Bathrooms are the highest-ROI renovation you can do — and the one most likely to blow the budget. A €12,000 job quietly becomes €17,000 the moment the old tiles come off, the drain isn't where it should be, and the client changes their mind about the shower screen. It's not that bathrooms are unpredictable. It's that most quotes leave out the parts nobody wants to talk about.
Here's what a bathroom renovation actually costs in 2026, where the money goes, and how to price a quote so it doesn't turn into an argument three weeks in.
The three tiers: basic, mid, luxury
Bathrooms cluster into three price bands. Everyone thinks they're doing a mid-range renovation. Half of them are actually doing luxury.
- Basic — €5,000 to €9,000. Small bathroom (3–5 m²), refresh rather than rebuild. Standard sanitary, budget tiles from a builder's merchant, keep the existing layout, keep the existing plumbing routes.
- Mid-range — €12,000 to €18,000. Full strip-out and refit for a 5–7 m² bathroom. Mid-tier sanitary (Villeroy & Boch, Duravit basics), €40–€60/m² tiles, walk-in shower, new lighting, possibly moved plumbing.
- Luxury — €25,000+. Design-led, large-format tiles, brass fittings, freestanding bath, underfloor heating, custom vanity, moved walls. Ceiling is what the client is willing to spend.
💡 The "mid-range creep" problem
Almost every client says they want mid-range and picks luxury finishes. A €90/m² tile isn't mid-range. A €1,400 mixer isn't mid-range. Show the client the sanitary and tile prices before you quote — not after. It saves the awkward conversation later.
Cost breakdown: where the money goes
The rough split for a mid-range 5–7 m² bathroom in NL/EU is remarkably consistent:
The "permits/misc" bucket is the one contractors most often forget to price. Skip container, dust protection, floor coverings, waste disposal, and the day the tiler wanted a day off — it all lands in this 15%.
Materials cost per m²
Roughly, per square metre of bathroom floor area:
| Item | Basic (€/m²) | Mid (€/m²) | Luxury (€/m²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall tiles (incl. adhesive/grout) | 30–50 | 60–100 | 120–250+ |
| Floor tiles (incl. adhesive/grout) | 40–60 | 70–110 | 130–260+ |
| Sanitary (WC, basin, shower/bath) | 150–250 | 350–600 | 800–1,500+ |
| Plumbing rough-in | 80–120 | 120–180 | 180–300 |
| Electrical (lights, sockets, extractor) | 50–80 | 90–140 | 150–250 |
| Waterproofing (tanking membrane) | 15–25 | 25–40 | 40–60 |
| Paint (ceiling only) | 3–5 | 5–8 | 8–15 |
Labor cost per trade
A typical 5 m² bathroom takes around 8–12 working days from strip-out to final silicone. The trades stack roughly like this (day rates NL, incl. BTW):
| Trade | Day rate | Days needed | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumber (loodgieter) | €520–€680 | 2–3 | €1,200–€2,000 |
| Tiler (tegelzetter) | €440–€600 | 3–5 | €1,500–€3,000 |
| Electrician (elektricien) | €500–€650 | 1–1.5 | €600–€1,000 |
| General / carpenter (aannemer) | €380–€520 | 2–3 | €900–€1,500 |
If one person does everything (small aannemer / ZZP), day-rate compresses but calendar days extend. Same total, spread over 3 weeks instead of 2.
📐 Price a bathroom quote in BuildExact
Enter the room dimensions, tick the openings, choose your tile format and BuildExact calculates tiles, adhesive, grout and waterproofing area in seconds. Then drop your labor lines in the quote builder and export a professional PDF for the client.
Download freeHidden extras that blow the budget
These are the ones that surprise clients — and, if you didn't reserve for them, surprise you too:
- Rerouting drainage. Moving a WC or shower drain more than 1 m adds a full day of labor and possibly a floor break-out. €400–€1,200.
- Ventilation. Older bathrooms often lack proper mechanical extraction. Retrofitting a duct to an outside wall: €300–€800.
- Damaged subfloor. Once tiles come off, rotted timber or crumbling screed appears in about 1 in 3 pre-1980 homes. €500–€2,000.
- Asbestos. In bathrooms built before 1994, especially around old flue vents or floor adhesive. Testing + certified removal: €600–€2,500.
- Permit delays. If you touch load-bearing walls or move ventilation to a new outside penetration, VvE approval or omgevingsvergunning applies. Budget 4–8 weeks lead time.
🔧 Always reserve 15% contingency
Reserve 15% of the quote value as a written contingency line — either "PM (nader te bepalen)" or an explicit "unforeseen circumstances" clause. Half the time you don't use it. The other half, it's the difference between a job that ends well and one that ends in a small claims court.
How to price a bathroom quote as a contractor
Five rules that make a bathroom quote defensible:
- Measure everything on site. Walls, floor, ceiling height, window and door positions, existing drain positions. Not from a client sketch.
- Split labor and materials for VAT. Under the 9% low-rate rule for renovations of homes older than 2 years, labor on renovations is often eligible for the low rate. Materials stay at 21%. Split explicitly on the quote.
- Add 15% contingency, in writing. As a named line item, not hidden in the total. Clients respect it more than a padded rate.
- Itemise per phase. Strip-out, plumbing rough-in, tiling, fit-out, finish. Clients approve phases mentally when they see the sequence.
- Include a payment schedule. 30% on start, 40% mid-way after tiling, 25% on completion, 5% after 30 days of use. Never do 50/50.
Quoting bathrooms in BuildExact
The bathroom calculation combines three of BuildExact's strongest tools: the wall-with-openings module (calculates tile area minus door, window, shower niche), the tile calculator (adds waste %, adhesive kg, grout kg per m²), and the quote builder (drops the numbers directly into a line-itemised PDF with VAT split). Save the project once and you can copy-paste it for the next client with different tile choices in about five minutes.
Bathrooms will always have surprises. The point of a good quote isn't to hide them — it's to have already told the client they might happen.