How Long Should I Allow to Fit a Bathroom?

For bathroom installers

For a reasonably straightforward bathroom installation, you will often see figures of around one to two working weeks quoted. That can be a useful starting point, but I would never build my programme around an average from the internet.

Your job is to work out how long this bathroom needs.

An experienced bathroom installer should normally be able to get reasonably close because, once you have done enough of them, you understand the sequence. You know roughly how long strip-out takes, how long first fix takes, what preparation is likely to involve, how long you need for tiling, second fix and finishing.

But bathrooms also have a habit of introducing things you couldn't see until you started. That is where experience comes in again.

Think about the whole programme, not just your fitting days

One mistake is to count how many days you personally expect to be physically working in the room and call that the bathroom programme. They are not necessarily the same thing.

A complete bathroom can involve strip-out, plumbing first fix, electrical work, plastering or other preparation, waterproofing, tiling, grouting, sanitaryware, shower installation, ventilation, sealing, testing and finishing. Several different people may be involved. Some stages cannot start until another is finished.

And there will sometimes be periods where nobody is standing in the bathroom with a tool in their hand because something needs time before the next stage can happen. That isn't automatically wasted time. It can be part of doing the job correctly.

Sometimes nothing happening is exactly what should be happening

Customers understandably find this difficult. They have lost the use of a bathroom and they want to see progress. Then they look into the room on Wednesday afternoon and nobody is there.

But you cannot simply put one wet product on top of another because everybody wants the bathroom finished by Friday. Plaster and other backgrounds need to be suitable before finishes go over them. Waterproofing systems have their own requirements. Adhesives, grouts, sealants and other materials need the conditions and time specified for the particular product being used.

Some modern products allow the programme to move very quickly. Others need considerably more time. The important thing is to understand the actual product and system rather than inventing a drying time that suits your diary.

If the next stage shouldn't happen yet, don't do it.

A customer might remember that the bathroom took an extra day. They will remember a failed bathroom for considerably longer.

Experience should make you efficient, not reckless

There is a difference between an experienced installer completing a bathroom quickly and somebody rushing one.

Experience means you understand the order. You have the correct tools and materials ready.

You know when the plumber needs to be there and when the electrician needs to return. You know that the tiler cannot start until something else has been completed. You know which products need ordering early and which little items regularly hold a job up. That experience can take days out of a badly organised programme without cutting a single corner.

Rushing is something else. Rushing is trying to turn ten days of work into seven because you only allowed seven days in your quote. That is when preparation gets squeezed, products don't get enough time, testing gets hurried and everybody starts working around everybody else. Bathrooms don't respond particularly well to that.

Break the bathroom down into stages

Over time, you get to know your own numbers. You know what a normal strip-out tends to take. You know roughly what plumbing first fix takes when nothing unusual is happening. You understand preparation, waterproofing, tiling, second fix and finishing.

That means you can build the programme from the job rather than thinking, “I normally allow ten days for a bathroom.”

A straightforward replacement where everything stays in much the same position and the room underneath is sound can move relatively quickly. Change the layout, move the toilet, alter the drainage, rebuild walls or flooring, add extensive tiling or introduce more specialist finishes and it becomes another job entirely.

The bathroom might be the same physical size. The work isn't.

Small bathrooms are not necessarily quicker bathrooms

This is something customers — and sometimes installers — can underestimate. A small bathroom contains fewer square metres, but it can actually make the job harder to programme.

You can't always put two or three trades into the room together. There may simply not be enough space for a plumber and electrician to work safely and sensibly at the same time. The tiler may need the room to themselves. One person's tools and materials can fill half the available space.

That means work has to happen sequentially. The electrician comes in, finishes what they can do and leaves. Then the plumber works. Then preparation. Then the tiler.

A bigger room may have more physical work in it, but sometimes it gives people more room to work around one another. Don't calculate bathroom duration purely from floor area.

Build some reality into the programme

Even after years of fitting bathrooms, I wouldn't expect every bathroom to land exactly on the day originally calculated. Experience should get you close. But there are still unknowns.

You may strip out the room and find damaged flooring. A product might arrive damaged. Something may be missing. A subcontractor can become ill. An existing pipe may be in a completely different place from where you expected it.

