The bathroom is the small room with the big invoice: five trades, waterproofing, and every pipe in the flat converging on six square metres. Renovation quotes in Malta swing wildly — here is what the bands actually mean and where the money genuinely goes.
The three price bands
| Scope | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Refresh: new sanitary ware, taps, re-silicone, paint — tiles stay | €800 – €2,500 |
| Standard refit: strip to walls, new tiles, ware, fittings, same layout | €4,000 – €8,000 |
| Full remodel: layout changes, moved drainage, walk-in shower, quality finishes | €7,000 – €15,000+ |
The single biggest cost driver is whether the layout moves. Keeping the toilet, drain and water points where they are keeps you in the middle band; moving drainage through a Maltese concrete floor — chasing, re-screeding, sometimes negotiating with the ceiling below — is what pushes projects into the top one.
Where budgets blow up
- What's under the tiles. Old bathrooms strip back to surprises: corroded galvanised pipework that should be replaced while the walls are open (the once-a-generation logic of a rewire applies to pipes too), crumbling substrate that needs rebuilding before anything can be tiled.
- Waterproofing skipped. The non-negotiable: a proper membrane under the shower area and floor. It is invisible, it costs a few hundred euros, and its absence is why the flat below gets a stained ceiling in year three. Any quote that does not name waterproofing explicitly is a quote to question.
- Ware and tile choices. The identical labour installs a €150 or a €1,500 sanitary set. Fix your selections before comparing quotes, or you are comparing imaginations — the core lesson of our accurate quotes guide.
- "While we're at it". Mid-project scope creep is charged at mid-project prices.
Sequence and timeline
Strip-out → first-fix plumbing and electrics (new circuits for heating, extraction — rules apply, see the licensing guide) → waterproofing → tiling → second-fix ware and fittings → painting → silicone. A standard refit runs two to four weeks with a coordinated team; the same job drip-fed to separate trades you schedule yourself takes double. Extraction deserves respect in the plan — a properly ducted extractor fan is the difference between a bathroom that ages well and the mould cycle described in our damp guide.
Budget the ending properly too: agree a snag pass and retention up front, per the snag list guide.
Getting quotes
Write the scope room-by-item (layout staying? which ware, chosen from where? who supplies tiles?), photograph the existing bathroom including the ceiling below's access situation, and get three itemised quotes against that identical brief. For single-trade portions — a plumber for the first fix, a handyman for the strip-out — Qabbad gets you locality-matched providers with visible track records.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Malta?
A like-for-like standard refit runs €4,000 to €8,000 in 2026. Cosmetic refreshes land under €2,500; layout changes, moved drainage and premium finishes push full remodels to €7,000 to €15,000+.
How long does a bathroom refit take?
Two to four weeks with a coordinated team, assuming materials are on site before strip-out. Ordering ware and tiles after work starts is the most common self-inflicted delay.
What is the most important thing not to cut?
Waterproofing, without contest — the membrane under the shower and floor. Everything visible can be upgraded later; the membrane can only be done while the room is stripped, and its failure costs a ceiling, a dispute and a re-do.