Bathroom Renovation in Berlin

Savings are made above all in the decisions taken before the first blow of the hammer. If the layout and the positions of the WC, washbasin and shower stay unchanged, the most expensive work is avoided: opening walls, laying new pipework, closing shafts again. A partial renovation with a new floor, replaced taps and renewed joints therefore comes to 2.000 to 6.000 Euro, and a small bathroom of 5 to 7 square metres with standard fittings to 8.000 to 12.000 Euro. The tile format also has a direct effect on the labour share, because large format tiles need a more even substrate and more time.

What you should not save on is the waterproofing, the pipework and the substrate. Labour costs in the Berlin plumbing and heating trade are around 60 to 100 Euro per hour, and tilers often charge 40 to 70 Euro per square metre of laid area. Anyone who cuts these items saves once and pays twice with the next moisture damage. In Gruenderzeit buildings (Berlin's late nineteenth century housing stock) we allow a contingency of 15 to 20 percent and show it separately in the quotation instead of hiding it in the square metre price. The price only becomes binding after the on-site appointment.

Both routes have their place. If the bath is the only problem and the tiles, the waterproofing and the pipework are intact, the conversion alone is enough: 3.500 to 5.500 Euro where the existing connections can be used, 6.000 to 9.500 Euro with a new level-access shower including tiling and waterproofing, and 9.500 to 14.000 Euro where walls are opened and pipework is relaid. If the drain has to be moved, another 500 to 1.500 Euro are added. In terms of time, the simple swap takes 2 to 3 days, and 5 to 10 working days with tiling and pipework.

As soon as the waterproofing layer has to be opened anyway, we set out the comparison: a bathroom of 8 to 10 square metres with good fittings comes to 15.000 to 25.000 Euro in total, and you have one building site instead of two within a few years. The floor construction is decisive. Above the structural floor, prefabricated shower elements require a build-up height of 6 to 12 centimetres, and a fall of 1 to 2 percent has to carry the water reliably to the drain. With timber joist floors we check before planning whether the floor may be lowered.

Kreuzberg, Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg usually mean Gruenderzeit (Berlin's late nineteenth century housing stock): timber joist floors, thin or historic Estrich (floor screed), pipework of lead or old steel. Here the survey determines the price, not the catalogue. For a full refurbishment with renewed pipework, allow 15.000 to 35.000 Euro and 4 to 6 weeks, because strip out, chasing work and drying times run one after the other. The Estrich needs 3 to 5 days, the tile adhesive and the grouting another 2 to 3 days.

In Steglitz, Tempelhof or Lichtenberg the range is wider: estate housing of the 1920s and 1930s, residential high-rise blocks of the 1960s and 1970s and, in Lichtenberg, large Plattenbau estates (prefabricated concrete panel buildings) with concrete floors, fixed service shafts and windowless internal bathrooms. Where there is concrete instead of timber joists, the strip out is easier to plan, but the shaft then determines where the WC and the washbasin are allowed to go. If there is no window, ventilation belongs in the plan. If your building lies in a Milieuschutz area (a local statute protecting the existing resident structure), we clarify before planning whether the district authority has to be involved, and we align the specification with that.

As a tenant you need the landlord's consent for structural changes, in writing, before we order materials. As an owner in a WEG (Wohnungseigentuemergemeinschaft, the association of flat owners) the rule is: whatever touches jointly owned property, such as load-bearing floors or the drainage riser, requires a resolution. For that we supply the documents a Hausverwaltung (property management company) wants to see: a schedule of works, the planned interventions, the time window for isolating the riser and evidence of waterproofing in line with the recognised technical standards.

The second point is logistics. In inner-city Berlin there is rarely space in front of the building, so we clarify early on whether materials and a skip may stand in the courtyard and which staircase we will work from. These arrangements cost nothing, but they prevent days of standstill. Your quotation gets a separate item for them, so that you can see which share goes to site set-up and which to the actual trade work.