Why two identical bathrooms never cost the same price
In short
In Switzerland, the full renovation of a 6 to 10 m² bathroom generally costs between CHF 15,000 and 30,000 — around CHF 2,500 to 7,500 per m² depending on the standard chosen. A refresh that leaves the pipework untouched falls between CHF 5,000 and 12,000, while a high-end project that relocates the fixtures can reach CHF 40,000 to 80,000. The factor that weighs most on the budget isn't the tiling but moving the water supply and drainage points — and in an older building, a reserve of 15 to 20% of the budget remains the prudent rule.
Two 7 m² bathrooms, the same tiles, the same shower, the same taps — and yet a quote at CHF 18,000 for one, CHF 34,000 for the other. The gap is almost never found in what shows up on the inspiration photos: it lies behind the walls, in the age of the pipework, and in a decision made very early in the project — keep the existing fixture layout, or change it.
Bathroom renovation: three levels of intervention, three budgets
A refresh replaces the sanitary fixtures like-for-like — bathtub, washbasin, WC in the same position — without touching the pipework or the waterproofing: it generally falls between CHF 5,000 and 12,000. A full renovation, which redoes the tiling, the waterproofing, part of the plumbing and the electrics, most often costs between CHF 15,000 and 30,000 for a bathroom of 6 to 10 m². A high-end project — wall-hung fixtures, a walk-in shower, natural stone, bespoke furniture, often with fixtures relocated — climbs to between CHF 40,000 and 80,000.
Price ranges — 6 to 10 m² bathroom
Scaled to the floor area, these ranges work out at roughly CHF 2,500 to 7,500 per m² depending on the fit-out standard — considerably more per m² than the rest of the apartment, because a bathroom concentrates every trade on a project into a few square metres: plumbing, tiling, electrics, plastering, painting, sometimes masonry. A family bathroom of 8 to 12 m² at a mid-range standard thus commonly falls between CHF 25,000 and 45,000.
Fixture layout: the decision that weighs more than the choice of tiles
The heaviest cost factor is neither the taps nor the surfaces — it's the position of the water supply and drainage points. As long as each fixture stays where it is, the existing pipework is reused and the works stay focused on the surfaces. As soon as a WC, a shower or a bathtub changes position, the drainage has to be redone with the required fall, the screed or a wall often has to be opened, and sometimes the connecting stack has to be moved: depending on the scale, this pipework alone represents CHF 5,000 to 15,000.
- Existing water supply and drainage pipes reused
- Screed and walls opened only where necessary
- Shorter works, generally 2 to 3 weeks
- Budget focused on the surfaces and the visible fixtures
- New drainage runs with the required fall, screed or walls opened
- Pipework: CHF 5,000 to 15,000 depending on the scale
- Works extended by one to two weeks, drying time included
- Worthwhile when the current layout genuinely wastes space
The most common case — replacing a bathtub with a shower in the same position — remains reasonable: budget generally CHF 2,000 to 4,000 for a simple swap with a shower tray. The floor-level version, the walk-in shower, costs considerably more because it requires recessing the drainage into the screed and redoing the floor waterproofing: depending on the configuration, the work falls between CHF 5,000 and 20,000, before tiles even enter the conversation.
A fixture layout plan worked out before requesting quotes avoids paying to relocate a fixture that adds nothing to how the room is actually used. Compare architects in your canton
Where the money goes: the breakdown by trade
On a full renovation, two items concentrate roughly half the budget: the plumbing installation (generally 25 to 30% of the total) and the tiling together with the waterproofing (20 to 25%). The rest is split between the fixtures and taps themselves, the electrics, demolition and rubble removal, then plastering, painting and the finishes.
