What Trades Do I Need to Fit a Bathroom?

For customers

A complete bathroom renovation can involve more people than you might expect. Depending on the project, you could need a bathroom fitter or joiner, plumber, electrician, tiler, plasterer, decorator and perhaps specialists for flooring, ventilation, shower screens or other parts of the room.

That doesn't mean every bathroom needs seven separate people. Some experienced bathroom installers carry out several parts of the work themselves and bring in specialists where required. Other businesses operate with a regular team of different trades.

The more important question is not how many people are involved. It is who is responsible for bringing all of their work together into one finished bathroom.

You will normally need plumbing expertise

Bathrooms obviously involve water and drainage. Depending on what you are changing, that may mean disconnecting the old products, altering supplies, changing waste pipes, relocating sanitaryware and then making the final connections.

Replacing products in their existing positions can be relatively straightforward. Moving toilets, showers or basins around the room may make the plumbing and drainage considerably more involved. Your bathroom fitter may also be an experienced plumber, or they may work with one. What matters is that the person doing that part of the work is competent to do it.

Electrical work needs particular care

Bathrooms combine water and electricity, so electrical work is not something to treat casually. Depending on the bathroom, there may be lighting, extractor fans, electric showers, heated mirrors, shaver points, underfloor heating or other electrical products.

Electrical Safety First describes bathrooms as higher-risk areas and recommends using a registered electrician for electrical installation work. The exact regulatory route depends on where in the UK the property is and the work being undertaken. In England, work around baths and showers can fall within Building Regulations requirements.

You do not need to become an electrical regulations expert yourself. You do need to know who is responsible for the electrical work.

Tiling is more than sticking tiles to a wall

Many bathroom renovations involve significant tiling. That may require wall and floor preparation before the finished tile ever comes out of the box. Depending on the room, the tiler may also be involved with waterproofing systems, preparation, trims, niches and other detailed work.

Large-format tiles, complicated patterns and difficult layouts can also require more time and skill than a basic tiled area. Again, this is why simply comparing bathroom size does not always tell you very much about the work involved.

You may need a plasterer, joiner or builder too

Strip an old bathroom out and you may discover there is considerably more work behind it than expected. Walls might need rebuilding, floors can require repair or strengthening, and studwork may need altering.

You may need timber supports behind walls for heavy items or things that could be added later. There may be plastering, boarding or making good before finishes can be applied.

Not every bathroom needs all of this, but a proper survey should identify as much as reasonably possible before work begins. Your old bathroom can also reveal problems once it is opened up that nobody could have seen properly beforehand.

Ventilation can involve another part of the job

Bathrooms produce a lot of moisture, so ventilation needs to be considered as part of the project rather than somebody remembering the extractor fan at the end. That may involve electrical work as well as planning the correct route for ducting and how the air will actually be removed from the room.

Who deals with that depends on the installation business and the system being used. The important thing is that somebody has thought about it.

Who arranges all these people?

There are broadly two ways to approach the job. You can employ individual trades yourself, or you can appoint a bathroom fitter or installation business to provide and coordinate the complete project. Both can work, but they are not the same service.

If you employ the trades separately, you become the project manager

This is something customers can underestimate. You might obtain a price from a plumber, another from a tiler and another from an electrician and conclude that organising everybody yourself will save money. It might, but you also need to recognise the job you have taken on.

Somebody has to decide when the plumber needs to arrive and make sure the electrician knows when the walls will still be open. The tiler has to know when preparation will be finished. If one person runs late, everybody behind them may need reorganising.

If two trades disagree about whose responsibility something is, someone has to sort it out. If a product is delayed, the programme may need changing. If you are employing each person independently, that somebody is likely to be you.

You haven't necessarily removed project management from the job. You may simply have taken it on yourself.

There is value in one person coordinating the whole bathroom

If you employ one business to deliver the finished bathroom, part of what you are paying for may be the management behind it. A good contractor already has relationships with plumbers, electricians, tilers and other trades.

They know the sequence, who needs to be there and when, and which parts of one trade's work affect somebody else. If somebody becomes unavailable, a more established network can sometimes give them other people to call.

