How much does it cost to rip out a bathroom?
Stripping out a bathroom costs £500 to £900 in south London including disposal — the national average is around £700. It takes one to two days. The number moves with what the strip-out finds: historic leaks, rotten boards and dead pipework live under old baths.
Rip-out is the cheapest stage of a renovation and the one that generates the surprises. Removing the suite, tiles and flooring is a day of honest labour plus a licensed waste collection or skip share — in permit-controlled inner streets, the disposal logistics are half the cost.
What the strip-out reveals prices the rest of the job: water-damaged subfloor around the WC (common), corroded imperial-size pipework that will not mate with new fittings (very common in pre-1960s houses), and walls that come off with the tiles (lath-and-plaster behind 1980s tiling does this). This is why our quotes carry a named contingency rather than a silent one — the strip-out day usually decides whether it gets used.
One thing not to do: rip out the bathroom yourself before getting quotes to 'save money'. An empty shell is harder to quote accurately than a working room, because the old installation is the best evidence of where services run — and you lose the only working bathroom in the house earlier than you need to.
More in costs & budgets, or browse all 38 questions on the FAQ index.
Price your project
Two quick steps. We reply within one working day.
No account, no obligation. We only use this to prepare your quote.
Ready to price your bathroom?
Tell us the room and the rough plan — we reply within one working day with an honest cost bracket, then a free home survey and a fixed written quote.