A full renovation of a 5 m² bathroom costs between 4,500 and 7,500 € in 2026 including VAT (IVA) with mid-range finishes, according to the Cuantomecuesta price guide; a partial one, just tiles, paint and tap, stays at 2,800-4,000 €. For Valencia the same guide gives 4,500-9,000 €, and the full job takes one to three weeks.
That is the big picture. But “renovating the bathroom” is the sum of nine different jobs, and knowing how much each one weighs is what lets you decide where to spend and where not to.
Octo Service is a repair service in Valencia and l'Horta: you write to us, we agree the price before anyone starts, and the work is done by an independent professional who works with us. All the figures below are market prices or come from the construction price database, each with its source linked. These are not our rates.
How much does it cost to renovate a bathroom in 2026?
Price guides group bathroom renovations into three levels. This is the table from Cuantomecuesta, updated in April 2026, for a standard bathroom of about 5 m²:
| Renovation level | What it includes | Price including VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Partial | New tiles, paint and tap; sanitaryware and layout are left as they are | 2,800-4,000 € |
| Full, mid-range finishes | Everything new: demolition, plumbing, electrics, tiling, floor, sanitaryware, shower tray and screen | 4,500-7,500 € |
| Premium | Designer materials, built-in walk-in shower (ducha de obra), double washbasin, wall-hung vanity unit | from 15,000 € |
| Valencia, standard bathroom | Full renovation | 4,500-9,000 € |
Source: Cuantomecuesta, bathroom renovation prices, prices updated in April 2026, 10% VAT included.
The range for a full renovation is wide because the materials are. The same bathroom with a porcelain tray and an off-the-shelf screen, or with an ultra-slim resin tray, thermostatic taps and a made-to-measure screen, can differ by more than two thousand euros without a single metre of the building work changing.
If all you want is to take out the bath and put in a shower tray, you do not need to renovate the whole bathroom: we cover it in how much it costs to replace a bath with a shower tray, a job of 800 to 3,500 €.
Item by item: what you pay for in a 5 m² bathroom
To look inside a quote, we added up the line items of a full 5 m² renovation using the CYPE price database, the one architects and building surveyors use to cost building work in Spain. These are direct building costs: materials and labour, before VAT and without the margin of whoever does the job. A 5 m² bathroom tiled up to 2.40 m has about 20 m² of wall.
| Item | Quantity | Direct cost before VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Chipping off the old wall tiles | 20 m² × 10.95 € | 219.00 € |
| Lifting the ceramic floor | 5 m² × 14.73 € | 73.65 € |
| 7 m³ rubble skip | 1 | 99.53 € |
| New bathroom plumbing, hot and cold water | 1 bathroom | 610.18 € |
| Wall tiling, 20 × 20 tiles | 20 m² × 37.83 € | 756.60 € |
| Porcelain floor tiles | 5 m² × 58.34 € | 291.70 € |
| 80 × 80 resin shower tray with waste valve | 1 | 504.57 € |
| Basic toilet with cistern | 1 | 325.32 € |
| Basic wall-hung washbasin | 1 | 159.80 € |
| Single-lever basin tap | 1 | 147.60 € |
| Thermostatic shower mixer | 1 | 235.49 € |
| Sliding front shower screen with fixed side panel | 1 | 1,393.99 € |
| CYPE total | 4,817.43 € | |
| Bathroom electrics | - | 220-450 € (Cuantomecuesta) |
Sources: CYPE, wall tile demolition, ceramic floor demolition, waste skip, bathroom internal plumbing, wall tiling, porcelain floor, resin shower tray, toilet, washbasin, basin tap, thermostatic mixer and shower screen, checked in October 2026. Electrics from Cuantomecuesta.
About 5,000 € of direct cost before VAT and margin. That fits the 4,500-7,500 € range in the guides, and it shows three things you cannot see in a single figure.
First: the CYPE shower screen is the most expensive item on the list, not because fitting it costs much, but because of the glass. An off-the-shelf screen in a standard size costs a good deal less; the figures are in how much it costs to fit a shower screen.
Second: tiling is the biggest building item. The bathroom tiling price guide gives the price per square metre by type of tile, and whether it is worth removing the old tiles or tiling over them. The tile calculator works out the metres, boxes and adhesive for your bathroom.
Third: plumbing, 610 € with the supply points left where they are, is the item that can rise most if you change the layout. More on that below.
How much does it cost to renovate a 6 to 8 m² bathroom?
Here there is a gap in the guides: none publishes a set figure for 6 or 8 m² bathrooms. But with the per-metre prices in the table above you can work out how much it goes up.
A bigger bathroom has more wall and more floor, but the same toilet, the same washbasin, the same shower tray and the same screen. Only four items grow: chipping off, lifting the floor, wall tiling and laying the new floor.
| Bathroom (floor) | Wall, approx. | Basic, including VAT | Mid-range, including VAT | Extra direct cost compared with 5 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-5 m² | 18-20 m² | 2,800-4,000 € | 4,500-7,500 € | - |
| 6 m² | 23 m² | about 3,000-4,250 € | about 4,750-7,750 € | +219 € before VAT |
| 8 m² | 27 m² | about 3,400-4,600 € | about 5,100-8,100 € | +561 € before VAT |
Source: the 4-5 m² row is from Cuantomecuesta. The 6 and 8 m² rows are our own calculation: to that range we added the cost of chipping off, lifting, tiling and laying the extra metres at CYPE prices, with 10% VAT and rounded. They are a guide, not anyone's prices.
