Bathroom Renovation in Spain: Why One Quote Says €4,800 and Another €14,000
A small bathroom refit starts at €4,800 and a large one reaches €14,000. The gap is not marketing — it is square metres, whether the drains move, and how many of the tiles are cut by hand.
On Costa Blanca in 2026, a complete bathroom renovation costs €4,800–6,500 for a small bathroom of 3–4 m², €7,000–9,500 for a standard 5–6 m² bathroom, and €10,000–14,000 for a large or high-specification one. That is a full strip to the brick, new waterproofing, plumbing, electrics, tiling and fittings. Moving the toilet adds €600–1,200. Large-format tiles add 15–25% to the tiling labour.
Bathrooms produce the widest spread of quotes of anything we price, and clients reasonably assume someone is overcharging. Usually nobody is — the quotes describe different work. Here is how to read them.
Where the money goes in a €7,800 bathroom
A real example: 5.5 m², full strip-out, everything replaced, fittings kept mid-range, layout unchanged.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Strip-out, waste removal, protection of the rest of the house | €680 |
| Plumbing: new pipework, valves, connections | €1,150 |
| Electrics: circuit, lighting, extraction, shaver point | €720 |
| Waterproofing and levelling screed | €540 |
| Tiling labour, walls and floor | €1,750 |
| Tiles and adhesive (mid-range porcelain) | €980 |
| Shower tray, screen, mixer | €890 |
| Toilet, basin, vanity unit, mirror | €760 |
| Painting, silicone, trims, final fit | €330 |
| Total | €7,800 |
Notice that the visible items — the ones you choose in a showroom — are barely a third of the total. Most of what you pay for is labour on things you will never see again once the tiles go on.
Labour only: what you pay if you buy the materials yourself
Many owners ask for a "labour only" price: they want to choose and buy the tiles, the shower and the sanitaryware themselves. That works, and in the right conditions it also lowers the VAT. In practice the contractor still supplies the building consumables — pipework, cable, waterproofing membrane, screed, silicone — because those have to match the installation and carry the installer's guarantee. So the useful split is finishes bought by you and labour plus consumables from the contractor.
| Using the €7,800 bathroom above | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bought by you: tiles and adhesive, shower tray, screen and mixer, toilet, basin, vanity unit and mirror | ≈ €2,630 |
| Contractor: all labour plus pipework, electrics, waterproofing, screed and final fit | ≈ €5,170 |
Scaled to a small bathroom of 3–4 m², the contractor's part — labour plus consumables — comes to roughly €3,200–4,300 on the Costa Blanca in 2026, with the finishes on top at whatever you choose to spend. For reference, Spain-wide market rates published by quote platforms in 2026 put plumbers at about €30–52 per hour and tiling labour at about €20–35 per m² for standard formats; large-format porcelain costs more to lay.
The VAT point most people miss
Renovation work on a home is normally taxed at 21% VAT. It drops to 10% when the client is a private individual using the home privately, the home is more than two years old, and the materials supplied by the contractor are no more than 40% of the price of the job. When you buy the finishes yourself, the contractor's invoice is mostly labour, so it is far more likely to meet that 40% condition — and the whole invoice can then go at 10%. Appliances are always 21%, and a property let out as a business does not qualify.
What to agree before you go this way
- Quantities. Order about 10% more tile than the measured area, for cuts and breakage, and from the same batch — a second order rarely matches in colour.
- Delivery dates. If the tiles arrive a week late, the crew waits or leaves. Agree whether waiting days are charged.
- Guarantees. The contractor guarantees the installation; a faulty tap or a cracked tray is between you and the shop that sold it.
- Compatibility. Send the model numbers of the shower tray, mixer and toilet before buying — waste positions and concealed cisterns must match what is built into the wall.
The three decisions that move the price most
- Whether the drains move. Keeping the toilet, shower and basin where they are is the cheap case. Moving the toilet means breaking the floor and re-laying the soil pipe to the correct fall — €600–1,200 and a day of noise. Moving a basin is cheap; moving a toilet never is.
- Tile format. A 30×60 cm tile is quick. A 120×60 cm porcelain slab needs two people to lift, a perfectly flat substrate and specialist cutting. It looks far better and costs 15–25% more in labour before you have bought a single tile.
- Whether you want a bath. Removing a bath and fitting a walk-in shower is the single most requested change we do here — it suits the climate and the age profile of many owners. Level-access shower trays need floor depth, which sometimes means raising the whole floor.
If the property is rented out
A holiday-rental bathroom has a different brief from a home bathroom, and spending the same money differently gets a better result:
- Walk-in shower, not a bath — guests of every age can use it and it cleans in a minute.
- Wall-hung toilet and vanity — nothing to mop around, and the floor cleans in one pass.
- Mid-range fittings from a brand with local spares. When a mixer fails in August, you need the part today, not in three weeks.
- Larger tiles, fewer grout lines. Grout is what makes a rental bathroom look tired.
- Proper extraction on a humidity sensor. Mould complaints in reviews cost more than the fan.
How long it takes
Ten to fifteen working days for a standard bathroom, if materials are on site before the first day. The sequence has unavoidable waiting: waterproofing needs to cure, screed needs to dry, adhesive needs to set before grouting. Anyone promising a finished bathroom in five days is skipping one of those.
The single biggest cause of delay is not the work — it is a tile chosen after the start and then discovered to be on a six-week lead time from Castellón. Choose everything first.
Licence
Replacing a bathroom inside existing walls is minor works: a declaración responsable at the town hall, a modest fee, no technical project. It becomes obra mayor only if you move walls or alter the building's structure or façade. In a community of owners, check the statutes too — many require notice before work starts and restrict noisy hours.
Questions we get asked
Can I renovate a bathroom without moving out?
If the property has a second bathroom, comfortably. If it is the only one, the house is unusable for about a week in the middle — realistically you need somewhere else for that period. We can stage the work to shorten it, but there is no version where the only toilet in the house is available every day.
Why are quotes for the same bathroom so different?
Look for three lines. Does it include waterproofing under the tiles, or just tiling? Does it include waste removal and tipping, or is that "extra"? Does it include the fittings, or a budget allowance for them that you will exceed the moment you visit a showroom? Cheap quotes are usually not dishonest — they are describing less work.
Is underfloor heating worth it in a Spanish bathroom?
Electric mat heating under a bathroom floor costs €400–700 and takes half a day while the floor is open. On Costa Blanca it is a comfort item for January and February rather than a necessity, but it is one of those things that is cheap now and very expensive later.
Should I choose the tiles or can you?
You choose, we narrow the field. We will bring three or four options that fit the budget, the format that suits the room and — importantly — that are actually in stock in Alicante province. Nothing wastes more time than falling for a tile that ships from Italy in eight weeks.
How much does labour cost to renovate a small bathroom in Spain?
For a small bathroom of 3–4 m² on the Costa Blanca in 2026, the contractor's part — labour plus building consumables such as pipework, cable and waterproofing — comes to roughly €3,200–4,300 if you buy the tiles, shower and sanitaryware yourself. Spain-wide market rates put plumbers at about €30–52 per hour and tiling labour at about €20–35 per m². When the contractor's materials are no more than 40% of the job and the home is your private residence over two years old, the invoice can be taxed at 10% VAT instead of 21%.
Getting a real number
The bathroom page has a short calculator that asks about size, layout changes and finish level, and returns a planning price. For anything unusual — a level-access wet room, a bathroom in an old townhouse, a floor that has already been raised once — send photos and we will look properly.
Planning this on your own property?
Send the address and a few photos. We will tell you what is realistic, what it costs and what has to be checked on site — before any commitment.