Job sheet · Dubai
Bathroom renovation in Dubai: what decides the cost
A bathroom is a waterproofing job with tiling on top. What sits under the tiles is what fails, and it is also what separates two quotes. Here is what moves the number and what belongs in the quote.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.
What moves the number
Everything expensive happens before the tiles go on
Floor area is a poor guide here. Whether the pan moves, whether the membrane is renewed, what format the tiles are and which brassware is chosen will each shift the number further than the size of the room does.
Whether the toilet moves
The soil stack decides this. Leave the pan where it is and the job stays finishes; move it and you need new falls, a raised floor or a pump, and usually an approval.
Waterproofing and screed
What sits under the tiles is the only part that fails. Stripping back to the slab for a new membrane and a flood test is a different scope from tiling over what is there.
Tile format and setting out
Large-format porcelain, a mosaic niche, a laid pattern falling to one point. Cutting, setting out and wastage follow the format, not the square metres.
Sanitaryware and brassware
Concealed cistern or close-coupled, wall-hung or floor-standing, thermostatic or single lever. Two identical rooms separate here more than anywhere else.
Glass, niches and access
A made-to-measure screen is templated after tiling. Concealed valves need an access panel that somebody has to design before the wall closes.
What a real quote contains
Name the membrane, name the test
A bathroom quote that stops at “supply and fit” hides the only line that matters. Ask for the waterproofing to be its own section, with the flood test written in as a hold point, and for the tile format and the sanitaryware to be named rather than implied.
| Section | What it covers | What the quantities rest on |
|---|---|---|
| Strip out | Removing sanitaryware, tiling and screed back to the slab, capping services, disposal | Measured on site |
| Waterproofing | Primer and membrane to floor and wet walls, upstands, flood test before the screed | Measured on site |
| First fix | Hot and cold runs, drainage falls, concealed cistern frame, lighting and extraction | Contractor measured |
| Tiling | Floor and walls, shower niche, trims and grout, set out to the fall | Measured on site |
| Second fix and handover | Sanitaryware, brassware, screen templated and fitted, sealing and testing | Client-reported schedule |
Approvals for this job
Like-for-like is quiet; moving drainage is not
Replacing a bathroom in place rarely needs a permit. Relocating the pan, cutting into a shared stack or altering the extraction changes that. General information, not advice: your client applies, and Briked records the agreed scope and its versions rather than filing anything.
Moving the pan or the stack
Relocating a toilet, or cutting into a shared soil stack in a tower, changes the building’s drainage. In an apartment that means the building’s approval and often a permit; in a villa, the authority governing the community.
Authority: Dubai Municipality
Isolation and access
The riser isolation, the water shut-off window and the debris route are the building’s to grant. Book them before the strip-out date rather than after it.
Authority: Your building management
Extraction and electrical zones
A bathroom has zones that decide which fitting may go where, and mechanical extraction is often a condition rather than a choice. Keep the electrical certificate with the handover pack.
Authority: DEWA
Both sides of the same bathroom
A photograph of the stain beats a description of it
Your client sends photographs, says what they want changed, and records a voice note about the mark on the ceiling below. It arrives structured, with the request kept separate from what you will have to confirm on the visit.
Guest bathroom, no window, shower over the bath.
Want a walk-in shower and the toilet on the other wall.
Three photos, plus a voice note about a mark on the ceiling below.
Pan relocation · requested
Walk-in shower, single fall
Waterproofing · floor and wet walls
Ceiling mark below · to investigate
For contractors
How Briked structures a bathroom job
The request and the survey stay apart until you close the gap. Price the membrane as its own line, make the flood test a milestone rather than a promise, and keep the photographs your client sent attached to the scope they belong to.
Where each quantity came from
- Client-reported
- Measured on site
- From the client’s photos
What each payment is tied to
- Strip out complete
- Waterproofing flood-tested
- Tiling complete
- Second fix and handover
Read next
The stations this job leans on
The scope link is what you send, the priced scope is where the membrane gets a line of its own, and the indicative range is what your client sees first. The persona pages cover the trade.
How Briked does this
Who it’s for
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General notes
An indicative range is a range, not a price. Only the quote you send your client is a price.
A person accepts every number before it leaves your company. Nothing drafted by AI becomes the record on its own.
Your client never pays for Briked. Answering your scope link, reading your quote and accepting it are free for them, always.
Your rates, your scopes and your clients stay yours. We never show one contractor’s work to another. Read the data promise
The trial runs 14 days from the day we approve your application. A card is required to start it. Trial terms
Common questions
How long does a bathroom renovation take in Dubai?
Some of it cannot be rushed. The membrane has to cure and the flood test has to hold before the screed goes down, and a made-to-measure screen is templated only after tiling. The rest compresses; those steps do not.
Can I move the toilet?
It depends on the soil stack. Moving a pan needs a new fall, which usually means raising the floor or fitting a pump, and in a tower it is a change to shared drainage that the building has to approve first.
How do I know the waterproofing was actually done?
Ask for the flood test to be a named hold point, with photographs taken before the screed goes down. It is the only evidence you will ever have that the membrane was tested, and it costs nothing to require.
Do I need a permit for a bathroom?
Replacing one in place usually does not. Moving drainage, altering the extraction or touching a shared stack does, and an apartment will also need the building’s own fit-out approval before anything is delivered.
Why is there no price per bathroom here?
Two rooms of the same size can differ by everything that matters: whether the membrane is renewed, whether the pan moves, the tile format and the brassware. An indicative range from a contractor who has seen your photographs is more honest than a rate — and a range is not a price.
Do I pay to answer my contractor’s link?
No. Answering, reading the quote and accepting it are free for you, in Arabic or English, with no app to install. Your contractor pays for Briked.
Scope it, quote it, get it accepted — on your next job, with your rates.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.