1 November 2026 7 min read Costs & quotes
Tiling a UK bathroom typically costs £1,000–£1,500 in labour for a small bathroom with a splashback and floor, £1,500–£2,500 for a full bathroom tiled floor to ceiling, and £3,500 or more where the walls are uneven or the floor needs levelling and waterproofing throughout. That’s labour only — tiles are on top, and you should budget roughly 10% extra for cutting waste. Here’s how those figures break down, as of 2026.
Bathroom tiling cost by size
We don’t publish our own prices on this site, because the right figure depends on what’s behind your walls and under your floor — and that only shows up once we’ve actually measured up. What follows is the market: what you’ll typically see quoted across the UK as of 2026, not a Hereford Tiling price list.
| Bathroom | Floor only (labour) | Floor and walls (labour) |
|---|---|---|
| Small (en-suite or shower room, ~3–4m² floor) | £160–£220 | £1,000–£1,500 |
| Standard family bathroom (~5–6m² floor, walls to ceiling) | £270–£400 | £1,500–£2,500 |
| Large or awkward (uneven walls, poor subfloor, full waterproofing) | £400–£600+ | £3,500+ |
Those are labour figures. Tiles sit on top of that: budget porcelain or ceramic runs about £20–£40 per m², mid-range £40–£70, and premium porcelain or natural stone £70 and up, as of 2026.
Here’s how that works out for a small bathroom. Take a room 2.0m by 1.8m. The floor alone is 3.6m². Tile the walls too — say 10m² once you’ve allowed for a window, a mirror and the door — and you’ve 13.6m² to cover. Add 10% for cuts and breakages and you need roughly 15m² of tiles. At labour rates of £45–£65 per m² that’s about £650–£900 in labour, plus £600–£1,050 for mid-range tiles, so call it £1,250–£1,950 all in before any extra prep work. What pushes a real job above or below that number is everything in the next two sections.
What’s included in a per-m² price (and what isn’t)
A labour rate normally covers laying the tiles, cutting around fittings, grouting and a basic silicone seal. It usually does not cover:
- Stripping off old tiles and disposing of them
- Boarding out with tile backer board
- Waterproofing (tanking) behind a bath or shower
- Levelling an uneven floor or wall
- Plumbing or electrical work — we tile; we don’t move pipes or sockets
If a quote doesn’t say which of these it includes, ask before you sign. It’s the single biggest reason a final bill comes in higher than the headline price — not because the tiler changed their mind, but because the first quote never covered it.
Labour only vs supply and fit
“Labour only” means you buy the tiles, adhesive, grout and trims, and the tiler just fits them. “Supply and fit” means the tiler sources the materials too, usually with a mark-up added to cover the time spent ordering and the risk of a batch being wrong or short, cracked in transit, or discontinued halfway through the job.
Labour only is cheaper on paper if you’re happy choosing and buying tiles yourself, checking the batch number matches across every box, and storing them somewhere dry until the job starts. Supply and fit costs more but hands all of that over — useful if you’re not local, you’re short on time, or you’d simply rather not be the one chasing a tile shop about a delayed delivery. Neither is “better”; it’s a trade between a lower number and less of your own time and risk. We’ll go into day rates and how to compare the two fairly in .
What pushes the price up
The headline per-m² rate assumes a reasonably flat wall and floor and a straightforward layout. Several things move it above that:
- Removing old tiles — especially where they were stuck down well, or where the wall behind turns out to be in poor condition once they’re off
- Tile backer board instead of plasterboard around a bath or shower, because plasterboard and constant steam don’t mix, and it needs fixing and taping properly before anything goes on top
- Tanking — a proper waterproof membrane under the tiles, not just silicone round the edges
- Levelling an uneven floor with self-levelling compound, or overboarding a bouncy timber floor so it stops flexing under the grout
- Large-format tiles, which need a flatter base and full-coverage adhesive rather than a few blobs, and take longer to handle and cut safely
- Mosaic, natural stone or intricate layouts such as herringbone or a diagonal set-out — more cuts, more time, more waste
- Niches, shelves and window reveals cut to fit rather than boxed in
None of these are padding. They’re the difference between a bathroom that still looks right in five years and one where the grout’s gone black and the floor’s cracking by year two.
Why the cheapest per-m² quote often costs more
A quote that’s noticeably cheaper than the others is usually cheaper because it’s left something off this list, not because the tiler works for less. If backer board, tanking or floor levelling aren’t mentioned, they’ll either turn up as an “extra” once the old tiles are off, or they won’t happen at all — and a shortcut in the prep is the kind of thing that shows up as a leak or a cracked floor months later, not on the day. We’ve written a full breakdown of what a proper written quote should list, and the red flags worth watching for, in what a tiling quote should include.
What this looks like in Herefordshire
In Hereford’s Victorian and Edwardian terraces — Whitecross, Barton, St James — bathroom floors are often suspended timber that flexes slightly underfoot, which usually means overboarding or a decoupling membrane before anything goes down, especially with larger tiles. Post-war estates like Belmont, Redhill and Tupsley tend to have solid concrete floors that are strong but rarely dead level, so they take a self-levelling compound first. Newer builds around Three Elms and Holmer are generally flatter, but the plasterboard still needs checking before it carries a full wall of tiles. None of this is unusual — it’s just worth knowing before you compare a quote for a Victorian terrace against one for a new-build, because the floor prep alone can explain a few hundred pounds of difference.
When to call a tiler
A rough budget from the ranges above is a reasonable starting point for planning, but the only way to get an accurate figure is to have someone look at the actual walls and floor. If you’d like us to look at it, we measure up for free across Herefordshire — no obligation, and a written quote afterwards so you know exactly what’s included. Get in touch and we’ll arrange a time.
Quick answers
Is it cheaper to tile just the floor and leave the walls?
Yes, usually — a floor-only job in a small bathroom runs £160–£220 in labour versus £1,000–£1,500 for floor and walls together, mainly because there’s far less cutting and fewer fiddly edges around fittings.
What does “labour only” actually save you?
It saves the supply mark-up, typically a meaningful chunk of the materials cost, but only if you’re comfortable choosing, ordering and storing the right quantity of tiles yourself, with enough spare for breakages.
Does tiling just a shower cost less than a full bathroom?
Often yes in total spend, but not always per m², since a shower enclosure has more corners, cuts and a waterproofing membrane relative to its size — small, detailed areas can cost as much per metre as a plain, open wall.
Why do two quotes for the same bathroom come out so different?
Almost always because they’re pricing different jobs under the same roof — one includes backer board, tanking and floor levelling, the other assumes the walls and floor are already fine. Ask each tiler to list what’s covered before you compare the numbers side by side.