“A week” sounds like a salesman's line, so here is the whole week, split into days. It is the timetable for a standard complete bathroom renovation: a bathroom of between 4 and 6 m², without moving the soil pipe and with the material already in the house.
That last condition is the important one, and it is explained at the end.
Day 1 — Strip-out
Everything comes out: sanitaryware, unit, screen, wall tiles and floor, until the brick is showing. The route from the front door is protected and the rubble goes down the same day. It is the noisiest day of the seven, and it is worth knowing so you can warn the neighbour below.
Day 2 — Plumbing and electrics
The chases are cut with an angle grinder, the new water and waste installation is run to the points where the fittings will go, and the electrics are left ready for the mirror, the towel rail and the sockets. This is where it is decided whether the WC stays where it was or moves.
At the end of the day a pressure test is done. If something is going to leak, it has to leak now, with the wall open, not in two months' time with the porcelain on.
Day 3 — Filling the chases and waterproofing
The chases are filled and the wet area is waterproofed: shower tray, shower walls and the base of the walls. It goes on in two coats, with mesh at the wall-to-floor junctions, and it needs its drying time.
It is the item nobody sees finished and the first one to disappear from a cheap quote. It is also the only one that, if it is missing, the neighbour below finds out about before you do.
Days 4 and 5 — Wall tiling and flooring
Two days. Before the first piece is stuck down, everything is set out with a laser level: the joints and the fall towards the drain are marked. If the setting out is two millimetres out at the start, by the time it reaches the corner it is two centimetres and there is no fixing it.
Large format goes more slowly than small tiles: it is heavy, it needs two people and cutting with a wet saw. After that you have to wait for it to set before walking on it.
Day 6 — Sanitaryware, unit and screen
The joints are grouted and the WC, the basin, the unit, the taps and the towel rail go in. The screen goes last because it is measured against what has been built, not against the drawing: a wall is never as plumb as it is in the drawing.
Day 7 — Finishing and handover
Silicone, going over the joints, painting the ceiling and the door opening, cleaning and testing everything with the water running. The bathroom is handed over usable, not “usable in two days”.
So why do some renovations take a month?
Because the clock above counts days on site, and what makes a renovation drag on is almost never the work itself. It is this:
- The material. A catalogue porcelain can take two or three weeks to arrive. If the job starts without the material in the house, the team stops halfway through the week and the days turn into weeks.
- Changes of mind halfway. Changing your mind with the tiling already set out means going back to day 3.
- Surprises in the wall. In flats built before the seventies you find asbestos cement soil pipes, floor structures without enough depth or lead pipework. None of that is known until it is opened up.
- A shared team. If the company is running five jobs at once, your bathroom moves forward on the days it is its turn.
We do not start until the whole of the material is in the store, and we put one team on one job. That is why we can put the timescale in writing in the quote instead of saying “a few weeks”.
Can you live at home during the work?
With a second bathroom, yes, no problem. With only one, the week feels long: there are seven days without a WC. When it is the only bathroom in the house we say so before signing, so that you can make arrangements.
In the gallery there are eight videos filmed on site, unedited, showing these same days from the inside.
