Psalm/Quoting a bathroom installation
A guide for UK bathroom fitters · Updated 5 October 2026
Quote a bathroom as the stages it is built in: strip-out, first fix, boarding and tiling, second fix and finishing. Give each a fixed price for what you can see and a provisional sum for what you cannot until the wall is open, say what is excluded, add VAT at 20%, and tie the deposit and stage payments to what you have to buy and finish.
The quote generator is free, needs no account, and nothing you type leaves your device.
What the quote has to hold
A bathroom quote that wins the job is one the customer can compare with two others and understand. These seven parts do that.
The example below is a family bathroom of 2.4 by 1.9 metres in a London semi, quoted for Charlotte Hayes by an invented firm. Every figure is made up to show the arithmetic.
Before you price anything
Most of the surprises on a bathroom job were visible on the survey, if someone wrote them down. Take these with you.
Photograph each wall and the floor. When the customer says in week two that the radiator was always meant to move, the photograph and the written quote settle it.
The stages
A single price for a bathroom cannot be compared or adjusted. Stages can. Here is how each is usually priced and what to write beside it.
Methods vary by firm and by region. Use the one your own records support.
Fixed, provisional or by the day
A fixed price suits work whose quantity you can measure: tiling 19 square metres of wall, fitting a WC. A provisional sum is an amount you put in for work that may or may not be needed, such as replacing floorboards that turn out to be rotten under the old bath. It is shown in the quote and adjusted to what the work actually costs. A prime cost sum is an allowance for something the customer has not yet chosen, usually tiles: if they choose tiles that cost more than the allowance, the difference is added, and if they cost less it comes off.
Write down what you will do when you find something. A line such as "if the floor under the bath is unsound we will tell you the same day, show you a photograph and quote the repair per square metre before we do it" turns a dispute into a procedure. By the day suits an open-ended refurbishment where the scope genuinely cannot be fixed, and customers rarely like it, so use it when it is true.
A worked quote
The customer buys the sanitaryware, the shower valve, the screen and the towel rail. The fitter supplies tiles, adhesive and consumables, and quotes the labour and the sub-trades. The figures are invented.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Protect the house, strip out the old bathroom, remove the waste | £620.00 | |
| First fix plumbing: move the waste, new supplies | £1,180.00 | |
| First fix electrics: fan, lights, shaver socket, certified | £540.00 | |
| Boarding and tanking, shower area and walls | £680.00 | |
| Skim the ceiling | 4.6 m² × £30.00 | £138.00 |
| Tile the walls, full height | 19 m² × £58.00 | £1,102.00 |
| Tile the floor | 4.6 m² × £68.00 | £312.80 |
| Fit the customer's sanitaryware, screen and towel rail | £760.00 | |
| Tiles, adhesive, grout and trims: prime cost sum | £690.00 | |
| Making good, silicone and snagging | £180.00 | |
| Provisional sum: floor repair if the boards under the old bath are unsound | £400.00 | |
| Total before VAT | £6,602.80 | |
| VAT at 20% | £1,320.56 | |
| Total | £7,923.36 |
Invented firm, invented customer, invented figures. The provisional sum is adjusted to the actual cost. The electrician certifies the first fix electrics. The prime cost sum is an allowance for tiles the customer has not yet chosen.
The payments follow the work, not the calendar. The deposit orders the materials and books the days. Each stage payment falls due when the stage is finished, so neither side is ever far ahead of the other.
| When | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| On acceptance, to order the materials and book the days | 30% | £2,377.01 |
| Strip-out, first fix and boarding complete | 25% | £1,980.84 |
| Tiling complete | 25% | £1,980.84 |
| Completion, snagging done | 20% | £1,584.67 |
| Total with VAT | 100% | £7,923.36 |
Percentages are of the total with VAT. The last payment is the remainder, so the four add up to the penny.
Ask for what the start costs you, not a round percentage out of habit. In the example 30% is £2,377.01, which covers the £690.00 tile allowance and the first week of wages. If the customer had asked you to buy the sanitaryware as well, the deposit would need to be larger. Whatever the schedule, print it on the quote.
VAT
A VAT registered firm charges the standard rate of 20% on a bathroom installation for a homeowner, shown as its own line on top of the net price (gov.uk, read on 5 October 2026). A firm that is not registered adds no VAT and shows no VAT number.
The exception is work for a disabled person. HMRC's VAT Notice 701/7, paragraph 6.3, read on 5 October 2026, lets you zero rate the services of providing, extending or adapting a bathroom, washroom or lavatory as long as the work is necessary to suit the condition of a disabled person and, for a supply to a disabled person, the building is their private residence. The notice says a bathroom includes a shower or wet room, and that you need a declaration completed for each disabled person. If a customer tells you the work is for that reason, read the notice before you quote.
The 14 day rule
Most bathroom quotes never mention this, and it decides who bears the cost if a customer changes their mind. This is the law as written in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, read on legislation.gov.uk on 5 October 2026. It is not legal advice, and Trading Standards or a solicitor can check your own terms.
In practice: put a plain cancellation notice on the quote, and give the customer a line to tick and return by email if they want you to start inside the 14 days. Keep that email.
Getting it on paper
The free quote generator takes each stage as a line with a quantity and a price, a VAT rate on each line (20%, 5% or 0%), how many days the price stands, your logo and your terms, such as a deposit before work starts. It makes a PDF. There is no account, and nothing you type leaves your device. Add the stages from the table above, the provisional sum as its own line, and your payment schedule in the terms.
If you want the accepted quote to become an order with stage payments recorded against it, and the job and the invoice to follow from it, Psalm for bathroom fitters does that from £39 a month for three people. Ten UK job and quoting tools are compared with their prices on the price page.
Questions fitters ask
The customer's name and the address of the bathroom, your business details, the work broken into stages with a price for each, what is not included, any provisional sums, who supplies the sanitaryware and tiles, the total with VAT, the stage payments, how long the price stands, the customer's right to cancel and a place to accept. The worked example on this page has all of them.
Fixed for work you can measure, with provisional sums for what you cannot see until the old bathroom is out. By the day is for an open-ended refurbishment where the scope genuinely cannot be fixed. Customers compare fixed quotes more easily, so use a day rate only when it is true.
By the square metre, with walls and floor at separate rates because the work differs. State the tile size and pattern the rate assumes, say who buys the tiles, and give a price per square metre for extra area. In the example, 19 square metres of wall at £58.00 and 4.6 square metres of floor at £68.00.
What the start costs you, not a round percentage by habit: the materials you must order and the first days of work. In the example 30% is £2,377.01 of £7,923.36, and the remaining payments fall due as the stages finish. Print the schedule on the quote.
If you are VAT registered, yes: the standard rate is 20%, per gov.uk on 5 October 2026, shown as its own line. Work to adapt a bathroom for a disabled person can be zero rated under VAT Notice 701/7, paragraph 6.3, if the conditions and the declaration are met. If you are not registered, add no VAT and show no VAT number.
Yes, for 14 days after the day the contract is made, if it was made with you in person away from your business premises. You must not start work in that period unless they ask you to, on paper or by email, and if you never gave them the required cancellation information they owe nothing for work done in it. This is regulations 29, 30 and 36 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, read on 5 October 2026. It is not legal advice.
An amount included in the quote for work that may or may not be needed, such as floor repairs under the old bath. It is shown on the quote and adjusted to what the work actually costs. Say in writing that you will tell the customer before doing the work.
Add the stages to the free quote generator and download the PDF. No account, no card.