Flat renovation: studio, 1, 2 and 3-bedroom flat prices 2026

"Renovation" means something different to everyone. For one person it is fresh paint and a new floor. For another it is a flat stripped back to bare concrete. Agree the scope before you compare quotes. Otherwise the quotes have nothing in common except the word "renovation" at the top.

• Cosmetic refresh: painting, filling small cracks, new flooring laid over the existing base, perhaps new door handles and sockets. The wiring, bathroom and doors stay. It takes days to a few weeks, and you can usually keep living in the flat with some disruption.
• Partial renovation: one or two areas are tackled, typically the bathroom or the kitchen, plus floors and walls. The wiring is often replaced only in the rooms being renovated. This is where compromises creep in that are hard to put right later.
• Full turnkey renovation: the flat is cleared, the bathroom, WC, door frames and floors are stripped out, all the wiring and the water pipework inside the flat are replaced, walls and ceilings are skimmed and painted, new floors go down, doors are hung and the kitchen is fitted. At the end you get the keys back and can move in.
• Shell new-build flat: a new flat without floor coverings, tiles, sanitaryware and often without internal doors. Nothing is demolished and the services are new, but all the fitting out and materials are the same as in a renovation. You save mainly on demolition, a new bathroom and rewiring.

The costs on this page assume a full turnkey renovation of a flat in an apartment block. They include a new bathroom and separate WC, a complete rewire with a new consumer unit, skimming and painting of walls and ceilings, levelling and laminate flooring, internal doors with new linings, and kitchen fitting including connecting the appliances. Materials are priced at a standard mid-range level.

Some items vary so much between households that they are left out: kitchen units and appliances, furniture, light fittings, windows, radiators, the electrical installation certificate and waste removal. A kitchen can cost as much as half the whole renovation or only a small part of it. Certification and the skip are paid separately and depend on the scope of work and where you live. Build them into your budget from day one so they do not catch you out at the end.

The table shows the floor and wall areas and the number of doors each scenario assumes. Use it to compare with your own flat. If your 1-bedroom flat has a lot more wall area, for example because of a long hallway, adjust your estimate upwards.

Cost does not rise evenly with floor area. The bathroom, WC, consumer unit and kitchen are much the same in a small flat and a large one. The owner of a 36 m² studio pays roughly the same for the bathroom as the owner of an 85 m² flat, just spread over fewer square metres. That is why a small flat costs more per m² and a larger one costs less. Stripping out the old bathroom and WC alone comes to 490,00 € for the whole job, whatever the size of the flat, and fitting a consumer unit comes to 150,00 € each. What grows with floor area is mainly skimming, painting, flooring, the number of doors and the length of cable runs.

Studio flat renovation

In a studio, the big question is whether the kitchen is part of the main room or separate. A kitchen in the main room saves on walls and doors, but it puts more demand on extraction and socket layout, because you sleep, cook and work in one space. Labour alone comes to roughly 8568,13 €. The bathroom takes a large share of the budget here, so think carefully about keeping the bath or switching to a shower to make room for a washing machine.

1-bedroom flat renovation

The 1-bedroom flat is the most common scenario. Typically there is a living room with a kitchen area or a separate kitchen, a bedroom, a hallway and the bathroom. Labour comes to roughly 10134,33 €. In practice the most common question here is opening the kitchen into the living room. It can transform the flat, but it also raises questions about permissions and structure.

2-bedroom flat renovation

A 2-bedroom flat usually adds a corridor linking the rooms, which eats up a lot of skimming, flooring and wiring for lights and switches. Labour comes to roughly 11404,03 €. More doors also means more threshold strips and more places where different floor heights meet, so levelling matters more.

3-bedroom and larger flat renovation

3-bedroom flats often have two WCs or a larger bathroom, sometimes a utility room or walk-in wardrobe too. Every extra wet area adds more to the cost than a whole extra bedroom. Labour comes to roughly 12718,53 €. For a 4-bedroom flat, take the 3-bedroom scenario and add one room: skimming and painting its walls and ceiling, the floor, a door and a few sockets and lights.