The practical consequence is what you see in the last column: an 8 m² bathroom does not cost twice as much as a 4 m² one. It costs a few hundred euros more. Per square metre, the small bathroom is the expensive one, because the sanitaryware and the screen weigh the same and are spread over fewer metres.
How many days does the work take?
According to Cuantomecuesta, a full bathroom renovation takes one to three weeks, and a partial one three to five days. The order is almost always the same:
- Demolition: chipping off tiles and floor, removing sanitaryware and taking out the rubble. One or two days.
- Plumbing and electrics: new pipes in the wall and new light points, before anything is closed up.
- Tiling and floor: the longest job. Adhesive and grout need their time before anyone walks on them or fits anything on top.
- Shower tray, sanitaryware and taps.
- Shower screen and finishing: last, because it is measured on the finished tiling.
Two things stretch the job without anyone working more. A made-to-measure screen or vanity unit is manufactured after measuring, and the guide allows two or three extra days for made-to-order material. And in a flat with only one bathroom, those are days without a shower: worth discussing before fixing the date.
What VAT applies to a bathroom renovation?
A renovation in your home can carry 10% VAT instead of 21%, but only if three conditions are met, summed up by the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) in its FAQ on building work and taken from article 91 of the VAT Act:
- The home is for private use, yours or your tenant's, not business premises.
- It was built or last refurbished at least two years ago.
- The materials supplied by whoever does the work are no more than 40% of the taxable base.
The third is the one that breaks in a bathroom. In the CYPE table, the screen, shower tray, sanitaryware and taps add up to more than half the total, and almost all of it is material. If whoever does the work supplies them, the whole invoice can go to 21%, not just the excess.
The way out is legal and simple: you buy the sanitaryware, shower tray, screen and taps, and whoever does the work invoices their labour, the tiles and minor materials. That keeps their materials under 40% and their invoice at 10%. What you buy carries the shop's 21%, but you were paying that anyway.
Do you need a licence to renovate a bathroom in Valencia?
In Valencia city, a bathroom renovation that does not touch the structure, the façade or the layout is filed as a works declaration (declaración responsable de obras), not a licence: you submit it and you can start. You pay a planning fee and the construction tax (ICIO).
| Works budget | Planning fee |
|---|---|
| Up to 6,010.12 € | 140.90 € |
| From 6,010.13 to 30,050.61 € | 253.54 € |
| ICIO, in all cases | 4% of the material execution budget (presupuesto de ejecución material) |
Source: Ajuntament de València, works declaration.
For a renovation with a material execution cost of 5,000 €, that means 140.90 € in fees and 200 € of ICIO. If you move a partition wall or a soil stack, the procedure may change, so ask first. In Torrent, Mislata, Burjassot and the rest of l'Horta each town hall has its own procedure and fees.
And one grant to watch: the Generalitat's (regional government) Renhata scheme subsidises bathroom renovations in buildings more than 20 years old. The call published in the DOGV of 11 November 2025 covered budgets of 2,000 to 12,000 € and closed in January 2026. If your building qualifies, wait for the next one before starting.
What pushes up the price of a bathroom renovation
Not everything costs the same to change. These are the decisions that move the bill most, with a figure where there is a source:
- Moving water supply points or the drain. According to Cuantomecuesta, replacing the tap and drain in place is about 375 €, and moving supply points 500-700 €. Moving the toilet to a different wall is the worst, because the soil pipe has to be rerouted to the stack.
- Moving lights and sockets. The same guide puts bathroom electrics at 220-450 €, and the top end, 300-450 €, is for moving light and socket points. If the work rewires the whole home and not just the bathroom, you may need the electrical installation certificate (boletín eléctrico, CIE): there we explain when the distribution company asks for it and how much it costs.
- The type of tile. Going from standard tiles to large format more than doubles the price per metre of tiling; it is broken down in the bathroom tiling guide.
- A made-to-measure screen and concealed taps. These are the two items that jump the most in range: an exposed thermostatic mixer and a concealed one are nothing alike in price or in work.
- What turns up when the tiles come off. Old iron pipes, a wall that turns out crooked or damp behind the bath. You cannot know in advance, but you can agree how it will be quoted if it appears.
And one that lowers the price: tiling up to 1.5 m instead of up to the ceiling. Cuantomecuesta reckons it cuts the cost of tiles by around 30%.
Three questions before accepting a quote
- Is the price broken down by item? Without a breakdown you cannot compare two quotes or know what to cut.
- Are the skip, rubble removal and the town hall paperwork included?
- What happens if something unseen turns up when the tiles come off? The good answer is “I'll send you a new proposal and you decide”, not “we'll see”.
A fixed price before anyone starts chipping
At Octo Service we agree the price in writing before work starts. You send us photos of the bathroom and its measurements, we send back the total amount including VAT, broken down by item, and if it suits you, the work is done by independent professionals who work with us in Valencia city and the towns of l'Horta. If something turns up when the tiles come off, you get a new proposal before work continues.
You can see how it works on the tiling in Valencia and plumber in Valencia pages. If you are not sure whether we cover your street, check whether we reach your home.