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Arkley EN5 · Bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation in Arkley

Bathrooms in Arkley’s lofts, garage additions and council flats

We welcome a standalone bathroom renovation here, whether the room is an en-suite in a converted loft, a bathroom over a garage or the bathroom of a council flat on Quinta Drive. Barnet’s planning records show where Arkley owners have applied to add bathrooms, and this page uses them, with the rules on outside pipes, landlord consent and certificates, to plan one room well.

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Serving Arkley from our Hampstead studio · NW3 6DN
020 7101 3168

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Bathroom renovation in Arkley at a glance

In Arkley, a bathroom can sit in a later addition. Barnet’s planning register records applications, each approved subject to conditions, for a loft conversion with two bedrooms and a bathroom on Barnet Gate Lane, made in 1971; a first-floor bedroom and bathroom over a garage on the same lane, made in 1970; and a double garage with a bedroom and bathroom in its roof extension on Barnet Road, made in 1980. If your bathroom is in a loft, over a garage or in an extension, trace where its waste pipe joins the house drains before choosing new fittings.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Arkley renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a bathroom renovation cost in Arkley?

A typical bathroom renovation in Arkley costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, the specification and the complexity of the room, and a fixed written price follows the visit and the design.

Scope of workTypical cost
Typical bathroom renovation£10,000–£30,000

The figure excludes VAT. A standalone bathroom gets its own room-specific quotation; try the cost calculator for a first figure.

The buildings

Where Arkley bathrooms sit

Barnet’s records describe three kinds of space where an Arkley bathroom may be planned: additions and converted garages at houses, houses with rooms in the roof and a basement, and council flats.

Some bathrooms were planned in additions. An application made in 1971 for alterations and extensions to form a bathroom at a house on Barnet Road, Arkley, was approved subject to conditions, as was one made in 1973 to convert a garage at another Barnet Road house into a changing room with a bathroom. A bathroom in a single-storey addition may have a flat or shallow roof above it and a long waste run, so check the roof insulation, the ventilation route and the falls before refitting it.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

An Arkley View record shows the other end of the house. An application made in 2009 to keep a two-storey house with rooms in the roof space and a basement, as built, was approved subject to conditions. In a house laid out like this, a basement bathroom may sit below the drain that serves the house and need a pumped outlet, while a bathroom in the roof needs a soil pipe and a vent that reach the open air without crowding the elevations.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Council homes are part of the picture too. On Quinta Drive, which ends the Arkley stretch of Barnet Road named in a 1981 Barnet tree order, Barnet Homes’ 2017 listing includes tenanted flats and houses; that order is how Barnet’s records place the road in Arkley, so check the address. If Barnet Council is your landlord, Barnet Homes’ lease page divides the pipework: the cisterns, tanks, drains, pipes, wires and ducts serving your home only are yours, and pipes running through your flat that serve more than one home are the freeholder’s, that is, the council’s.

Barnet open data: tenanted properties managed by Barnet Homes (Barnet Homes Stock Listing 2017) · Planning Data: Barnet Road from Rowley Green Road to Quinta Drive, Arkley, Tree Preservation Order 1981 (TRE/BA/047) · Barnet Homes: your lease (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

Permissions and local rules

Rules that reach an Arkley bathroom

Soil and vent pipes on a house

Does a new soil pipe need permission?

Not always, for a house. Under Class G of the permitted development order, a householder may put in, change or renew a soil and vent pipe without an application, as long as, among other limits, it stops short of 1 metre above the highest point of the roof. On article 2(3) land, such as a conservation area, that freedom does not extend to a pipe on any wall or roof slope of the principal or a side elevation where that elevation fronts a highway. Flats carry no householder rights of this kind.

legislation.gov.uk: GPDO 2015, Schedule 2 Part 1, Class G: chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes on a dwellinghouse · Householder permitted development technical guidance

Pipes and vents on an extension

If the bathroom comes with an extension that needs planning permission or prior approval, Part 4 of Barnet’s design guidance asks for building services such as drainage pipes, flues and ventilation ducts to be discreetly integrated into the extension’s elevations, where appropriate with recessed channels for down-pipes or with flues and outlets routed to non-sensitive elevations. Part 4 is not intended for homes in conservation areas or for locally or nationally listed buildings, so check those first.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 4, guidance on residential extensions and alterations (not intended for conservation areas or nationally or locally listed buildings)

Council leaseholders and bathroom work

Any material change to a flat’s layout, its services or its interior is an alteration in Barnet Homes’ terms, and that includes changing how you connect into service pipes. With a lease that allows it, and Barnet Council as your landlord, consent may be given for renewing the bathroom, for a new en suite or for turning the bathroom into a wet room. Seek it before ordering fittings, because the layout you can build depends on it.

Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

Certificates and adaptations

Certification is part of the job. A competent person scheme lets a registered installer sign off their own work and notify the council where needed, and the resulting certificate turns up in the solicitors’ searches made when the house is sold, so keep it safe. Where the room must suit someone’s needs, Barnet’s page on adapting a home names the Barnet Care and Repair Agency, able to help you find a builder and supervise the work, and the Disabled Facilities Grant.

GOV.UK: building regulations approval, use a competent person scheme · Barnet: adaptations to your home

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Arkley guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

The bathroom work, piece by piece

Waste, floor and falls

Lifting the floor where needed to check the joists, the existing waste route and the falls to the stack or drain, then setting out the new fittings so that every waste runs freely. In a loft or over a garage we also check how the floor will carry a full bath or a tiled shower tray before anything is ordered.

Extract air and outside vents

An extract fan or ventilation route sized for the room and taken outside by the shortest clean route, with the outlet placed so it does not stain a front wall or crowd a window. Any new outlet on an elevation is checked against the planning position of the house before the wall is cut.

Electrics, finishes and paperwork

Lighting, heating and any shaver point placed for the zones around the bath and shower, waterproofing behind the tiles, and finishes chosen for the room’s light and use. At handover you receive the certificates the work requires, with a note of where the new pipes and cables run.

How we work

How we run a Arkley bathroom renovation

  1. Visit

    We see the room, trace where the stack runs, and check which floor it is on and what lies beneath.

  2. Survey

    The drainage falls, the extract route and the floor build-up at the door are measured before a layout is drawn.

  3. Design

    The layout, waterproofing and storage are drawn; where a floor or wall changes, our own architects and structural engineers design it.

  4. Price

    You receive a fixed written price once the design and fittings are agreed.

  5. Installation

    The dates, and any days without a working bathroom, are agreed before work starts.

  6. Handover

    Testing, then care notes for the finishes and fittings. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our bathroom renovation work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Arkley. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Say where the room is

    Give the floor level of the bathroom and say whether it is in a loft, above a garage, in an extension or underground, with the date that part of the house was added if you know it.

  2. Show us the pipes

    Send a few pictures of the soil pipe and vents outside and of the floor and ceiling around the bath, and note any slow drains, smells or stains on the ceiling below.

  3. Tell us who else is affected

    For a flat, say who your landlord is and whether another home lies below or beside the bathroom. For a house, say whether another bathroom will be usable while the work is done.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Bathroom renovation in Arkley: questions

Will you take on a single bathroom in Arkley as a standalone job?

Yes. We are glad to take on a standalone bathroom renovation with no other work attached, be it a loft en-suite, a bathroom above a garage, a shower room in a basement or a flat’s only bathroom. Send its measurements, the floor it is on and a note of anything that already gives trouble, such as a slow waste or a stained ceiling below.

Can a basement bathroom drain to the sewer?

Usually, with care over the levels. Where the fittings sit below the drain that serves the house, the waste may need a pumped outlet with its own power supply and an alarm, and the pipe route has to be agreed before the floor is laid. Barnet’s register records applications for Arkley houses with basements, so check how any existing basement room drains before adding a shower to it.

Barnet planning register: public access search (planning, building control and licensing)

Do I need Barnet Homes’ consent to change taps?

Not for new taps, where Barnet Council is the landlord. Barnet Homes treats aesthetic works and non-intrusive changes, changing taps among them, as needing no permission, while replacing a boiler or carrying out any electrical work is an alteration that needs its written consent. A new extractor fan or electric shower involves electrical work, so ask before you buy one.

Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

Where should a new bathroom go in a converted house?

Over or beside other wet rooms rather than a neighbour’s bedroom, where you can. Barnet’s design guidance asks that, as far as practical, rooms stacked between homes keep bedrooms from overlapping living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, and that, where possible, bedrooms do not adjoin a neighbour’s living room, kitchen or bathroom side by side. Moving a bathroom over the bedroom of the flat below works against both.

Barnet Sustainable Design and Development Guidance SPD, adopted 15 June 2026: Part 2, design and technical guidance

Will I need an asbestos survey?

If Barnet Council is your landlord, yes, before any re-tiling. Barnet Homes may consent to new tiles in a bathroom or kitchen, but you must keep access to shared services such as panels, ventilation ducts and service pipes, and an asbestos survey has to be done before work starts. In other homes, ask for a survey wherever old boxing, textured ceilings or floor tiles will be disturbed.

Barnet Homes: guidance on making alterations to leasehold properties, October 2021 (for Barnet Council leaseholders)

How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Arkley?

A typical bathroom renovation in Arkley costs £10,000–£30,000 excluding VAT. The final price depends on the scope, specification and complexity of the project. We give a fixed written price after the visit and the design.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Arkley bathroom

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Arkley bathroom. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Arkley from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

Use the full contact form instead

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