Condition of the flat and type of building

A flat in a concrete-framed block is the most predictable for budgeting. The walls are concrete, layouts repeat and tradespeople know the typical problems. A flat in an older brick building, such as a period conversion, is a different story. Old plaster can come away in large patches when walls are chased, ceilings may be lath and plaster on timber joists and far from level, wiring can be a mix of several generations and waste pipes may be cast iron. In a flat like that, the budget can easily grow to include replastering and new plasterboard ceilings. A new-build or shell flat is cheaper to prepare, because nothing is demolished and no new chases are cut.

Quality of materials

The costs on this page assume standard materials. Large-format tiles, solid wood floors, concealed door frames or designer taps can multiply the cost of materials and often add labour too. Large tiles, for example, need a flatter base and more time to lay.

Layout changes, walk-in showers and underfloor heating

Every layout change means demolition, new partition walls, rerouted services and often a structural engineer. A level-access wet room shower with a linear drain looks simple, but it needs a proper fall, flawless waterproofing and sometimes a raised floor so the waste can drain at all. Electric underfloor heating in the bathroom adds comfort and is not expensive. Underfloor heating throughout the flat is a separate project.

Location, tradespeople's workload and timing

In big cities, and especially in London, tradespeople cost more and are busier. Waiting times are usually longer in spring and summer. If you need to start within a week and finish by a fixed date, you will pay more. If your dates are flexible and the flat is ready, you may get a better quote.

For a 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom flat, a typical timeline looks like this. It assumes that anything with a long lead time is ordered in advance and that the trades follow each other without long gaps.

• Week 1: clearing the flat, protecting communal areas, stripping out the bathroom, WC, door frames and floors, removing rubble as you go.
• Weeks 2 and 3: chasing and first fix electrics, water and waste points in the bathroom and kitchen, pressure testing the pipework.
• Weeks 3 to 5: building the bathroom partition walls and plastering, filling chases and skimming walls and ceilings in the other rooms.
• Weeks 5 to 7: waterproofing, wall and floor tiling in the bathroom and WC, the kitchen splashback, while the skim coat dries.
• Weeks 7 and 8: painting, levelling the floors and letting the screed dry.
• Weeks 8 to 10: laying floors, hanging doors, fitting sanitaryware, second fix of sockets and switches.
• Weeks 10 to 12: fitting the kitchen, testing and certifying the electrics, snagging and cleaning.

The logic is simple. First everything that makes a mess and goes into the wall, then whatever covers the wall, and finally whatever is easily damaged. Services must be finished before skimming, otherwise finished walls get chased. Painting comes before the floor goes down, so no paint drips on the laminate. Doors are hung on the finished floor, because their height depends on it. The kitchen goes in last, when nobody is sanding or drilling any more.

The most common reason a timeline slips is drying time. Skim coats, plaster and levelling compound usually need from a few days to two weeks, depending on thickness, temperature and ventilation. The second common reason is doors and kitchens ordered too late. Delivery typically takes four to eight weeks.

Electrics in the flat

Older flats can still have dated wiring, an old fuse box and no RCD protection. Old cables and connections deteriorate, joints can loosen and overheat, and the system was never designed for today's appliances. In a full renovation the whole flat is rewired, not just the kitchen. That includes a new consumer unit with circuit breakers and RCD protection, which cuts the power if current leaks, for example in the bathroom.

When planning electrical work, err on the side of more sockets. In practice it often happens that people regret a missing socket by the bed, in the hallway for the vacuum cleaner or by the TV. Walk through each room and imagine where the furniture will go. The hob, oven, washing machine and dishwasher should have their own circuits.

