The three bands
Three bands, per bathroom.
Bathroom renovation in Dubai falls into three bands, per bathroom and excluding VAT: a powder room at AED 25–45K, an upgrade at AED 45–90K and a full remodel at AED 90–120K. The band is set by how much of the room is replaced; where a bathroom lands inside its band is set by the five drivers below.
| Band | What it includes | Per bathroom, excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Powder room | A guest WC or toilet and basin: finishes, fittings and lighting renewed | AED 25–45K |
| Upgrade | New sanitaryware and large-format porcelain, fittings and lighting, usually on the existing layout | AED 45–90K |
| Full remodel | Stripped to the slab: luxury sanitaryware, marble finishes, new waterproofing and services | AED 90–120K |
Planning bands, not a quotation. Each bathroom is priced line by line inside the villa quote, against its drawings.
The five drivers
Five decisions that drive a bathroom's cost.
A bathroom remodel costs what its hidden work costs before its visible work. Waterproofing and drainage sit under the floor, fittings and lighting sit behind the walls, and stone covers all of them. Each has to be decided before the layer that hides it, so the order of decisions shapes the number as much as the choices do.
01 · Waterproofing
The layer nobody sees
The membrane under the tiles decides whether the room lasts. It covers the floor and the wet walls, is tested before anything goes over it, and can only be repaired later by lifting the finish above it.
Decided before the screed
02 · Drainage
Whether the drains move
Keeping the shower, basin and WC where the drains already are is the simple version. Moving them means new falls, cutting into the slab or raising the floor. It is a layout decision with a cost attached.
Decided at layout
03 · Stone
Chosen with the drawings
Stone carries a lead time of around eight weeks, and slabs are cut to the drawing. Chosen with the layout, it is ordered on time. Chosen on site, the room waits or the stone changes.
Decided at design sign-off
04 · Fittings
Bodies first, trims last
Concealed cisterns, thermostatic mixers and wall-hung pieces need their frames and valves in the wall before it is closed. The brand matters less than the order: bodies at first fix, trims at the end.
Decided before first fix
05 · Lighting
Light the face, not the floor
Mirror and vanity lighting is wired before the wall is tiled. Where the light sits is a drawing decision, and moving it after tiling means cutting stone. The reel below shows the difference.
Decided before tiling
This is why two bathrooms of the same size can cost very different amounts. One keeps its drains, its fittings positions and a tile chosen at the start; the other moves the shower, adds a concealed cistern and a stone slab chosen late. The room is the same size. The work under and behind it is not.
The sequence
The order a bathroom remodel runs in.
A bathroom remodel runs in a fixed order: strip-out, drainage and first-fix services, waterproofing, screed, stone and tiling, then second fix, glass, mirrors and lighting. Every step covers the one before it, so anything decided late has to be undone in reverse order, and that is usually where bathroom budgets and programmes go.
In a bathroom, every layer covers the one before it, so every decision has to come before the layer that hides it.
| Step | What happens | Decided before it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Strip-out | Finishes, fittings and old services removed | The layout — what stays and what moves |
| 2 · Drainage and first fix | New drains laid to falls; water and power run to their positions | Fitting types and positions; lighting positions |
| 3 · Waterproofing | Membrane on the floor and wet walls, then tested | The extent of the shower and wet areas |
| 4 · Screed | Floor built up to falls over the membrane | The finished floor build-up |
| 5 · Stone and tiling | Stone and tiles laid to the drawing | The stone, ordered around eight weeks earlier |
| 6 · Second fix | Trims, glass, mirrors, lighting and accessories | Mirror and glass sizes |
Mirror lighting
Light the face, not the floor.
Mirror lighting is the bathroom decision most often left too late. Light set in the ceiling above the basin lights the crown of the head and throws shadows down the face; light at the mirror lights the face evenly. It is wired at first fix, before the wall is tiled, so it belongs in the drawings.
InstagramYour mirror light is ageing you
A short reel on where the light should sit at a vanity, and why the fitting you choose matters less than the height and direction it is drawn at.
Where Fajr works
Bathrooms inside a villa renovation.
Fajr renovates bathrooms as part of villa renovations, under the same contract as the rest of the villa, for villa budgets from AED 1M. That puts each bathroom on the same drawings, approvals and programme as the rooms around it, which matters, because bathroom drainage and services rarely stop at the bathroom door.
Inside a villa quote, a bathroom is not one number. It appears as its own lines — waterproofing, drainage, stone, fittings and lighting — so you can see which decisions carry the cost and move them before anything is ordered. How a villa budget is built, and how to read the quote, is in the villa renovation cost guide.
Apartment bathrooms in Dubai towers.
An apartment bathroom is priced in the same three bands, but the tower adds rules: working hours, lift access for stone and glass, and the building’s approval before the floor is opened. See apartment and penthouse renovation → or the apartment renovation guide →
The bands are planning figures. Each bathroom is still priced line by line inside the villa quote, against the layout and the stone you have chosen. Where drainage or services change, the bathroom also joins the villa's approvals, covered in the villa NOCs and approvals guide.
