Bathroom Fitting Business Profit Margins in the UK
The short answer
Price a bathroom as a sequence of trades, not a day rate: strip-out, first fix, boarding and tanking, tiling, electrics, second fix and making good, with sanitaryware and tiles as allowances the client chooses. Most margin is lost on what is under the old floor and on choices made late.
- Sequence the trades and cost each. Plumbing, boarding and tanking, tiling, electrics and disposal are separate lines with their own days.
- Use allowances for what the client chooses. Sanitaryware and tiles go in as PC sums; any difference is charged at cost plus your stated percentage.
- Bathrooms are regulated rooms. Part P electrics, water notice for baths over 230 litres, and tanking priced as its own job.
- Know the VAT relief. Adapting a bathroom for a disabled person in their home can be zero-rated if the conditions are met.
Bathroom fitters sell the most personal room in the house, in the smallest space, with the most trades per square metre. A good bathroom fitter is booked months ahead. Plenty of them still finish the year with less than they expected.
This guide is for owners of UK bathroom fitting businesses. It shows how to price a full refit trade by trade, so the hidden work and late choices are paid for. Want your own prices checked? Book a free strategy call.
Where bathroom fitting businesses lose profit margin
A bathroom has a lot of risk in a small room:
- What is under the old floor and behind the tiles Rot, bad pipework, uneven walls
- Late choices Tiles and sanitaryware picked after the price, often dearer
- Tanking and preparation squeezed into the tiler's time
- Other trades The electrician, sometimes a Gas Safe engineer, paid by you
- Client-supplied items that arrive damaged or wrong, while you wait
- Disposal of a full bathroom, priced as "we'll take it away"
Price the trades in the order they happen
Worked example: full family bathroom refit, supply and fit (example figures)
| Line | Basis | £ |
|---|---|---|
| Fitter / plumber | strip-out, first and second fix: 7 days × £230 | 1,610 |
| Tiler | 4 days × £220 | 880 |
| Electrician (sub) | electric shower circuit, lighting, extractor | 380 |
| Boards and tanking | tile backer boards, tanking kit | 420 |
| Plumbing parts | valves, wastes, fittings | 260 |
| Skip and disposal | 260 | |
| Sanitaryware allowance | PC sum, client's choice | 2,200 |
| Tiles allowance | 18 m² × £35 | 630 |
| Direct cost | 6,640 | |
| Price at a 30% floor (÷ 0.70) | 9,486 |
The labour lines come to about £2,490, inside the £1,500–£3,000 that a 2026 homeowner guide shows for a full refit. The difference is that every other cost is on the quote too.
Your margin floor is your overheads as a % of turnover plus the net profit you want.
Use allowances for what the client chooses
Clients change their minds about tiles and taps. Do not let it come out of your margin.
- Put sanitaryware and tiles in as allowances (PC sums), each with a stated amount
- Say in the quote that if the client chooses something dearer, the difference is charged at cost plus your stated percentage
- Set a date by which choices must be made, so the job is not held up
- For client-supplied items, check the delivery before strip-out and charge for return visits in writing
Large-format tiles, patterns and niches take longer to fit. Price the tiler's days from the tile the client actually chose, not from "standard tiling".
Stripping out the old bathroom before the new suite is on site and checked. If the basin arrives cracked, the family has no bathroom and you have no work for three days.
Want your bathroom prices built trade by trade from your own numbers?
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Price the regulated work properly
A bathroom is a regulated room. In England:
- Electrics: adding to or altering circuits in a room with a bath or shower is notifiable under Part P, and so is any new circuit, such as one for an electric shower
- Water: a bath holding more than 230 litres (to the overflow line) must be notified to the water company before it is fitted, under the Water Fittings Regulations
- Gas: moving or replacing a boiler or gas supply needs a Gas Safe registered engineer
- Ventilation: the extractor is part of the job, so price it and its ducting
A large freestanding bath is exactly what clients love and what catches fitters out. Check the capacity on the spec sheet, notify the water company in advance and check the floor takes the weight when full.
The Builder's Pricing Playbook
The package-by-package estimate sheet, with allowances and provisional sums, for every bathroom quote.
Get the free guidePrice waterproofing as its own job
Tiles and grout are not waterproof. In wet areas, the walls and floor behind them need a tanking system, and wet rooms need the whole floor fall and drain built in.
- Price the boards, membrane, tapes and the drain as materials
- Price the time, including drying or curing before tiling
- On wet rooms, price the floor work: falls, formers, sometimes lowering joists or a new screed
A leak behind new tiles costs you the whole bathroom again. See subcontractor poor workmanship: who pays if a tiler or plumber you hired causes one.
Use the VAT relief for adaptations
Adapting a bathroom, washroom or lavatory in the private home of a disabled person, because of their condition, can be zero-rated for VAT. The rules are in HMRC's VAT Notice 701/7. Typical work includes walk-in showers, level-access floors and grab rails as part of the adaptation.
The conditions matter: the work must be needed because of the person's condition, and you should get a written eligibility declaration from the customer. Knowing this, and explaining it properly, is a real reason for a family to choose you. Check each job with your accountant.
For a four-minute score of your pricing, cash, sales and systems, take the free Construction Business Scorecard.
Grow from fitter to bathroom company
The bathroom firms that grow sell a finished room: design help, a fixed programme, one team, one price. Then they choose where the work comes from: homeowners at full price, developers by plot, or landlords and housing providers with repeat work. If plumbing and heating is most of your work, see how to grow a plumbing business.
Most owners we mentor fix pricing first, then sales: presenting the quote face to face and following up every open quote weekly.
Dmitriy: from plumber to his first £50K commercial project
After 20+ years as a plumber, live quote presentations and weekly follow-up on every open quote led to his first £50K commercial job. Individual results, not typical or guaranteed.
Sviat Jay runs a working construction company, Craftex, and mentors owners one to one himself. Every owner is different, and he builds on what you are already good at, aiming for results in about four months. To find your own margin leaks, book a free strategy call.
For margins on general plumbing work, see our plumbing business margin guide. If you want your rates built for you, see our construction estimating services.
Want to know which of your bathroom jobs really make money?
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Before you send your next bathroom quote
Regulatory and tax points are general information for England as of October 2026. Check the details with building control, your water company and your accountant.
Before you go
- Every trade is a line with its own days, in the order it happens
- Sanitaryware and tiles are allowances with a cost-plus rule
- Part P, water notification and gas work are checked and priced
- Tanking and floor work are priced as their own job
- VAT relief is checked for adaptation work
