring specific costs: lath and plaster walls that need careful re-boarding, original cast iron soil stacks, floors that are rarely level, and pipe runs that were never designed for modern shower flow rates. Opening up a tenement bathroom often reveals work that simply has to be done before anything new goes in.
Access matters too. Carrying a bath and boards up three flights of a shared stair takes time, and skip permits or parking suspensions on city centre streets add cost that would not apply to a driveway job in Livingston or Bathgate. If your flat is in a conservation area or a listed building, moving a soil pipe on an external wall may also need consent, which is worth checking before you commit to a layout.
Labour is usually 40 to 60 percent of the total, and a full renovation typically takes a multi-trade team one and a half to three weeks on site. The biggest cost swings come from layout changes, because moving a toilet or shower means rerouting waste pipes, and from the choice between a standard shower over the bath and a fully tiled or wet-room style enclosure, which involves tanking and more complex drainage.
Materials are where you have the most control. A decent acrylic bath, mixer shower and basin can be had for well under 1,000 pounds, while designer equivalents run to several times that. Tiling is priced by area and complexity, so large-format tiles floor to ceiling cost meaningfully more in labour than tiling wet areas only. Extras such as underfloor heating, typically 500 to 1,200 pounds installed for a bathroom, and electric or thermostatic showers needing new electrical circuits all add to the bill, and any new circuit must be signed off by a qualified electrician.
Get quotes itemised into labour, materials and provisional sums, so you can see exactly what is included. Watch for quotes that exclude removal of the old suite, waste disposal, making good plasterwork or final decoration, as these gaps are where cheap headline prices grow. Because older Edinburgh properties often hide rotten floorboards or corroded pipework, it is sensible to hold back a contingency of around 10 to 15 percent of the project cost.
One advantage of using a multi-trade firm rather than booking a plumber, tiler, electrician and joiner separately is that one team sequences the whole job, so you are not left with a half-finished bathroom waiting a fortnight for the next trade. Whoever you use, ask to see examples of recent local work, confirm who signs off the electrical work, and get start date, duration and payment stages in writing before anyone lifts a tool.
A straightforward refit usually takes 7 to 10 working days, while a full renovation with layout changes typically takes two to three weeks. Tenement flats can take slightly longer because of access and the extra remedial work older buildings often need.
A like-for-like replacement generally needs neither. You may need a building warrant from the City of Edinburgh Council or your local Lothians authority if you are forming a new bathroom where there was not one before, altering drainage significantly, or making structural changes, so check before major layout moves.
Yes, usually by a significant margin. Keeping the toilet, basin and bath in their existing positions avoids rerouting waste and water pipes, which can save several hundred to a few thousand pounds depending on the floor construction and how far services would need to move.