How to price a bathroom renovation for profit
Bathrooms look like simple jobs on paper. A small room, a clear scope, a familiar sequence of trades. In reality they’re one of the easiest jobs in residential work to underquote, and one bad bathroom can wipe out the profit from three good ones.
Why bathrooms are so easy to get wrong
A bathroom packs a lot of trades, decisions and risk into a few square metres. Demolition, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, tiling, joinery, glass and fit-off, often with a client changing their mind along the way. Every handover between trades is a chance for time to slip.
And because the room is small, it’s tempting to price it as a small job. The coordination and risk aren’t small at all.
The costs most quotes miss
- What’s behind the wall. Rotten frames, old pipes, asbestos or a floor that isn’t level.
- Your coordination time. Ordering, chasing trades, site visits and client calls.
- Waste and disposal. Skips, tip fees and cartage add up quickly.
- Delays between trades. Every idle day still costs you overheads.
- Defects and callbacks. A small allowance for things you’ll have to come back for.
Allowances and selections
Fixtures and tiles are where budgets blow out. If the client hasn’t chosen them, use clear allowances in the quote and spell out what happens if they choose something dearer. Without that, the extra cost usually comes out of your margin.
Price the risk, not just the room
Two bathrooms of the same size can carry very different risk. An upstairs bathroom in an old house is not the same job as a ground-floor room in a ten-year-old build. Your price should reflect access, age, unknowns and how much managing the client will need.
This is also where markup vs margin matters most. A small percentage error on a high-value bathroom is real money.
Variations, in writing
Agree upfront how changes will be handled: a written variation, priced and signed before the work is done. It protects the client as much as it protects you, and it stops the “while you’re here” jobs that quietly eat your profit.
Know your real numbers
Look back at your last few bathrooms. What did you quote, and what did each one actually cost once everything was in? If the gap keeps landing the same way, your pricing needs fixing, not your work rate. That’s exactly the sort of thing we work through with clients one-on-one.
General information only, not financial, tax or legal advice. Speak to your accountant or adviser about your own situation.