A rewire must be tested and certified. The electrician issues an Electrical Installation Certificate confirming the installation is safe. Rules on notifying building control differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so check what applies where you live. Without the paperwork you may have problems with an insurance claim or when you sell. More on what it contains and when you need it is on the page about the electrical installation certificate for a flat. Electrical work should be done by a qualified, registered electrician, not a handy neighbour.

Water, waste and communal risers

In a renovation the water pipes in the flat are replaced from the stopcock to each outlet. Old galvanised steel pipes rust inside, and limescale narrows them. New plastic pipework is pressure tested before it is covered. The water, waste and gas risers are a different matter. They are usually part of the shared building. Even though they run through your flat, they are not yours, and any work on them must be agreed with the managing agent or freeholder. If the building is planning to replace the risers, it is worth timing your bathroom so it does not have to be ripped out twice. Details on pipework and connections are in the section on plumbing work.

Concrete walls and ceilings are solid but not perfectly flat. Once chases are cut and services replaced, the chases are filled and whole surfaces are skimmed. Skimming walls comes to 6,50 € per m², and it is the job that decides how the final paintwork looks. Side light from a window shows every ripple. Once dry, the walls are primed and the painting and decorating follows, usually in two coats.

Floors in apartment blocks vary in height between rooms and even within one room. Once old vinyl or carpet comes up, the concrete is often full of adhesive residue and dips. Floor levelling comes to 6,90 € per m² and brings the whole flat to one height, so you can do without thresholds.

Think of the neighbours below when choosing underlay. Acoustic underlay reduces footfall noise, which travels surprisingly well through a concrete slab. Many leases require it, and some ban hard floors without it, so check yours. Laminate needs a good-quality underlay, and with vinyl it depends on the system.

If you are choosing between floor coverings, roughly speaking:

• laminate is affordable and scratch resistant, but dislikes water and is noisier,
• vinyl is quieter and copes with moisture, so it suits hallways and kitchens, but it needs a very flat base,
• wood feels the nicest and can be sanded back, but costs more and is more sensitive to moisture and upkeep.

Laying laminate comes to 12,50 € per m². More options and methods are under flooring work.

In many concrete blocks the original door frames are steel and set into the wall. To replace them with modern timber linings, they have to be cut out. Removing a steel door frame from concrete costs 45,00 € each and is done in the first week with the rest of the demolition. The opening is then trued up and made good along with the walls.

A lining-style frame wraps the wall on both sides, so it is ordered to the exact wall thickness. Walls in one flat can differ. A bathroom partition is not the same as a concrete wall between rooms. Measure every opening separately. The other key figure is the finished floor height. That is why frames are measured and ordered only after levelling, when it is clear where the laminate will sit. Measure before levelling, and doors may drag on the floor or leave a large gap underneath.

Fitting a door lining and hanging the door comes to 75,00 € each. The method and typical mistakes are covered under fitting door linings and hanging doors. Think about width too. Bathrooms and WCs usually get narrower doors, rooms wider ones, and an open-plan kitchen and living room sometimes suits a sliding door.

The kitchen is fitted last but designed first. Before the electrician starts chasing, you need to know where the hob, oven, fridge, dishwasher and sink will go. That decides the sockets above the worktop, the dedicated appliance circuits and the water and waste points. If the design arrives after skimming, finished walls get chased and you pay twice.

A cooker hood in a flat usually either ducts outside, connects to a shared ventilation duct if the building has one, or recirculates. A shared duct must be connected according to the building's rules, because a poor connection can push cooking smells into neighbouring flats. Ask the managing agent before you decide.

The cost on this page includes kitchen fitting with worktop cut-outs, splashback tiling, the sink tap and connecting the appliances. Fitting the units comes to 44,00 € per linear metre. The units and appliances themselves are not included. Allow for lead times and order them to arrive once the floors and painting are finished.

Opening up the kitchen and other layout changes

The most common layout change is knocking the kitchen through to the living room. In an apartment block that is not just a question of taste. Some walls are load-bearing, others brace the whole building. Even a thin wall can do an important job. Before any demolition, have the wall assessed by a structural engineer. They will tell you whether it can come out, whether an opening with a lintel or steel beam will do, or whether it should be left alone. The demolition work itself is the easy part after that.

