Bathroom Renovation Dubai: Complete Bathroom Fit Out
Renovel is a licensed bathroom renovation and fit out contractor working across Dubai apartments, villas, and commercial properties. We handle the whole job on one contract: building NOC and Municipality approvals, strip-out, waterproofing to Dubai Municipality standard with a documented flood test, tiling, plumbing and electrical, vanity and sanitaryware, shower glass, snagging, and handover. One team, one programme, one point of contact.
What Our Bathroom Renovation Service Covers
Not every bathroom needs stripping back to the slab. We quote five distinct scopes, and the site survey decides which one your bathroom actually needs. If the existing waterproofing is sound and you are only changing the look, we will tell you so rather than sell you a gut.
Full Gut Renovation
Everything out, back to the structural slab. New waterproofing, new screed and falls, new plumbing rough-in, new electrical, new tiling, new sanitaryware and joinery. The right call when the bathroom is over ten years old, when there is any sign of damp in the unit below, or when you are moving fixture positions.
Partial Refresh
Fixtures, vanity, mixers, shower glass, mirror, lighting, and re-grouting, with the existing tiles and membrane left in place. Fastest and cheapest route, suitable for rental turnarounds and for bathrooms where the waterproofing checks out. We inspect before recommending it.
Wet-Room Conversion
Removing the bath or the shower tray and forming a level-access wet room with a linear channel drain or a tiled gradient to a point drain. This is the scope where getting the falls and the tanking right matters most, since there is no tray edge holding water back.
Guest WC & Powder Room
Small no-shower spaces where the finish carries the whole room. Feature wall tiling or stone, wall-hung WC with concealed cistern, counter-top basin, and lighting. Low wet-works risk, so the budget goes into materials rather than membranes.
Master En-Suite
Larger layouts with a separate shower and bath, double vanity, bespoke joinery, and often a freestanding tub or steam enclosure. Longer programme because of joinery and stone lead times, and usually the scope that needs the most coordination with the building.
Multi-Bathroom & Villa Packages
Two to six bathrooms renovated in one programme across a villa or a portfolio unit. We phase them so the property keeps at least one working bathroom throughout, and the shared mobilisation, NOC, and skip costs are spread across the whole package.
What Is Included in a Renovel Bathroom Fit Out
Our full renovation quotes are itemised line by line, with tile and sanitaryware model numbers written in, so you can compare them against any other contractor without guessing what has been left out. A standard full fit out includes all of the following.
Our Bathroom Renovation Process, Step by Step
Bathrooms are the tightest sequencing job in any property. Every trade waits on the one before it to cure or clear out, so the order below is fixed and the durations are real. This is the programme we work to on a standard Dubai apartment bathroom.
Site Survey & Quote
We measure the room, check the existing membrane and screed condition, trace the drainage and the chilled-water fan coil in the ceiling void, and confirm what your building will and will not allow. You get an itemised fixed-price quote, not a lump sum.
Design & Material Selection
Layout drawings, a tile and sanitaryware selection session, and a written specification. We confirm stock and lead times before you sign, because imported stone and specified sanitaryware are the usual cause of a slipped finish date.
NOC & Approvals
We assemble and submit the building management NOC and, where the scope moves plumbing, the Dubai Municipality or Trakhees permit. Drawings, method statement, trade licence, and insurance all come from us.
Protection & Demolition
Corridor, lift lobby, and door protection go in first to satisfy the building deposit conditions. Then strip-out back to slab, with waste removed to a licensed tip and the skip booked through the building.
Waterproofing & Tanking
Substrate prep, primer, reinforcement tape at every junction, then a minimum two-coat membrane across the floor and up the shower walls to at least 1.8 m. Full cure between coats, no exceptions.
Flood Test & Sign-Off
The drain is plugged and the floor is ponded for 24 to 48 hours. We photograph the water level at the start and the end and check the ceiling of the unit below. Only a passed test releases the tiling stage.
Screed, Falls & Tiling
Screed laid to a positive fall towards the drain, then floor and wall tiling over the membrane using the correct adhesive, slip-rated floor tiles, edge trims, and sealed or epoxy grout in the wet zone.
MEP First & Second Fix
Plumbing connections, thermostatic mixers, concealed cisterns, wet-zone rated outlets and lighting circuits, exhaust fan, and heated towel rail wiring, all tested and certified.
Fit-Off, Snagging & Handover
Vanity, sanitaryware, shower glass, mirror, and accessories installed, silicone applied, then a joint snag walk with you. We close every item before handover and issue your warranty and flood test documentation.
