A new bathroom is one of the most asked-about jobs we quote for around Brighton and Hove, and the honest answer to what it costs is that it depends far more on the state of your house than on the tiles you pick. This guide sets out realistic 2026 price ranges, explains what pushes a job from one bracket to the next, and flags the things that catch people out in older Sussex properties.
For a standard family bathroom of around 2m by 2.5m, most full refits in the UK now land between £6,000 and £14,000 including labour and materials. In Brighton and the surrounding area, expect to sit towards the upper half of that, as trade rates and parking costs here are higher than the national average.
Those figures assume a like-for-like layout: the toilet, basin and bath stay roughly where they are, so the plumbing runs stay short. Move the toilet across the room or convert to a walk-in shower with a linear drain and you are usually adding £1,500 to £4,000 for the extra pipework, floor work and making good.
Labour is usually 45 to 60 percent of the total on a bathroom, because it is a job that needs several trades in sequence: strip out, first-fix plumbing and electrics, plastering or boarding, tiling, second fix, then decorating. A skilled team will take eight to fifteen working days for a full refit, and that time is the biggest single cost.
The suite itself is often the smallest part. A decent bath, basin, toilet and thermostatic shower from a reputable brand can be had for £1,200 to £2,500. Tiling is where budgets quietly grow: a fully tiled room at 20 square metres of wall and floor, laid at £45 to £70 per square metre plus the tiles themselves, can easily reach £2,000 to £3,500 on its own.
A large share of housing in Brighton, Hove, Lewes and the villages inland is Victorian, Edwardian or 1930s, and that changes the job. Lath and plaster walls, floor joists that have been notched by three generations of plumbers, and lead or cast iron soil pipes are common. Once the old bath comes out, we regularly find soft or rotten floorboards under it that need replacing before anything new can go in.
Sensible allowances for this kind of property are an extra £500 to £1,500 for floor repairs and new boarding, £300 to £800 to replace an old soil stack connection, and £400 to £900 if the walls need overboarding or plastering to give the tiler a flat surface. Bathrooms in loft conversions or above kitchens also need extra care with waste falls and pump-assisted drainage, which adds cost.
Coastal properties are another factor. Salt air is hard on ferrous fixings and cheap chrome, so on seafront and Kemptown jobs we tend to recommend brassware and fixings that will still look right in ten years rather than the cheapest option on the shelf.
The biggest saving is keeping the existing layout if it works. The second is being decisive about materials before the job starts, because changing tiles or a shower tray mid-job means downtime for the tradespeople and often re-ordering.
Combining trades under one contractor also helps. When the same business is doing the plumbing, the carpentry for boxing-in and the general building work, you avoid the gaps where one trade waits for another and the arguments about whose job the leak is.
A proper written quote for a full bathroom should list what is included, what is excluded, and what happens if hidden problems are found. Look for whether waste removal, plastering and decorating are in the price, because these are commonly left out and then added later.
A contingency of around 10 percent is realistic on any pre-war property. If a quote comes in far below the others, check whether it includes electrics by a registered electrician, Building Regulations compliance for new drainage or ventilation, and VAT. Those three alone can explain a £2,000 difference.
Most full refits take eight to fifteen working days on site, depending on layout changes and how much drying time the plaster and tile adhesive need. Older properties with floor or wall repairs usually sit at the longer end.
Planning permission is rarely needed for a like-for-like bathroom. Building Regulations do apply to new drainage, electrical work and ventilation, so make sure whoever does the work can certify it, particularly in flats and listed buildings, which are common in central Brighton.
Usually not. Splitting the job into separate visits for plumbing, tiling and decorating means repeated set-up and waiting time, and it increases the chance of one trade damaging another's work. Doing the whole room in one planned run is almost always cheaper overall.