What building regulations say

Internal works to a flat do not usually need planning permission, but they may need to comply with building regulations. Ordinary maintenance and interior work, such as painting, new floors, tiling, replacing doors, sanitaryware and the kitchen, and like-for-like replacement of services, does not usually need building control approval.

It is different when you remove or move walls, alter load-bearing structures, reroute drainage or add new electrical circuits in certain locations, or touch shared parts of the building such as the risers. These usually need building control involvement, often with a structural engineer's calculations, and in a leasehold flat almost always written consent from the freeholder. The exact route depends on the work and on whether you are in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, so always check with your local authority building control before you start. No contractor can promise in advance that no approval is needed without knowing the details.

Managing agent, freeholder and your lease

If you own a leasehold flat, the lease sets the rules. It usually says that alterations need the freeholder's written consent, often called a licence for alterations, and that works must not damage the building or cause unreasonable disturbance to other residents. It may also allow the freeholder or managing agent to inspect the work. If works affect a wall shared with a neighbour, check whether party wall rules apply. In practice, this means reading your lease, contacting the managing agent before you start and allowing an inspection if they ask for one.

There is usually no general legal duty to notify neighbours, but managing agents and building rules almost always expect it, and it is simply good manners. The neighbours will hear drilling for weeks and share the lift with tradespeople. People cope better when they know what is coming.

Put the notice up on the board by the entrance, or post it through letterboxes, at least 7 days before work starts. Noisy work is usually done on weekdays during the hours set by the building rules or the lease. Many councils also publish guidance on acceptable hours for building noise, so check with your local council. Stick to these hours strictly when demolishing and chasing walls, because that is when most complaints happen.

Notice of renovation works

Dear neighbours, I would like to let you know that renovation works will take place at Flat [flat number] on the [floor] floor from [start date] to [end date].

Noisy work will take place on weekdays between [time] and [time], and the noisiest week is expected to be [demolition dates]. Rubble will be removed regularly, and the communal areas and lift will be protected and kept clean. Any short interruptions to the water or electricity supply will be announced separately in advance.

I apologise for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or problems, please contact me: [name], tel. [phone number]. Thank you for your patience.

Download the notice as a PDF. You can fill it in on your computer, or print it out and complete it with a pen.

During a full renovation, living in the flat is practically impossible. The flat is without a bathroom and WC for weeks, fine dust gets everywhere and the power is switched off repeatedly. Plan for somewhere else to stay for the whole period, with a little extra time to spare. If you are moving in with family, talk to them about what happens if the dates slip.

Move out everything you are keeping. Furniture under dust sheets in a corner gets in the tradespeople's way, the dust gets in anyway and the risk of damage is high. Short-term storage, a storage cupboard or relatives are better options. Keep the flat's documents, the keys to storage and the keys to any service cupboards and stopcocks somewhere safe and separate.

Stripping out the bathroom, floors and door frames creates more rubble than you might expect. It is bagged and carried out as the work goes on so it does not pile up, then taken away in a skip or a van. Placing a skip on the road usually needs a permit from the council, so check in advance. Protect communal areas with sheeting or hardboard, especially the corridor floor and the lift walls. Do not overload the lift or carry loose material in it without bags. Damage to the lift car or corridor flooring is usually charged to whoever is renovating.

A good quote is itemised: demolition, electrics, plumbing, bathroom, skimming, painting, floors, doors, kitchen. Each item shows the quantity, the unit and the labour cost, with materials listed separately. A quote with a single figure "for the whole flat" cannot be compared with another one, and you cannot check what is missing from it. How to prepare the information is explained below in the DIY guide.

Add a contingency of 10 to 15% for unexpected work. Once the bathroom is stripped out, you may find a rotten subfloor, a crooked wall or a stopcock that does not work. Without a contingency, people end up cutting back on materials they will not replace later.

