Bathrooms
Choosing Bathroom Fitters in Edinburgh: Costs, Timescales and What Good Looks Like
A bathroom is the smallest room in most Edinburgh flats and the one most likely to go wrong. It carries water, heat, ventilation, electrics, and tiling in a few square metres, often on a suspended timber floor in a building over a century old. Choosing the right bathroom fitters matters more here than almost anywhere else in the property.
This guide sets out how to compare bathroom fitters in Edinburgh, what a realistic budget and programme look like, and the specific checks that protect you if you are letting the property or plan to sell.
What a full bathroom installation actually includes
A complete bathroom fit-out is not a suite swap. It runs strip-out and disposal, alterations to hot and cold supplies and waste runs, floor levelling and strengthening where required, tanking or waterproofing, electrical work for lighting, shaver points and extract ventilation, tiling or panelling, then second-fix sanitaryware, screens, and sealing.
In a tenement, add the constraints of the building: soil stack positions you cannot move freely, neighbours below the floor you are opening up, and ceiling voids that hide old plumbing. A quote that does not mention any of this has not been surveyed properly.
How to compare quotes fairly
Bathroom quotes are hard to compare because they rarely describe the same scope. Ask every contractor for an itemised breakdown that separates labour, sanitaryware and brassware, tiling or panelling, and electrical work, and states clearly what is excluded. Two quotes that look thousands apart are often quoting two different jobs.
Check the practical things as well: who holds the gas and electrical qualifications, whether waste removal and making good are included, whether the tiler is the same person as the plumber, and what happens if a hidden defect appears once the old bathroom is out.
Budget and timescale in Edinburgh
Costs vary with specification more than with room size. A clean, well-executed standard fit-out sits well below a wet room with a formed slope, underfloor heating, and stone finishes, and the sanitaryware itself can double a budget without changing a single labour day. Setting a specification tier before you shop stops the budget drifting.
On programme, a straightforward bathroom typically takes one to two working weeks with continuous trade attendance. Longer runs usually mean gaps between trades rather than more work, which is the clearest argument for one contractor holding the whole sequence.
The checks that protect landlords
If the flat is let, the bathroom carries compliance weight: adequate mechanical extract, correctly zoned electrics, safe water temperatures, and certification you can produce on request. A bathroom that looks finished but has no paperwork behind it is a problem waiting for an inspection.
Insist on a documented hand-over: electrical certification, product and warranty details, and a record of what was concealed behind the finished surfaces. It costs nothing extra at the time and saves an argument years later.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a bathroom installation take in Edinburgh?+
A full fit-out usually takes one to two working weeks with trades attending continuously. Wet rooms, underfloor heating, and stone finishes extend that, as do any structural or plumbing alterations discovered once the old bathroom is stripped out.
Do I need building warrant approval for a new bathroom?+
A like-for-like replacement generally does not, but moving drainage, altering structure, or forming a new bathroom in a previously unserved room can require approval. A survey before specification confirms what applies to your property.
Is a wet room suitable for a tenement flat?+
Often yes, provided the floor build-up can take the slope and the waterproofing is detailed correctly on a timber substrate. The tanking specification, not the tiling, is what determines whether a wet room lasts.