Planning a New Bathroom in Fulham: Timeline and the 5 Things That Usually Go Wrong

If you're planning a new bathroom in Fulham, two questions really matter: how long it takes, and what can go wrong. Here's what 20+ years of Fulham bathroom installs has taught us — the stuff the showroom brochure skips.

How long a new bathroom in Fulham takes

Plan for 2.5–4 weeks from strip-out to sign-off, assuming no structural changes. Rough breakdown:

• Days 1–2: Strip-out, skip, protect floor coverings on the route in.
• Days 3–5: First-fix plumbing and electrics. Walls opened up where needed.
• Days 6–8: Plastering, boarding, screed for underfloor heating if used.
• Days 9–15: Tiling. This is the bottleneck. Stone tiles are particularly slow.
• Days 16–19: Second-fix plumbing, install suite, glass screens, fit mirrors.
• Days 20+: Grouting, silicone, snagging, final clean.

Moving pipework or adding underfloor heating adds a week. Waiting on bespoke joinery for a vanity adds two.

What drives length and complexity

Two things shape timeline and labour more than the choice of finish: whether you're moving plumbing, and whether you need structural work (e.g. combining a separate toilet and bathroom into one room). Both more than double the labour hours.

5 things that usually go wrong

1. Tiles arrive damaged or short. Order 10–15% over. Even good suppliers send the wrong lot sometimes — and matching a lot number six weeks later is rarely possible.
2. The soil pipe is in the wrong place. Turn-of-century Fulham terraces have soil stacks running through the most inconvenient positions. Moving one means chasing a wall or boxing it in — neither decided in a showroom.
3. Electrics don't meet Part P. Old bathrooms often have a shaver socket wired off a lighting circuit. A new bathroom install needs zone-compliant lighting, IP-rated fittings, and certification. Factor in the spark.
4. Waterproofing skipped under the tiles. The cheap way is skim, prime, tile. The correct way is to tank the wet zones with a membrane. If water gets behind the tiles, you find out when the ceiling below starts to bulge.
5. Silicone failing in year two. Cheap silicone pulls away from the bath lip inside 18 months. Spec a mould-resistant sanitary grade and have it redone every 4–5 years.

What to get in writing before you sign

• Fixed price (not "estimate"), itemised.
• Schedule of works with week-by-week milestones.
• Specification of waterproofing (tanking membrane, brand).
• Who's responsible for removing the skip and protecting the rest of the flat or house.
• Electrical certification and water-regs sign-off at handover.

Why use a Fulham-based team

A local team knows the stock: the Edwardian conversion flats around Eel Brook Common, the mansion blocks on Fulham Road, the riverside developments off Wandsworth Bridge Road. Each has its own quirks — lath-and-plaster walls, concrete floors you can't chase, party-wall agreements for anything touching a shared stack.

Fulham BM has installed new bathrooms across SW6 for 20+ years. FMB and Chas accredited, fixed quotes, no subcontractors. See examples and request a quote.