Sign a written contract with the contractor. It should cover the scope of work, the itemised quote as an appendix, start and finish dates, the schedule, staged payments, guarantees and how extra work will be handled. Link payments to completed stages, for example after demolition and first fix, after the bathroom, after the floors and at handover. Do not agree to a large upfront deposit without a clear reason.

An important question is who coordinates the trades. If you hire the electrician, plumber, tiler and flooring fitter separately, coordination is down to you, and every day one trade is delayed carries over to the next. A turnkey contractor handles that for you, and charges for it. For the bathroom, it is worth reading in more detail how a bathroom and WC renovation works, because it is the part with the highest risk of mistakes.

Photograph everything before the services are covered up. Every wall with chases, the water points, the waste runs, the back boxes. When you drill for a shelf later, you will know exactly where the cables run, and if something goes wrong you have evidence.

The rule is simple: do not cut corners on what goes in the walls and under the floor. Save on things that are easy to replace later.

Do not cut corners on:

• wiring and the consumer unit, because adding a socket later means chasing a finished wall,
• water and waste pipework, because a leaking joint behind tiles ruins the bathroom and the ceiling of the flat below,
• bathroom waterproofing, which you cannot see but which protects the whole flat,
• levelling and underlay, without which even an expensive floor creaks and cracks,
• good-quality skimming, which you will notice every time side light falls on the walls.

Sensible places to save:

• standard-size tiles instead of large-format ones, which also add labour,
• mid-range doors, which can be swapped later without any demolition,
• light fittings and accessories, which you can buy gradually,
• the layout, because keeping the original walls saves demolition, an engineer and approvals.

Doing part of the work yourself only pays off for simple tasks. Anyone can clear the flat, pull up carpets or photograph the existing condition. Leave electrics, gas and waterproofing to professionals.

The more precise the information you give contractors, the more accurate and comparable the quotes you get back. Anyone can do this in an afternoon with a tape measure, paper and a phone.

Download squared paper for your floor plan. Print it on A4 without scaling - one square corresponds to 20 cm.

1. Draw a floor plan of the flat. A hand sketch showing all the rooms, windows, doors, the bathroom and the kitchen is enough. If you have the original plan from the managing agent or the sale documents, use it as a base.
2. Measure every room. Length, width and ceiling height. From these, work out the floor area, the wall area excluding windows and doors, and the ceiling area.
3. Count the doors and measure the walls around them. For each door, note the width of the opening and the thickness of the wall, because door linings are ordered to that thickness.
4. Mark sockets, switches and lights. Both where they are now and where you want new ones. Mark appliance positions separately.
5. Measure the bathroom and kitchen. The size of the bathroom and WC, the tiling height, the length of the kitchen run and where the riser is.
6. Photograph the flat as it is. Each room from two corners, plus close-ups of the floors, the consumer unit, risers, stopcocks and any damage.
7. Write a wish list. Bath or shower, type of flooring, layout changes, dates and what you will sort out yourself. Send everything to every contractor in the same format.

Plan the handover in daylight, with plenty of time. Bring the contract, the quote and your photos. Write everything you find on a snagging list with a date for each item to be put right.

• walls and ceilings free of visible ripples, marks and cracks in side light,
• even paintwork, with no filler showing through and no roller marks,
• floor that does not creak, with an expansion gap at the walls and skirting or beading firmly fixed,
• doors that close freely without dragging, with working locks and handles,
• every socket live and every switch operating the right light,
• consumer unit labelled and the RCD tripping when the test button is pressed,
• Electrical Installation Certificate handed over,
• taps not dripping, waste water draining quickly and traps not leaking,
• tiles straight, grout complete and silicone without gaps,
• WC flushing properly and access panels opening,
• extractor fans in the bathroom and WC working,
• kitchen appliances connected and tested,
• communal areas and lift clean and undamaged,
• guarantees, manuals and photos of the hidden services handed over.