Most people expect a bathroom to be finished in a few days, then find themselves washing at the neighbours' for a fortnight. A straightforward swap in a standard Essex semi usually runs 5 to 10 working days on site, but the honest answer depends on what is behind your walls and how much of the layout you are moving. Here is what actually happens each day, and where the time genuinely goes.
A like for like refit, where the bath, basin and WC stay roughly where they are and you keep the same style of suite, typically takes 5 to 8 working days on site. That covers strip out, first fix, tiling, second fix and making good.
Move the soil pipe, convert a bath to a walk in shower, or take out a stud wall, and you are realistically looking at 10 to 15 working days. Add a new boiler or a full pipework upgrade in an older property and it can stretch further. Anyone quoting three days for a full refit is either not tiling or not accounting for adhesive and grout curing times.
The sequence matters more than the total. Tiling cannot start until first fix plumbing is signed off, and second fix cannot start until tiles are grouted and cured. Skipping ahead is where leaks and cracked grout lines come from.
Older housing stock is the main variable. Victorian and Edwardian terraces across east London and towns like Colchester and Chelmsford often hide lead or old imperial copper pipework, uneven lath and plaster walls, and joist runs that will not take a new waste without adjustment. None of that is visible until day one.
Flats bring their own constraints. Many blocks restrict working hours to roughly 8am to 6pm on weekdays, ban weekend noise, and require a booked lift for deliveries and waste. That can add a day or two on its own. Freeholder or managing agent consent for moving a soil stack is worth chasing weeks before the start date.
The single biggest cause of overrun is not the plumbing, it is waiting for materials. Have every item, including the shower valve, waste kits, tiles with a spare box, and the screen, physically on site before the first day. Tiles in particular can slip by two or three weeks if they are ordered mid job and the batch has run out.
Decide the layout before the strip out, not during it. Changing the shower position on day four means undoing first fix work. If you only have one bathroom, plan for a week to ten days without it and speak to the installer early about whether the WC can be temporarily refitted overnight, which is often possible on a like for like job.
Yes, most people do, though expect dust, noise and no water to the bathroom for parts of the day. If it is your only bathroom, ask whether the WC can be reconnected at the end of each day, which is usually achievable unless the soil connection is being moved.
Adhesive generally needs at least 12 to 24 hours before grouting, and grout needs a further 24 hours before silicone and use. Rushing this is a common shortcut and it shows up later as cracked joints and lifting tiles.
It can add two to four days, because the waste needs a fall of roughly 18mm per metre back to the soil stack, which often means lifting floors or building a plinth. In a flat it may also need permission from the freeholder, so raise it early.
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