Realistic Timeline: What to Expect
A standard 4 to 7 m² Dubai apartment bathroom takes 9 to 17 working days on site, or roughly 3 to 5 weeks from signature to handover once approvals and deliveries are counted. Waterproofing and its flood test take 5 to 7 working days of that and cannot be compressed. A master en-suite with bespoke joinery runs 4 to 6 weeks, and custom-cut marble or imported sanitaryware can add 2 weeks of lead time. NOC turnaround is the most common reason a start date moves, so we build a buffer into the programme rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Waterproofing and Tanking to Dubai Municipality Standard
This is the part of a Dubai bathroom that separates a good contractor from a cheap one, and it is the part you cannot inspect once the tiles are on. Water that gets past a failed membrane does not stay in your bathroom. It travels through the screed and shows up as a stain on the ceiling of the apartment below, which turns a private renovation into a building management dispute and an insurance claim.
Dubai Municipality building code requires waterproofing across the full wet area, with shower walls tanked to a minimum height of 1.8 m, reinforcement at all corners and joints, and integration with the floor drain. We apply a minimum two-coat liquid membrane system to a combined dry film thickness of at least 1 mm, with tanking tape bedded into every internal corner, floor to wall junction, pipe penetration, and drain surround before the membrane goes on.
Then we test it. The drain is plugged, the floor is ponded, and the water sits for 24 to 48 hours. We record the start level, the end level, and the condition of the ceiling below, with timestamped photographs. If the level drops or a damp patch appears, the membrane gets rectified and retested before anyone opens a box of tiles. Most Dubai facilities management companies now ask for that test record before they release the fit-out deposit, and we hand it over as part of the closeout pack.
Our Waterproofing Specification
- ✓Substrate cleaned, repaired, and primed back to sound screed or slab
- ✓Reinforcement tape at every corner, junction, pipe penetration, and drain
- ✓Minimum two-coat liquid membrane, at least 1 mm combined dry film thickness
- ✓Shower walls tanked to 1.8 m minimum, full floor coverage as standard
- ✓Full cure time between coats, never over-coated wet to hit a deadline
- ✓24 to 48 hour flood test with timestamped photo record before tiling
- ✓Screed laid to a positive fall so water reaches the drain, not the corners
- ✓Written workmanship warranty on the waterproofing system
Building NOC and Approvals for Wet Works
Wet works in a Dubai apartment attract more scrutiny than any other renovation, for the obvious reason that a leak affects neighbours. Renovel handles the paperwork end to end. You are not chasing your building manager, and you are not the one explaining a method statement.
Building / FM NOC
Required by almost every Dubai building before mobilisation, even for cosmetic work. Fees commonly run AED 200–1,500, plus a refundable security deposit of AED 2,000–10,000 held against damage to lifts and common areas.
Municipality Permit
Needed once you move a drain, soil point, wet wall, or MEP service. Dubai Municipality approval typically takes 5 to 10 working days with correct drawings. Buildings inside Trakhees zones such as parts of Palm Jumeirah or Dubai Healthcare City go through Trakhees instead, at 7 to 14 days.
Documents We Prepare
As-built and proposed drawings, contractor DED trade licence, method statement, insurance certificates, work programme and site timings, plus the building NOC application form. You supply the title deed or tenancy contract.
Working Hours & Rules
Residential noise hours are generally 07:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 20:00 on Saturdays, with no noisy work on Fridays and public holidays. Several communities enforce tighter windows, and we programme around whichever applies to your building.
Starting permit-triggering work without approval is an expensive mistake in Dubai: fines start around AED 5,000, a stop-work order lands the same day, and unauthorised work can be ordered out again. It is also the fastest way to lose your security deposit. If you are still comparing contractors, the approval question is one of the checks in our guide on how to choose a renovation company in Dubai.
Bathroom Renovation Pricing: A Quick Orientation
Enough to tell you whether we are in your range. Every quote we issue is itemised and fixed after a site survey, because the real number depends on the room size, the condition of the existing waterproofing, whether you move any plumbing, and your tile and sanitaryware selection.
Guest WC / powder room
From AED 8,000
No shower, so cost is driven by finishes rather than wet works.
Standard bathroom, 4–7 m²
AED 14,000–45,000
The typical Dubai apartment bathroom, full wet area with shower.
Master en-suite, 7–12 m²
AED 38,000–70,000+
Separate shower and bath, double vanity, bespoke joinery.
Want the full breakdown? Component by component costs, per m² rates by finish tier, NOC and waterproofing line items, and luxury upgrade prices all live in our bathroom renovation cost Dubai guide. For per m² tile supply and labour rates, see the tiling renovation cost guide.
Materials and Finishes Chosen for UAE Humidity
Dubai summers push indoor humidity high and bathroom extract runs hard for months at a time. Materials that behave perfectly in a European bathroom swell, corrode, or grow mould here. Our default specification is chosen for that, and we will talk you out of finishes that will not last.
Large-Format Porcelain
Our standard recommendation. Near zero water absorption, no sealing needed, and fewer grout lines to discolour. Marble-effect porcelain gives the look of stone for far less, with none of the maintenance.
Natural Marble, Specified Carefully
Beautiful and popular for feature walls and vanity tops. It needs annual resealing in a wet area and a suitable slip rating on floors. We supply and install it ourselves when the look justifies the upkeep.