So if your calculation says the work should take ten working days, there is nothing wrong with building sensible breathing room around the customer programme rather than promising something you can only achieve if absolutely nothing goes wrong.

That isn't padding the job out. It is managing expectations properly. There is a difference between the internal target you work towards and promising the customer a completion time with no room whatsoever for reality.

Your subcontractor network affects your programme

This is another part of installation businesses that customers don't always see. If you use other trades, your programme partly depends on them.

A tiler who lets you down can leave you with a stripped-out bathroom waiting for the next stage. If that is the only tiler you know and they can't come for another week, you now have a customer without a usable bathroom and very few options. That is why building a good network around an installation business matters.

It doesn't necessarily mean a larger company will be better than a sole trader. I have known sole traders with excellent networks of reliable plumbers, electricians, tilers and plasterers.

What matters is resilience.

Do you have good people? Do they turn up? Do you have alternatives if somebody becomes unavailable? Do you have enough of a relationship with your trades that you can pick the phone up when you have a problem?

That network has value. It is part of the business behind the installation.

Don't schedule every trade too tightly

It is tempting to create the perfect programme.

• Plumber Monday.
• Electrician Tuesday morning.
• Tiler Tuesday afternoon.
• Second fix Thursday.
• Done Friday.

It looks fantastic on paper. Until Monday's strip-out reveals rotten flooring. Now every person behind that point is in the wrong place.

You need to coordinate people efficiently, but allow some common sense. This is particularly important with subcontractors who have their own diaries to manage. The customer needs a realistic programme, not an impressive-looking programme that collapses the first time something changes.

Think about how essential the bathroom is to the customer

This matters more with bathrooms than many other rooms. People need toilet facilities. They need somewhere to wash and shower. If it is the only bathroom in the house, the disruption can be substantial.

That doesn't mean you compromise the installation so the customer can use everything every evening. But it does mean you should understand their situation before you start.

Is there another toilet? Another shower? Can the toilet remain operational for part of the project? Are there stages where facilities can temporarily be restored? What is realistic?

The customer may be able to stay somewhere else for part of the work, but they need to know that beforehand.

A bathroom programme isn't just about organising trades. It affects how somebody lives while you are working in their home.

Don't promise what you can't control

There are parts of a bathroom programme you can control very well. There are other parts you can't.

A manufacturer may delay a product. A customer-supplied item may turn up damaged. A subcontractor can become unavailable. Once those things happen, you still own the communication with the customer if you are the main contractor.

That is why I would rather give a realistic programme and finish a little early than promise something unnecessarily aggressive and spend the whole job explaining why I'm late.

Learn from completed bathrooms

Just as I think installers should review the profitability of completed jobs, review the programme too.

What did you allow? What actually happened? Where did you lose time?

Did preparation take longer? Did you leave too little between trades? Was there a stage where everybody was waiting for somebody else? Did you repeatedly underestimate tiling?

Over a number of bathrooms you start building very useful information. You don't have to guess anymore. Your own completed jobs tell you what your business actually takes to deliver a bathroom.

How long should you allow to fit a bathroom?

Allow enough time to complete every stage correctly and in the correct order. For many reasonably straightforward complete bathroom installations, around one to two working weeks may be a useful broad starting point, but it should never become a rule.

Some bathrooms can be completed more quickly. Some will take considerably longer. Size matters, but so do layout changes, tiling, preparation, hidden damage, the products being installed, specialist trades and the physical space available for people to work.

An experienced installer should normally understand those stages well enough to give the customer a realistic programme and get reasonably close. Then allow for the fact that bathrooms sometimes uncover things nobody could reasonably have known about beforehand.

Most importantly, don't mistake rushing for efficiency. There are times during a bathroom installation when the best thing you can do for the job is leave something alone until it is ready for the next stage.

Every Install can help with planning the job

A clear scope before work starts makes programming much easier. Every Install Pro's Scope of Works Builder can help installers define what is actually included in the project, while the Technical Survey Builder helps capture important information before the job reaches site.

The Pre-Installation Checklist can also help make sure products, information and practical arrangements are in place before the start date.

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The Pre-Installation Checklist is included with Free membership. The Scope of Works Builder and Technical Survey Builder require Every Install Pro.