For most family bathrooms, a full ripout and refit takes between 8 and 15 working days from the first hammer blow to the final bead of silicone. The honest answer, though, is that it depends on what we find behind your old suite and the choices you make before we start. Here is a realistic day-by-day picture so you can plan around it.
A standard bathroom of around 2m x 2m, being refitted like for like, usually breaks down into predictable stages. The ripout itself is quick: stripping out the old suite, tiles and flooring normally takes one to two days, including carting the waste away. What follows takes longer because each trade has to wait for the one before it.
First fix plumbing and electrics come next, usually two to three days, especially if pipework is being moved or an electric shower circuit needs upgrading. Then walls are boarded or plastered and left to dry, tiling and flooring go in, and finally the suite is fitted and connected at second fix. Silicone and grout need time to cure before the room is properly usable.
The single biggest cause of delay is what is hidden until the ripout. In older properties around Lee-on-the-Solent, Gosport and Stubbington, we regularly find rotten floorboards under leaking baths, crumbling plaster behind tiles, and old imperial pipework that needs adapting. None of this is a disaster, but each issue can add a day or two, which is why a sensible quote allows some contingency.
The other common culprit is materials. A shower enclosure on a six week lead time, or a vanity unit arriving damaged, can stall a job completely. We always recommend having everything on site and checked before the ripout starts, so the room is only out of action while work is actually happening.
A straightforward cloakroom or en suite swap can be done in 4 to 6 working days. A like for like family bathroom sits in that 8 to 15 day range. Push into fully tiled walls, underfloor heating, a wetroom conversion or moving the toilet across the room, and you should budget three to four weeks, because tanking, screeds and adhesives all need proper drying time you cannot rush.
Layout changes are the big one. Moving a soil pipe or relocating a bath means more first fix work, sometimes lifting floors in the room next door, and occasionally building control involvement. If your budget or patience is limited, keeping the layout as it is will save you both time and money.
If it is your only bathroom, plan for roughly a week to ten days without a usable bath or shower, even on a smooth job. The toilet can usually be reconnected each evening during the early stages, and we aim to get it permanently back in service as early as possible. Many customers arrange to shower at work, the gym, or a neighbour's for the middle week of the job.
It also helps to clear the room and the landing before day one, keep pets and children away from the work area, and agree in advance where waste and materials will sit. A skip or a van collection needs somewhere to go, and on some of the narrower roads locally that is worth thinking about before the job starts rather than on the morning of the ripout.
Usually yes for most of the job. We reconnect the toilet at the end of each working day where possible, and there are typically only one or two days, during tiling or flooring around the pan, when it is genuinely out of action.
Plaster, tanking membranes, tile adhesive and floor levelling compound all have minimum curing times before the next stage can go on top. Rushing them causes cracked grout and failed seals later, so a good fitter builds that waiting time into the programme.
It depends on the job. Plumbing, tiling and carpentry are often covered by the same experienced fitter, but electrical work such as a new shower circuit must be done by a qualified electrician who can certify it, so that is usually a separate visit built into the timeline.
Call, email or WhatsApp a few photos of the job. We will come back to you with an honest opinion and a clear price.
Lee-on-the-Solent, Gosport, Stubbington, Hill Head, Fareham, Portchester, Warsash and along the Solent coast.