- Plumbing installation: 25 to 30% of the budget — removal, connections, fitting the fixtures, reworking pipework where needed
- Tiling and waterproofing: 20 to 25% — substrate preparation, waterproofing membrane or liquid-applied sealing, wall and floor tiling
- Fixtures and taps: highly variable depending on the range — the same wall-hung washbasin exists from CHF 300 to over 2,000
- Electrics: new distribution board, spotlights, towel radiator, ventilation — often underestimated in early costings
- Demolition, rubble removal and disposal fees: a few thousand francs, almost always forgotten in budgets drawn up off the top of the head
Hourly rates explain part of the regional gaps: a plumbing installer generally bills CHF 90 to 140 per hour, a tiler CHF 80 to 120, an electrician CHF 80 to 140. In the economic centres — Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Basel, Zug — the rates charged often exceed those of more rural cantons by 15 to 25%, for the same work. For identical services, a bathroom renovated in Geneva is therefore structurally more expensive than the same one in the Jura.
Older buildings: why the 15 to 20% reserve isn't optional
In a building from before 1980, the bathroom is the room where the risk of discoveries is highest: it's where the waste stacks and water pipes run, and it's where damp has been at work for decades. A corroded stack discovered when the bathtub is removed, a screed saturated with moisture or an electrical installation without earthing turns a CHF 20,000 quote into a CHF 26,000 bill — not because the contractor priced it badly, but because nobody could see behind the tiles. A reserve of 15 to 20% of the budget is the standard recommendation for this type of building.
In an older building, ask the managing agency or the condominium (PPE) for the date the stacks were last replaced — if they're original, redoing them may become unavoidable mid-project.
Bathrooms from before the 1990s often have no under-tile waterproofing in the current sense of the term — creating it from scratch should be built into the quote, not discovered along the way.
No residual-current device (RCD/FI) or no earthing: bringing things up to code is almost systematic in older buildings as soon as the installation is touched.
A windowless bathroom requires effective mechanical extraction — upgrading it during the works costs a fraction of what a retrofit would cost afterwards.
For a building from before 1991, a pre-work survey avoids an imposed work stoppage if asbestos-containing materials appear during demolition.
Waterproofing: what the SIA 271/1 standard changes
Since 1 May 2025, the waterproofing of interior rooms exposed to water has been covered by a dedicated standard, SIA 271/1, which applies to private bathrooms as much as to communal showers. Among other things, it requires fully waterproofing the floor of zones exposed to water, carrying the waterproofing up the walls in splash zones and extending it at least 30 cm beyond them, and sealing every junction with waterproofing tape. In concrete terms, tiles laid directly on the substrate without a waterproofing system — still common practice twenty years ago — no longer comply with recognised good practice, and water damage in a bathroom renovated without proper waterproofing engages the contractor's liability.
Electrics in wet areas: NIBT/NIN zones and the OIBT/NIV inspection
A bathroom's electrical installation is governed by the Swiss low-voltage installation standard (NIBT/NIN), which divides the room into protection zones around the bathtub and the shower: in zones 0 and 1, only equipment with a high degree of protection against water is permitted (IPX7 in zone 0), and in the zone surrounding the shower, light fittings must at minimum withstand water jets. A standard socket 30 cm from a shower, tolerated in a 1970s installation, no longer has any place in a renovated bathroom.
Another point many owners only discover at the end of the works: after any work on the electrical installation, the installer must carry out a final inspection and hand the owner an electrical safety certificate, as required by the federal low-voltage installations ordinance (OIBT/NIV). This document attests that the installation is compliant and must be kept — it will be requested at the periodic inspection, which takes place every 20 years for homes. A serious electrician's quote includes this inspection; a quote that doesn't mention it deserves a direct question before signing.
Do you need a building permit to renovate a bathroom?
In the vast majority of cases, no: a bathroom renovation that replaces what's already there without touching load-bearing walls, the façade or the designated use of the rooms generally goes ahead without a building permit. That changes if the project creates a new window, touches a structural element, alters gas pipes or moves the bathroom into another room — all cases where a notification or an authorisation becomes necessary depending on the canton and the commune. In a condominium building (PPE), one extra point: the waste stacks and shared pipes are common property, and any intervention that affects them must go through the condominium's administration, even without a communal permit.
