Most bathroom renovation cost south africa guides give you a range and leave you to guess where you land. This one does the opposite: a single, ordinary bathroom, costed line by line from strip-out to snag list.
The bathroom is a 5 m² family bathroom in a 1970s Cape Town house. Bath and separate shower, one window, plumbing staying where it is. Nothing exotic. The kind of job we quote most weeks.
The brief
- Strip everything back to brick and screed
- Keep the toilet, basin and shower in their existing positions
- Replace the bath, keep a separate shower
- Full retile, floor and walls to ceiling in the wet areas
- New vanity with storage, new mirror cabinet, extractor fan added
The costing, stage by stage
1. Strip-out and disposal — R6,800
Two days. Old tiles, bath, toilet, basin and the failed screed under the shower. One and a half bakkie loads of rubble to the municipal site. Disposal fees are inside this figure; they are the bit people forget.
2. First-fix plumbing — R11,400
Here is where the job changed. The supply lines were original galvanised pipe, furred up and weeping at one joint behind the bath. Tying new brass fittings onto that would have been pointless, so the supply was replaced in the bathroom with a variation of R4,200 on top of the original R7,200.
This is the single most common variation on older Cape Town homes and the reason the contingency exists.
3. Electrical — R7,600
New extractor fan on its own switched circuit, two downlights replaced, a shaver point added, and an old junction box in the ceiling void made safe. Registered electrician, certificate issued.
4. Screed and fall — R4,900
The shower floor was re-screeded to a proper fall. The original had almost none, which is why the previous owner had a permanent puddle and a stained ceiling in the room below.
5. Waterproofing and flood test — R6,100
Membrane to the shower recess and the full floor, turned 150mm up the walls, corners reinforced. Flooded and left 24 hours, checked, then signed off before a single tile went down.
6. Tiling labour — R9,250
Roughly 34 m² of tiled surface once the walls were counted — people always underestimate this. Standard 300×600 format at R272/m² fitted. Grouting and silicone included.
7. Tiles supplied — R7,480
34 m² at R220/m² including a 10 percent wastage allowance. The client chose mid-range porcelain. This line is entirely in your control.
8. Sanitaryware and fittings — R18,900
Bath, toilet suite, basin, bath mixer, shower mixer and rail, and the shower waste. Mid-range South African brands with parts availability, chosen over an imported set that looked better and would have been a problem in five years.
9. Vanity, mirror cabinet and shower door — R14,200
Made-to-measure vanity, because an off-the-shelf unit left 70mm of dead space against the wall. Framed shower door rather than frameless, which saved about R5,000.
10. Painting and making good — R4,300
Ceiling, the untiled wall above the dado, door frame, and repairing the doorway damage from getting the old bath out.
The total
- Labour and installation: R46,050
- Materials, tiles, sanitaryware and fittings: R40,580
- Variation for galvanised pipe replacement: R4,200
- Final invoice: R90,830
Against an original quote of R86,630. The overrun was 4.8 percent, entirely the pipework, and it was raised and approved in writing on day three rather than appearing at the end.
Labour came to 51 percent of the total, which is typical. Anyone quoting a bathroom where labour is 25 percent has either left something out or is planning to cut a corner you cannot see.
What this job teaches
- Tiled area is bigger than floor area. A 5 m² bathroom had 34 m² of tiling. Always price on the measured surface, not the floor plan.
- Old supply pipe is a when, not an if. On pre-1990 Cape Town housing, budget for it.
- The invisible stages are cheap. Screed, waterproofing and the flood test came to R11,000 of a R90,830 job — 12 percent — and they are the only things preventing a repeat in three years.
- Made-to-measure earned its money. R3,000 more than off-the-shelf, and it gave back usable storage in a small room.
Every one of our bathroom renovations is quoted on this structure, so you can see which lines are fixed, which you control, and where the contingency might go.
Frequently asked questions
What does a bathroom renovation cost in South Africa?
The 5 m² example above came to R90,830 including a variation. Typical complete jobs run R75,000 to R135,000, with compact guest bathrooms from about R55,000 and large en-suites with relocated plumbing going past R180,000.
How much of a bathroom renovation is labour?
Around half. In this job labour was R46,050 of R90,830, or 51 percent. That ratio holds across most bathrooms because six trades work in sequence inside a very small room.
How much tiling does a small bathroom need?
Far more than the floor area suggests. This 5 m² bathroom needed roughly 34 m² of tile once walls were tiled to ceiling in the wet areas. Always have the surface measured rather than estimating from the floor plan.
What is the most common unexpected cost?
Perished galvanised supply pipework in homes built before about 1990. In this job it added R4,200. It cannot be seen until the wall is open, which is exactly why a 10 to 15 percent contingency belongs in the budget.