Epoxy or Sealed Grout
Standard cement grout stains and harbours mould in a high-humidity shower. Epoxy grout in the wet zone costs a little more to lay and stays clean for years longer.
Moisture-Resistant Board & Paint
Above the tile line we use bathroom-grade moisture-resistant paint and, where a ceiling is boarded, water-resistant gypsum with an access hatch to the chilled-water fan coil unit.
Marine-Grade Vanity Carcasses
Standard MDF swells within a couple of Dubai summers. We build vanities in moisture-resistant board or plywood with sealed edges and soft-close hardware rated for humid conditions.
Correctly Sized Extraction
The cheapest defence against mould is air movement. We size the exhaust fan to the room volume, duct it properly rather than into the ceiling void, and add a run-on timer or humidity sensor.
Why Choose Renovel for Your Bathroom Renovation
Bathroom renovation in Dubai goes wrong in predictable ways: a contractor who is not licensed for MEP work, a quote that turns out to be a lump sum hiding exclusions, waterproofing rushed to hit a date, and an NOC nobody applied for until week two. We built our process around removing each of those.
Renovel is a licensed Dubai contractor with in-house tiling, plumbing, electrical, and joinery teams. That means no daisy-chain of subcontractors blaming each other when the drain fall is wrong, and no gap between the waterproofer leaving and the tiler arriving. One project manager owns your job from survey to handover and is on WhatsApp throughout.
If your bathroom is part of a wider project, we can fold it into a full apartment renovation or a turnkey renovation package, which shares the NOC, the mobilisation, and the protection cost across the whole property instead of paying for them twice.
What You Get With Every Project
- ✓Licensed Dubai contractor with in-house wet trades, not brokered subcontractors
- ✓Fixed itemised quote after a site survey, with model numbers written in
- ✓Building NOC and Municipality or Trakhees permits prepared and submitted by us
- ✓Waterproofing to Municipality standard with a documented 24 to 48 hour flood test
- ✓One project manager, a dated programme, and weekly progress updates
- ✓Daily site clean, protected common areas, and permitted-hours working
- ✓Joint snag walk before handover, with every item closed out
- ✓Written workmanship warranty covering waterproofing and installation
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you handle the building NOC and Dubai Municipality approvals?
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Yes. Renovel prepares and submits the full approval package as part of the job: as-built and proposed drawings, our DED trade licence, the method statement, insurance, and the building management NOC application. Where the work moves a drain, soil point, or wet wall, we also file the Dubai Municipality permit, or the Trakhees permit if your building sits in a Trakhees jurisdiction such as parts of Palm Jumeirah or Dubai Healthcare City. You sign the owner documents and we run the rest. Municipality approval typically clears in 5 to 10 working days when the drawings are right first time.
How long does a bathroom renovation take in Dubai?
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A standard 4 to 7 m² apartment bathroom takes 9 to 17 working days of site time, or 3 to 5 weeks from signature to handover once NOC approval and material delivery are included. A master en-suite with bespoke joinery runs 4 to 6 weeks. Waterproofing alone accounts for 5 to 7 working days because the membrane has to cure and the flood test cannot be shortened. We give you a dated programme before mobilising and update it weekly.
Do you supply the sanitaryware and tiles, or do I buy them?
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Either way works. Most clients take our supply-and-install package, where we quote the tiles, sanitaryware, vanity, mixers, and shower glass as itemised lines with model numbers so you can compare them against retail. We buy through trade accounts with Dubai suppliers, so the saving usually covers our handling. If you prefer to buy your own pieces, we install client-supplied items and simply exclude them from the quote. We will still check specifications for wet-zone suitability before you order.
Can you renovate a bathroom while we are still living in the apartment?
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Yes, and most of our apartment jobs are occupied properties. We seal the bathroom doorway with a dust barrier, protect the corridor and lift lobby to satisfy the building deposit conditions, run a dedicated waste route, and work only inside permitted hours, usually 07:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 20:00 on Saturdays, with no noisy work on Fridays or public holidays. In a single-bathroom home we sequence the strip-out and fit-off to keep the downtime to the shortest possible window and agree it with you in advance.
Which areas of Dubai do you cover?
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We work across Dubai, including Dubai Marina, JBR, Palm Jumeirah, Downtown, Business Bay, JVC, JLT, Arabian Ranches, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barsha, Mirdif, Dubai Hills, and Damac Hills, and we also take projects in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. We already hold contractor registration and approval history with many of the larger facilities management companies in these communities, which usually shortens the NOC step.
Is your waterproofing guaranteed?
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Yes. Every full bathroom renovation gets a new tanking system applied to the whole wet area with shower walls treated to a minimum 1.8 m height, reinforcement tape at every corner, floor to wall junction, pipe penetration, and drain surround, and a minimum two-coat build. We then run a 24 to 48 hour flood test and photograph the result before a single tile is laid. That test record goes to your building management, and the waterproofing carries a written workmanship warranty.
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