How long without a bathroom?
That's often the real question behind the budget, especially when the home has only one bathroom. For a full renovation without relocating fixtures, the site work itself generally lasts 10 to 15 working days — meaning 2 to 3 weeks without a usable bathroom, drying of the waterproofing and laying of the tiles included. With fixtures relocated or stacks redone, allow more like 3 to 4 weeks, and up to 2 to 3 months for a project that touches the structure or waits on an authorisation.
- Design, choice of fixtures and comparable quotes: 3 to 5 weeks before the site work begins
- Delivery lead times for fixtures: 2 to 8 weeks depending on the range — order them before demolition, never after
- Site work: 10 to 15 working days for a full renovation with the layout unchanged, 3 to 4 weeks if the fixtures are relocated
- Incompressible: the drying times for the screed and the waterproofing, which even the best schedule can't shorten
The real duration hinges less on how fast the tradespeople work than on coordination: a bathroom brings in four to six trades in a precise order, and every idle day between two interventions is one more day without a bathroom. It's one of the points where a well-run site stands out most clearly from one managed as it goes along.
Interior architect or going direct to a plumbing contractor?
For a like-for-like refresh in a recent building, going directly through a plumbing contractor or a specialised general contractor is often the shortest route. The interior architect earns their place as soon as the project involves trade-offs: rethinking the fixture layout of a small floor area to gain a floor-level shower, coordinating several trades in an older building full of unknowns, or holding a coherent line across materials, lighting and storage rather than adding up catalogue choices. On a budget of CHF 25,000 to 40,000, design fees are often partly recouped through better-framed quotes — and through the fixture-layout mistakes you never have to pay for twice.
In a bathroom, every centimetre is crossed by a pipe, a cable or a waterproofing layer. It's the room where improvising costs the most per square metre.
Price your bathroom on comparable terms
Describe your project — floor area, current fixture layout, age of the building — to be put in touch with interior architects who draw up a precise brief before approaching contractors.
Describe my projectFAQ
For 5 m², a refresh that replaces the fixtures like-for-like generally falls between CHF 5,000 and 12,000. A full renovation — tiling, waterproofing, plumbing, electrics — most often costs between CHF 12,000 and 25,000 depending on the level of finish and the condition of the existing pipework. Relocating a fixture or creating a walk-in shower can push past these ranges by several thousand francs.
Allow 10 to 15 working days of site work for a full renovation without relocating fixtures — that is, 2 to 3 weeks without a usable bathroom, drying times included. If fixtures are relocated or the stacks redone, allow more like 3 to 4 weeks. Ordering all the fixtures before demolition avoids site interruptions, which are the leading cause of timelines stretching out.
Generally no: a like-for-like replacement that touches neither the structure, the façade nor the designated use of the rooms goes ahead without authorisation in most Swiss communes. A notification or an authorisation becomes necessary if the project creates a window, touches a load-bearing wall or moves the bathroom into another room — and in a condominium (PPE), any intervention on the shared stacks must go through the condominium, even without a communal permit.
Only if the current fixture layout genuinely wastes space or prevents the use you're after. Relocating a fixture means redoing the drainage with the required fall and opening the screed or the walls, and represents CHF 5,000 to 15,000 of pipework depending on the scale. Replacing the bathtub with a shower in the same position, by contrast, remains reasonable: CHF 2,000 to 4,000 for a simple swap, CHF 5,000 to 20,000 for a floor-level walk-in shower.
Three reflexes: check the condition of the waste stacks and the date of their last replacement with the managing agency or the condominium (PPE) before pricing, have a precise brief drawn up so that every quote covers the same services, and set aside a reserve of 15 to 20% of the budget for what removing the tiles will reveal — missing waterproofing, corroded pipes, electrics without earthing. For a building from before 1991, add a pre-work asbestos survey.