Most full bathroom renovations in a standard family home take between two and three weeks on site, once materials are in and the work starts. Trade websites often quote a week, but that assumes a simple like-for-like swap with no surprises behind the old tiles. This guide walks through what actually happens day by day, so you can plan around it.
For a standard bathroom of around two by two metres in a 1930s semi, 1960s ex-council house or a 1990s Barratt-style build, the work on site usually runs to 10 to 15 working days. That covers strip-out, first fix plumbing and electrics, plastering or boarding, tiling, second fix and finishing.
Smaller cloakrooms or en-suites can be turned round in five to eight days. Larger bathrooms, wet rooms, or jobs where walls are being moved or a bath is being swapped for a walk-in shower tend to sit at the three to four week end.
Tiling is the part people underestimate. A fully tiled bathroom with large-format porcelain on walls and floor, with cut-ins around windows, boxing and a niche, is easily four to six days of skilled work before grouting. Adhesive needs to cure, usually overnight, before grouting, and grout should be left a further 24 hours before the shower is used.
Small mosaic tiles, herringbone patterns or anything laid on a diagonal can add two or three days compared with a straightforward brick-bond layout. If you want a fast turnaround, a large-format tile in a simple layout is the quickest option that still looks good.
The biggest cause of delay in older Leicestershire housing is what turns up once the old tiles come off. Damp plaster behind a shower, rotten floorboards under a bath, and lead or corroded galvanised pipework are all common in pre-war and post-war properties around Wigston, Oadby and South Wigston. Sorting these properly can add two to five days.
Material lead times matter too. Standard suites from local merchants are usually available within a few days, but made-to-order shower trays, bespoke vanity units and some imported tiles can take four to six weeks. A good tradesperson will not start stripping out until everything needed is on site or confirmed.
Drying time is the other one. Sand and cement screed, tanking systems and plaster all need to cure before tiling. Rushing this is how you end up with tiles that debond or grout that cracks within a year.
If it is your only bathroom, plan for the toilet being out of action for at least parts of days one and two, and the shower or bath being unusable for most of the job. Many people in the Wigston area arrange to stay with family for a few nights during the tiling stage, or set up a temporary toilet in a downstairs cloakroom if they have one.
Ask your plumber whether they can leave a working toilet overnight wherever possible. On most jobs this is achievable, but it does depend on where the soil pipe sits and whether the floor is being replaced.
The single most useful thing you can do is make every decision before work starts. Tile choice, grout colour, shower valve, tap style and where the towel rail goes should all be settled in advance. Changes made mid-job nearly always cost days, not hours.
Order everything early and have it delivered a week or so before the start date, so any damaged or missing items can be replaced without stalling the job. Finally, be a little suspicious of anyone promising a full renovation in five days. It can be done, but usually only on a simple layout with nothing going wrong behind the walls.
Only for a simple like-for-like replacement with minimal tiling and no hidden problems. For a full retile with new pipework, two to three weeks is a far more realistic figure.
Planning permission is not normally needed for a refurbishment. Building Control may need notifying if you are moving drainage, altering structure, or having new electrical circuits installed, which should come with a Part P certificate.
Using one firm that does both plumbing and tiling usually saves time, because the stages are sequenced by the same people and there is no waiting for a second trade to become free.