Some bathroom fitters carry out several elements themselves while others coordinate specialist trades, and many customers value the simplicity of having one person manage the project. That coordination is a service. It isn't simply an unnecessary extra sitting on top of the cost of the trades.

A small business can still have an excellent network

Don't assume this means you need to employ a large bathroom company. Some excellent bathroom businesses are one person at the centre with a very strong network of tradespeople built over many years. They may use the same plumber, tiler and electrician on job after job, and that can work extremely well.

The question is how robust the arrangement is. What happens if their usual tiler is ill? Do they know somebody else they trust? Does the plumber turn up when promised, and are the trades used to working together?

A good network can be one of the biggest advantages an experienced installer brings to your project.

Ask who your contract is actually with

This is worth understanding before the work begins. Are you employing one bathroom company to provide the complete installation, or are you contracting separately with the plumber, electrician and tiler? That can affect who you speak to if there is a problem and where responsibility sits.

If one contractor has quoted you for the complete bathroom and they employ subcontractors behind the scenes, your relationship is normally with the business you appointed for the agreed service. The precise legal position can depend on the contracts and circumstances, but you should not need to guess who you are paying or who is responsible for delivering the work you agreed. Get that clear at the beginning.

Ask about qualifications, competence and insurance where appropriate

Different parts of a bathroom can have different requirements. You don't need to ask every person who enters your house for a folder full of certificates, but it is reasonable to ask the main contractor who is carrying out specialist work and whether the appropriate competence, registrations and insurance are in place where required.

The Every Install Trade Directory makes the same point to customers: a directory listing is not by itself proof of quality, and customers should still check insurance, relevant qualifications, previous work and agree the scope and price in writing. No single badge should replace sensible checks.

Who checks that one trade's work works with the next?

This is where good management becomes visible. The plumber may have completed their part perfectly, but is the pipework positioned correctly for the furniture and tile layout? Has suitable support been installed before the wall is closed?

Is the room actually ready for the tiler? Will the shower screen be able to fix securely where it has been planned? Your bathroom is not a collection of isolated trades. It is one finished room, and someone needs to be thinking ahead.

More trades do not necessarily mean a faster bathroom

A bathroom is usually a relatively small space. You cannot always put the plumber, electrician and tiler in there together and expect the project to move three times faster. Often one stage needs to finish before the next can begin.

That is why a good programme is about sequence rather than simply manpower. An experienced contractor will normally understand these dependencies and organise people around them.

What if something goes wrong later?

This is another benefit of knowing who owns the overall project. If there is a problem two months after completion, who do you call? If you employed all the trades individually, you may need to establish whose work caused the problem.

If you employed one business to deliver the complete bathroom, you would normally start with that business and let them investigate the problem within the scope of the service they supplied. That does not automatically mean every problem is the main contractor's fault. Products can fail, customers can cause damage and different situations have different causes.

But having a clear point of contact can make the process much easier.

So, what trades do I need to fit a bathroom?

It depends on what your bathroom requires. A full renovation may involve plumbing, electrical work, tiling, plastering or wall preparation, joinery or building work, decoration, ventilation and specialist product installation.

Sometimes one bathroom fitter can complete several of those stages competently. Sometimes different specialists should be used. The important thing is not trying to reduce the number of people at any cost. It is making sure the right people carry out the right work and somebody understands how all of those pieces come together.

If you choose to manage the individual trades yourself, that can work perfectly well. Just go into it understanding that you have taken responsibility for organising the sequence, communication and some of the problem-solving.

If you choose a bathroom installer or contractor to manage the whole project, part of what you are paying for is their experience, their network and their ability to coordinate the room from start to finish. That has value.

Finding a bathroom fitter

If you are looking for a bathroom installer, the Every Install Trade Directory can help you find trade businesses and view their public profiles.

A directory profile should only ever be one part of your checks. Review previous work, speak to the installer, check relevant qualifications and insurance where appropriate and make sure the scope and price are clear before you appoint anyone.

Search the Every Install Trade Directory →